Because of the popularity of Chanukah, the word Chanukah itself is well-known. But how many of us who light Chanukah candles know what the word Chanukah means?

It’s a Hebrew word, but one which does not appear in Tanach, the Hebrew Bible. It was coined hundreds of years after the giving of the Torah at Sinai, when the festival was inaugurated during the period of the Second Temple. In fact, inauguration is one of its meanings.

When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary, they defiled all the oils, and when the House of the Hasmoneans prevailed and vanquished them, they searched and found only one remaining jar of oil with the High Priest’s seal. Although it contained only enough oil to burn one day, a miracle occurred, and it burned eight days.
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