CU2-11

2:11 **Title:** Hanukkah – Winter Solstice and Lighting of Candles.
 * Goals:** Students will compare the date of original Hanukkah with current celebration and relate it to other winter solstice events. Students will review origins of the candle-lighting method to the amount of light from sun and moon and will learn some “Just-So” stories explaining why 8 candles are lit.
 * Materials:**
 * 1) **Gain the attention of the learner:** Present a dreidel and a menorah to the class. Ask the students to describe when and how they are used.
 * 2) **Review relevant past learning** During what part of the lunar cycle does Hanukkah fall(when there is the least amount of light)? The next festival that falls in the calendar is Chanukah.
 * 3) **Present new material** Around 160 bce, Judea was ruled by the Syrian king Antiochus IV who did not allow the Jews to freely worship their God and used the Temple in Jerusalem for non-Jewish religious activities. A priest named Mattathias, with his five sons and a band of Jewish settlers - mostly farmers and shepherds – fought a guerrilla war against the Syrian army and Jewish assimilationists. After the Maccabees and their army won, they returned to Jerusalem and found their Temple in ruins. They scrubbed, cleaned and put it to order again. The Original holiday took the form of a Temple Rededication Ceremony. In the Second Book of Macabbees, which quotes from a letter sent circa 125 bce from the Hasmoneans to the leaders of Egyptian Jewry, the holiday is called “The Festival of Sukkot celebrated in the Month of Kislev (December).” [Normally Sukkot would be celebrated in Tishrei (September) but since the Jews were still in caves fighting as guerillas on Tishrei, 164 bce, they could not properly honor the eight day holiday of Sukkot which [then was a Temple holiday]. This - not the Talmudic legend of the cruse of oil – explains the eight day form of Hanukkah. The use of candles may explain the later reported tradition of Sinhat Beit HaShoeva, the all-night dancing in the Temple on Sukkot which required tall outdoor lamps to flood light on the dance floor of the Temple court yard. […].The connection between Sukkot and Hanukkah […] goes beyond the accident of a postponed Sukkot celebration. Sukkot is not only a holiday celebrating the wandering of the Jews in the desert in makeshift hits but the end of that trek with the dedication of the First Temple. Thus the Maccabean rededication celebration is appropriately set for eight days in the Temple.[The Talmudic rabbis, (2nd – 5th century ce) invented the miracle story of only finding enough oil to light the lamp for one day but it lasted for eight days while more oil was made. Prior to that was the story about a soldier posting 8 spears found in the Temple outside of the Temple, wrapping them with rags soaked in oil and lighting them as a beacon to announce that the Temple had been recaptured. The rabbis changed Hanukkah from a Temple holiday to a home holiday with lighting of candles at home]. The candles are lit one at a time in mid-winter during the darkest days of the cycle of the moon (25th of Kislev when the moon is just disappearing and then beginning as a new moon to re-appear […] and wax slowly). This occurs also near the darkest phase of the solar cycle, the winter solstice (of the Northern Hemisphere) [and is] Unlike holidays of redemption like Sukkot, Purim and Pesach, which are celebrated at the full moon and at the fall and spring solstice,[Thus, the increase in light each day from the increase in the number of candles also corresponds to the increase in natural light from both the moon and the sun at that time of year](A Different Light, The Big Book of Hanukkah).
 * 4) **Provide guided practice** One of the things that has been established is that the Hebrew calendar is not set and festivals float with respect to holidays based on the Solar calendar. Chanukah falls closely to several winter holidays from other cultures such as Christmas but its date of celebration in December changes from year to year. What things can the students name that are the same as other holidays celebrated during December?
 * 5) **Provide independent practice** Winter, is a great time to celebrate. Divide the class into four member teams. Ask the students to create a new winter holiday and describe when, why and how would it be celebrated. Each group should prepare something to show how their holiday will be celebrated.
 * Close the lesson **Share the new holidays. Place a page in the holiday passport describing the holiday. Remind students that Kwanzaa is a “made up” holiday with great importance for the African American community and that Hanukkah has new and significant meaning for secular humanistic Jews