A few thousand years ago our ancestor Matisyahu and his son Judah Macabee inspired the people of Israel to rise up and expel the Syrian Greek Army from our Holy Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The Greeks had outlawed circumcision and even Torah study; they defiled our Holy City with pagan idols and unclean sacrifices.
In their vandalism the Syrian Greeks had destroyed all but one jar of the kosher olive oil used to keep The Holy Menorah burning and according to Torah law the process to make more would take not less than eight days. By the grace of G-d that single jar of oil miraculously managed to last the entire eight days allowing The Holy Menorah to burn continuously until fresh jars of kosher oil could be produced.
In honor of the victory that G-d granted us over the Syrian Greeks who had defiled His Holy Temple we light small symbolic menorahs in public. These are sometimes called a Channuka Menorah or Channukiah and the mitzvah is to light them and allow them to burn in a place visible to the public.
It is also traditional to eat fried, oily foods such as fried potato latkes or fried jelly doughnuts called "sufganyot."
This weekend Beth Shalom will be meeting for our regular Torah study on Saturday morning at the Evergreen Bank in Brookings, OR at 10 a.m. We are also having a pot luck Channukah festival on the eve of the third night of Channukah, this Sunday in the recreation room at the Ship Ashore Inn in Smith River, CA.
These event are listed on our Google calendar below complete with a map and directions to these locations. Please call us at 541.813.0009 or email delnortebethshalom@gmail.com for more information. We hope to see you there.
Temple Beth Shalom would like to wish everyone a Channukah sameach, or happy Channukah and of course Shabbat Shalom.
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