Rabbi Raymond Apple

The songs centre on Ma’oz Tzur, with the debate as to whether the final stanza is authentic. There are many attempts to modernise the song with a new verse about the Holocaust and Israel.

The lights are lit, with the proponents of oil-lights ranged against those who prefer candles. The chanukiyyot come in a plethora of shapes. Some are elegant works of art; in the Bayswater Synagogue in London we had a dazzling display ranging from a chanukiyyah carved out of a potato, another made of bullet shells, a third built out of toy chairs. In the Hampstead Shule, our grand chanukiyyah was pressed into service one winter when we had an electricity blackout and the shule had no lights.

It wouldn’t do for a yom-tov to be without heroes and villains. There also must be miracles, but which miracles?

– Seven days were needed to rebuild the altar and the sacred vessels of the sanctuary. Only then could the seventh day be devoted to preparing fresh oil.

– There were actually two miracles. One is the discovery of the one-day supply of oil; the second is the continuation of the day’s supply for a further week.

Rav Soloveitchik sees the festival as serving another purpose, the rededication of the altar.

Rabbi Raymond Apple served for 32 years as the chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, Australia’s oldest and most prestigious congregation. He is now retired and lives in Jerusalem where he answers interesting questions.