The Festival of Lights holiday features the lighting of candles each night in memory of two miracles - the victory of the grassroots Jewish rebellion against the Greek rulers and their Jewish collaborators more than 2100 years ago and the one-day supply of purified olive oil that lasted for eight days. Jewish priests found the olive oil while rededicating the Holy Temple following its systematic defilement by the Greeks and Hellenists.
Twenty centuries later, Jews are praying for the return of missing and kidnapped IDF soldiers, including navigator Ron Arad whose whereabouts are still unknown since his plane was downed over Lebanon more than 20 years ago, and the three soldiers kidnapped in last summer's two-front war against Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon and Hamas terrorists in the south.
Gilad Shalit was abducted by Hamas terrorists in June during an attack on an Israeli position at a crossing which killed two others soldiers. The following month, at the outset of the Hizbullah war in the north, terrorists kidnapped reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
The government promised the war would not end before Goldwasser and Regev were returned, but it quickly backed down from the vow after government and military strategies failed to defeat the Hizbullah terrorist army, which possessed advanced weapons not known to intelligence officials.
Leading rabbis will usher in the holiday with prayers for the return of the soldiers and for a break in the nearly month-long drought. The level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) has been receding instead of rising and there is a growing danger that there will not be enough water for the summer.
Expelled Jewish residents of the destroyed Samaria communities of Sa-Nur and Homesh plan to light Chanukah candles on the grounds of their former homes in a prelude to the rebuilding and reinhabiting of the communities. They are hoping the army will not try to stop them because they have no intention of backing down.
Residents of destroyed communities in Gush Katif and northern Gaza also are planning a candle-lighting ceremony at the Elei Sinai synagogue, about 50 yards across the Gaza border, or opposite the former community if the army does not allow them enter.
Click here for an essay by Rabbi David Bar Hayyim on the meaning on Chanukah.
Ezra HaLevi contributed to this report
Twenty centuries later, Jews are praying for the return of missing and kidnapped IDF soldiers, including navigator Ron Arad whose whereabouts are still unknown since his plane was downed over Lebanon more than 20 years ago, and the three soldiers kidnapped in last summer's two-front war against Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon and Hamas terrorists in the south.
Gilad Shalit was abducted by Hamas terrorists in June during an attack on an Israeli position at a crossing which killed two others soldiers. The following month, at the outset of the Hizbullah war in the north, terrorists kidnapped reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
The government promised the war would not end before Goldwasser and Regev were returned, but it quickly backed down from the vow after government and military strategies failed to defeat the Hizbullah terrorist army, which possessed advanced weapons not known to intelligence officials.
Leading rabbis will usher in the holiday with prayers for the return of the soldiers and for a break in the nearly month-long drought. The level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) has been receding instead of rising and there is a growing danger that there will not be enough water for the summer.
Expelled Jewish residents of the destroyed Samaria communities of Sa-Nur and Homesh plan to light Chanukah candles on the grounds of their former homes in a prelude to the rebuilding and reinhabiting of the communities. They are hoping the army will not try to stop them because they have no intention of backing down.
Residents of destroyed communities in Gush Katif and northern Gaza also are planning a candle-lighting ceremony at the Elei Sinai synagogue, about 50 yards across the Gaza border, or opposite the former community if the army does not allow them enter.
Click here for an essay by Rabbi David Bar Hayyim on the meaning on Chanukah.
Ezra HaLevi contributed to this report