Menorah (Hanukkah)

Hanukkah Lamp, Lemberg (Lviv, Ukraine), 1867–72^[1] from the collection of The Jewish Museum of New York

A 14th century Hanukkah lamp, France - Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme

A Macedonian silver Hanukkah Menorah

Silver Hanukkah menorah

Hanukkah Menorah with David's star

The Hanukkah menorah, also chanukiah or hanukkiah (Hebrew: מנורת חנוכה‎ menorat ḥanukkah, pl. menorot; also Hebrew: חַנֻכִּיָּה‎ ḥanukkiyah, or chanukkiyah, pl. ḥanukkiyot/chanukkiyot, or Yiddish: חנוכּה לאָמפּ‎ khanike lomp, lit.: Hanukkah lamp) is a nine-branched candelabrum lit during the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah, as opposed to the seven-branched menorah used in the ancient Temple or as a symbol.

On each night of Hanukkah a new branch is lit. The ninth holder, called the shamash ("helper" or "servant"), is for a candle used to light all other candles and/or to be used as an extra light. To be kosher the shamash must be offset on a higher or lower plane than the main eight candles or oil lamps, but there are differing opinions as to whether or not all the lights must be arranged in a straight line,^[2][3] or if the channukiah can be arranged in a curve.^[4][5]

The menorah is among the most widely produced articles of Jewish ceremonial art. The seven-branched menorah is a traditional symbol of Judaism, along with the Star of David.^[6]

A hanukkiah (🕎) was added to Unicode in version 8.0 along with a number of other religiously significant symbols. The open source typeface Hananiah is one of the few fonts that supports this character.

Public displays

The menorah is often displayed in public around Hanukkah time December. Elected officials often participate in publicly lighting the menorah. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement is well associated with public lighting ceremonies, which it has done since a directive from their last Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in 1987. In the book A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish," (Rutgers University Press, 2012), author Rabbi Joshua Plaut, Ph.D. details the history of public displays of the menorah across the United States, summarizes the courts cases associated with this issue, and explains how the Presidents of the United States came to embrace lighting the menorah during Hanukkah.

Since 1979, the White House has been represented at the lighting of the National Menorah in celebration of Hanukkah, beginning with the attendance of President Jimmy Carter in the ceremony in Lafayette Park. Additionally, beginning with President Bill Clinton in 1993, a Hanukkah menorah is lit at the White House, and in 2001, President George W. Bush began the annual tradition of a White House Hanukkah Party in the White House residence, which includes a menorah candle lighting ceremony.

In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom each year holds a menorah lighting at the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, located in the Palace of Westminster. The menorah currently used was commissioned by the Rt. Hon. Michael J. Martin MP, then Speaker of the House of Commons.^[7] Martin is a Roman Catholic; his successor, John Bercow, is coincidentally the first Jewish Speaker of the House of Commons.

Two big menorahs are in New York City, each standing at 32 feet. One is at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, World's Largest Menorah^[8] and the other is lit at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan near Central Park. A 4,000-pound structure, it is the work of Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. Because of the menorah's heights, Con Edison assists the lighting by using a crane to lift each person to the top.

• 
  President Carter, Hanukkah Menorah Lighting, Lafayette Park, 1979.

Legalities

In the United States, the public display of menorot and Christmas trees on public grounds has been the source of legal battles. Specifically, in the 1989 County of Allegheny v. ACLU case, the majority of the US Supreme Court ruled that the public display of menorot and Christmas trees did not violate the Establishment Clause because the two symbols were not endorsements of the Jewish or Christian faith, rather the two items are part of the same winter-holiday season, which, the court found, had attained a secular status in U.S. society.

Name

English speakers most commonly call the lamp a "menorah" or "Hanukkah menorah." (The Hebrew word menorah simply means "lamp".) In Modern Hebrew the lamp is generally called a chanukkiyah, a term coined at the end of the nineteenth century by Hemda Ben-Yehuda, whose husband Eliezer Ben Yehuda was the leading force behind the revival of the Hebrew language.^[9]

Public collections

U.S. President Harry S. Truman in the Oval Office, receiving a Hanukkah Menorah as a gift from the Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion (center). To the right is Abba Eban, the Ambassador of Israel to the United States.

Many museums have notable collections of Hanukkah menorot, including the Israel Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,^[10] and the Jewish Museum, which owns the Lindo lamp.^[11]

There is also a collection in the small Jewish Museum in Rio de Janeiro.^[12]

Adaptations

More offbeat Hanukkah products on the American market include a "Menorah Tree" inspired by the Christmas tree tradition, and even a "Menorah Bong".^[13] The "Thanksgivukkah" coincidence of Thanksgiving and the second night of Hanukkah in 2013 inspired a turkey-shaped "menurkey".^[14]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hanukiah.

• Yearly lighting of the Menorah at the White House in Washington DC
• Hanukkah Lamps from the collection of The Jewish Museum (New York)