Hanukkah menorah

Construction

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 all the lights must be arranged in a straight line, or if the hanukkiah can be arranged in a curve.

As Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson concluded in 1982 that a drawing by Maimonides definitively proved that menorahs were supposed to have straight branches pointing upwards diagonally, Chabad-style menorahs are of this design, rather than using the rounded branches more commonly associated with menorahs. However, critics argue that Maimonidides' design was meant to be schematic rather than pictorial and that other ancient sources depict menorahs with rounded arms.

Public displays

Main article: Public menorah

The hanukkiah is often displayed in public around Hanukkah time in December. Elected officials often participate in publicly lighting the hanukkiah. 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, author Rabbi Joshua Plaut, Ph.D., details the history of public displays of the hanukkiah across the United States, summarizes the court cases associated with this issue, and explains how Presidents of the United States came to embrace lighting the hanukkiah during Hanukkah.

In the US, the White House has been represented at the lighting of the National Menorah since 1979. This celebration of Hanukkah began with the attendance of President Jimmy Carter in the ceremony in Lafayette Park. Additionally, beginning with President Bill Clinton in 1993, a hanukkiah 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 hanukkiah candle lighting ceremony.

In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons holds a yearly hanukkiah lighting at the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons in the Palace of Westminster. Although John Bercow became the first Jewish Speaker of the House in 2009, the hanukkiah currently used every year had actually been commissioned in 2003 by his predecessor Michael Martin, who was a Catholic; prior to this, a hannukiah had to be borrowed for the ceremony every year.

Two large hanukkiahs are in New York City, each standing at 32 feet. One is at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, and the other is at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan near Central Park. A 4,000 lb structure, it is the work of Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. Because of the hanukkiah's height, Con Edison assists the lighting by using a crane to lift each person to the top.

In the United States, the public display of hanukkiahs 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 U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the public display of hanukkiahs and Christmas trees did not violate the Establishment Clause because the two symbols were not endorsements of the Jewish or Christian faith, and were rather part of the same winter holiday season, which the court found had attained a secular status in US society.

In December 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov ceremonially lit the first candle on a hanukkiah made from fragments of Russian drones and rockets fired at Ukraine.

Name

English speakers most commonly call the lamp a "menorah" or "Hanukkah menorah" (the Hebrew word menorah simply meaning "lamp"). In Modern Hebrew, the lamp is generally called a chanukkiyah, a term which originated among Judeo-Spanish speaking Sephardic communities in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 18th century. It was introduced into Modern Hebrew by Hemda Ben-Yehuda, whose husband Eliezer Ben Yehuda was the leading force behind the revival of the Hebrew language in the late 19th century.

Public collections

Many museums have notable collections of hanukkiahs, including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the Jewish Museum in London (which owns the Lindo lamp).

There is a collection in the small Jewish Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Adaptations

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

On December 10, 1997, the Internet's first widely celebrated Interactive Menorah was the premiere greeting for the New York Times 'Cyberseason's Greetings' section of their website. This digital Menorah allowed users to celebrate the holiday from anywhere, lighting candles with a mouse click. The miracle of the oil was honored as the digital Menorah used a minuscule file size of 19kb. The digital Menorah was created by recognized digital artist Bruce Keffer, using the then-new Flash animation software.

Gallery

File:Chanukia.jpg|A silver hanukkiah File:Македонска ханукија - מקדוני חנוכייה - Macedonian Hanukkah menorah.jpg|A North Macedonian silver hanukkiah File:Candles in "Hanuki'ya" during Hanukkah - Jewish holiday.jpg|Hanukkiah next to the window File:Truman receives menorah.jpg| U.S. President Harry S. Truman (left) receiving a hanukkiah in the Oval Office as a gift from Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (center) alongside Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Abba Eban (right), 1951 File:חנוכיית התקווה בכיכר החטופים.jpg|Hanukkiah of Hope in Hostages Square Tel Aviv File:Carter Menorah.jpg|U.S. President Jimmy Carter (right) lighting a hanukkiah with rabbi Abraham Shemtov (left) in Lafayette Park, 1979 File:Moroccan hanukkiah with Tree of Life (Etz Chaim) motif.jpg|Moroccan hanukkiah with Tree of Life (Etz Chaim) motif

Notes

References

References

1. "Hanukkah Lamp, BD, Judaica, Ceremonial Art". The Jewish Museum.
2. (1980). "Judaism A-Z: Lexicon of Terms and Concepts". Department for Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora of the World Zionist Organization.
3. Silberberg, Naftali. "What Constitutes a Kosher Chanukah Menorah?".
4. "Do the candles on the menorah have to be in a straight line to be kosher?".
5. "Is a curved Menorah kosher for Hanukkah?".
6. (2010-11-25). "Laws of Chanukah". Orthodox Union.
7. (December 6, 2025). "Chabad's Straight Approach to Hanukkiah Faces Rounded Objection". Ha'aretz.
8. (December 25, 2024). "Straightening Out the Menorah". Jewish Review of Books.
9. Plaut, Joshua Eli. (2012). "A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish". Rutgers University Press.
10. "Silver For The House Of Commons".
11. "Lighting Largest Hanukkah Menorahs".
12. (25 December 2024). "У Києві Буданов запалив першу свічку на ханукії, виготовленій з уламків ворожих ракет [In Kyiv, Budanov lit the first candle on a Hanukkiah made from fragments of enemy rockets]". Bukvy.org.
13. (1993). "שקיעי ספרדית-יהודית בעברית החדשה". Pe'amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry / פעמים: רבעון לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח.
14. "The Hanukkah Menorah". [[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]].
15. Sechan, Sarah. (July 21, 2009). "London's Jewish Museum preparing to buy 300-year-old hanukkia for new location". The [[Jerusalem Post]].
16. "Museu Judaico do Rio de Janeiro".
17. Newman, Andrew Adam. (2016-12-21). "From Yamaclaus to Menorah Bong: Hanukkah Goods That Can Hold a Candle". YouTube.
18. (August 24, 2013). "Menorah + turkey = Menurkey". The Times of Israel.
19. (December 10, 1997). "Cyberseason's Greetings".