On Shabbat, the Jewish holy day from sunset on Friday to Saturday evening, the lamp is lit before sunset. |
Jews began their eight-day-long festival of lights, called Hanukkah or Chanukah, on the evening of December 25, with prayers for the Israelis still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Mumbai’s synagogues, including the Keneseth Eliyahoo in Kala Ghoda, have been decorated with lights to mark the festival.
Central to the celebration is the lighting of the Hanukkah menorah, a ceremonial candelabrum with eight flames, and a ninth lamp to light the other branches.
The festival celebrates a miracle during the rededication of Jerusalem’s Second Temple by Jews after a rebellion against the Greeks in 200 BCE.
When the celebrants lit the menorah, they found just enough oil to light one lamp. They lit the menorah and the oil miraculously lasted for eight days. Their religious leaders asked them to celebrate the festival annually to mark the miracle.
Sinora Kolatkar, secretary of the Share Roshon synagogue in Khadak, near Masjid railway station, said, “The Maccabees successfully revolted against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. According to the Talmud, the temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day’s lighting. We light one flame daily. This is done for eight days.”
On Shabbat, the Jewish holy day from sunset on Friday to Saturday evening, the lamp is lit before sunset.
Ezra Moses, director of the Shaar Hashamaim or Gate of Heaven Synagogue in Thane, said Hanukkah this year is special for Jews worldwide. world. “We are lighting the lamps to pray for the hostages taken to Gaza. More than 100 are still missing and we do not know how many are still alive,” said Moses.
The Thane synagogue is also celebrating its 145th anniversary on December 29. Unlike the dwindling number of worshippers at most Indian synagogues, the Thane shrine has a congregation of nearly 1500, said Moses, making it the biggest in India.
The festival is a period to give charity. It is also a time when families meet. Noah Ashtamkar, a Santacruz resident, joined his mother, Milkah, at the family’s Alibaug home for the festival.
There are now 15 to 20 Jewish families in Alibaug, a coastal town in Raigad district that once had a large population of Marathi- speaking Bene Israel Jews.
The town has the Magen Abod synagogue, built 185 years ago. “There was no place to sit in the synagogue during festivals,” said Milkah, 80, about the days when the town had a large Jewish community.
Noah worships at the Kurla synagogue when he is in Mumbai. “There were once thousands of Jews in Mumbai. Now we are a minority among minorities,” he added.
