You may have noticed something special at this year’s Christmas tree lighting – a menorah standing nearby.
The menorah has been added to the Coronado holiday celebration for the first time this year. City councilwoman Carrie Downey explained that “the City was happy to include the lighting of the Menorah as part of the holiday [season].”
In Jewish tradition, one candle is lit the first night of Chanukah, two the second, and so on through the eighth night. However, for Rotary Park’s menorah, the lights are linked to the electrical framework of the Christmas tree, so all the lights come on at once, at the same time as the Christmas tree lights.
The Jewish community of Coronado has their focal point at the Chabad of Coronado.
The meaning of Chabad is explained on the Chabad Center of Coronado’s website: “The word ‘Chabad’ is a Hebrew acronym for the three intellectual faculties of chochmah (wisdom), binah (comprehension) and da’at (knowledge).” You can learn more about the Chabad philosophy at the Chabad Website.
The Chabad of Coronado has much to offer, including Hebrew School for children and Adult Education classes that are open to all. A menorah building event for families took place at Home Depot just last week. They also sponsor a trip to the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum for Coronado High School students. The cost of sponsoring this valuable and important trip is $13,000 a year. The trip is now part of the CHS tenth grade curriculum.
This Sunday, the Chabad will be hosting “Chanukah on Ice” at the Hotel Del Coronado. There will be ice skating, hot chocolate and coffee, donuts and latkas (traditional Jewish treats during Chanukah are oil based.) This event is open to the community, and Rabbi Eli Fradkin, Director of the Chabad of Coronado, invites all Coronado residents to join the celebration, fun, and festivities.
There will be a giant 13 foot Lego menorah that is being built by the Hebrew School students. Kids of all ages will be able to add additional Legos to the menorah during the event.
Chanukah is an important holiday in the Jewish faith. When I spoke with Rabbi Fradkin I learned about the deeper meaning of Chanukah. Friendly and inclusive, Rabbi Fradkin explained that the “celebration of Chanukah reminds us that a little bit of light brings much hope to darkness.”
He suggested that especially now, when there seems to be so much difficult news around the world, the simple message of Chanukah is particularly relevant. He spoke of his hope that the simple light of this new menorah will remind people that even just a little light does much to make the world a better place.
The historical context of Chanukah is interesting and relevant as well to today’s current events.
Chanukah remembers the rededication of the Second Jewish Temple that was located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.
According to Hebrew Scripture (the Old Testament), King Solomon built the first temple in the 10th c. B.C. This temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in the 7th century B.C. and Jewish leadership was exiled in Babylon during what is known as the “Babylonian Captivity.”
In the 6th c. B.C., when the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great, freed the Jewish people and allowed them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. The second temple was completed during the rule of a subsequent Persian ruler, Darius the Great. Alexander the Great later destroyed the Persian empire, and with his death, the Greek Seleucid Dynasty dominated Persia.
In the 2nd century B.C., King Antiochus wanted to Hellenize (or make Greek) the city of Jerusalem. He outlawed Jewish traditions and practices, and sought to compel the Jewish community to worship the Greek gods, placing statues of Zeus and other Greek gods in the Jewish temple. This polytheism was an anathema to the monotheist Jewish people.
The Maccabees, a small but clever Jewish Army, revolted and drove out the Seleucids. Once Antiochus’s statues were removed and the temple repaired, the temple was ready to be rededicated. It is this rededication that is celebrated at Chanukah.
The tradition of lighting the menorah at Chanukah reflects the narrative that after the revolt, there was only one jug of untarnished oil that was available for lighting up the darkness. This one jug would only provide light for one day. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days; long enough to procure new oil; thus the eight nights of the Chanukah celebration.
For an understanding of current events today, it important to note that this second temple was destroyed by the Romans in the 1st century A.D. All that remains of the second temple is the Western or Wailing Wall, which is the holiest site in the world to the Jewish people.
Editor’s Note: No matter how you spell it, Chanukah or Hanukkah, or any of the 14 other ways, it is referring to the same Festival of Lights.
