Jewish Holidays

“The light shall triumph,” proclaims the Chanukah candle. It conveys the story of the small Jewish nation that stood up to the colossal Greek culture and emerged victorious. Does it also have the power to reveal to me what Jewish culture is?

God performed a miracle allowing the Hasmoneans to light the Menorah even though they did not have to. This showed Israel that at the source of the argument between the sages of Israel and the philosophers of Greece, the sages of Israel were right.

In the past, people gathered at home just before nightfall. At sunset, then, the streets were full of people returning home. The sages therefore ruled that the time for lighting Chanukah candles is "from sundown until the marketplace has emptied out."