Chanukah

Every year,Chanukah candles are lit every night of Chanukah at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem, Israel, the closest site to the place where the miracle of the Jewish Holiday occurred. The Hebrew word Chanukah means "dedication". In the 2nd century BCE, the Syrian-Greek regime of Antiochus sought to pull the People of Israel away from Judaism, with the hopes of assimilating them into Greek culture. Antiochus outlawed aspects of Jewish observance. In response, a band of courageous Jews, the Maccabees, took to the hills of Judea in open revolt against this threat to Israeli life.

Antiochus sent thousands of well-armed troops to crush the rebellion -- but the Maccabees succeeded in driving the foreigners from their land. Jewish fighters entered Jerusalem in December, 164 BCE. The Jerusalem Temple was in shambles. They cleansed the Temple and re-dedicated it on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. When it came time to re-light the Menorah, they searched the entire Jerusalem Temple, but only one small jar of oil bearing the pure seal of the High Priest could be found. Miraculously, the small jar of oil burned for eight days, until a new supply of oil could be brought.

From then on, Jews have observed a holiday for eight days in honor of this historic victory and the miracle of the oil that happened in the Jerusalem Temple, (the only remnant of it in the contemporary Israel is The Jerusalem Western Wall ) has always had a unique status of sanctity in Jewish mentality and.