University Daily Kansan, December 7, 1982
Page 15
Jews remember miracle in Hanukkah ceremony
By MATTHEW SCHOFIELD Staff Reporter
Many people use the week between the end of finals and Christmas to make the trip home and get in some last minute Christmas shopping.
But while many students scurry home to prepare for Christmas, about 1,000 of them will get home just in time to see their religious holiday end.
One theory as to why the holiday, auscalled the Festival of Lights, lasts eight days is that when the Jews recaptured the there was only enough oil to burn for all the each day; however, the Jews found that the oil in the candle had been replenished.
On each day of the holiday, Jewits light one more candle on a menorah, or candelabra, until on the final day all eight candles are lit.
Breslauer said the dates of the holiday changed from year to year to fit the Jewish Lunar calendar.
Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday which celebrates the capture and rededication of a temple in Jerusalem, will start Dec. 11 and end Dec. 18. D兰 Brewster, associate professor of religious studies, said recer*;j.
Because the holiday commemorates a war, and there is a certain amount of joy associated in war, Jews usually celebrated the holiday by playing games of chance, he said.
One of the games Jews traditionally play is to bet on a spinning top called a dreidel, he said.
Ellen Kort, adviser to the KU chapter of Hillel, a national Jewish organization, said the Jewish people also ate pot pancakes and were given the holiday in remembrance of the oil.
“It’s kind of a modern adaptation of an ancient tradition,” she said.
Recently, Hanukkah has become similar to Christmas in largely Christian nations, she said, but the holiday was not originally intended to be such.
"Some Jewish people are very adverse to the fact that Hanukkah is becoming the Jewish Christmas," she said. "But some Jews have been trying to change it into the Jewish Christmas, and some Jews celebrate the gift-giving of Christmas."
Christmas is one of the biggest Christian holidays, whereas Hanukkah is one of the "minor holidays" for Judaism, she said. Because it is regarded as a minor holiday, Jesus usually do not refrain from working and eating. It is also a major holiday of Robs Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
"One of the reasons it's known as a 'minor holiday' is that only one mitvah must be followed, and that is the lighting of the candles." she said.
A mitzvah is a commandment
Brestlaer said Hanukkah originated on Dec. 7, 164 B.C., after the defeat of Syrians who captured the Jewish temple three years later to Zeus, the most powerful Roman god.
After the Jews had defeated the Syrian King Antiochus, they rededicated the temple to Zeus.
Kort said Hillel will be sponsoring a potato pancake and doughnut supper for 100 Jewish students at the University of Iowa, which is an imately 100 Jewish families in Lawrence.
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