What does Hanukkah celebrate?
Hanukkah marks the deliverance of the Jews of Palestine from the oppression of the Syrian-Greeks in the second century B.C.E. A rebellion was led by Judah the Maccabee and lasted for three years. During the revolt King Antiochus IV of Syria prohibited the observance of Jewish religious practices and converted the Temple in Jerusalem into a pagan shrine in 168 B.C.E. In the year 165 B.C.E. the rebels succeeded in defeating the Syrian armies and the Temple was cleansed and rededicated on the twenty-fifth day of the Hebrew month of Kislev. The holiday celebrates the miracle of a one day supply of consecrated oil burning for eight days.
