The fundamental lesson emphasized about Judaism is the belief in One God. In fact, Judaism’s most important prayer is an excerpt of a speech from Moses to Israel, repurposed as a declaration made to God. That is, of course, the Shema Yisrael, which is understood as a ringing affirmation of monotheism. Some of the best-known rabbinic stories fill in what the Bible leaves out— how the young Abraham began the march of Jewish history by coming to believe that instead of the many gods worshiped in his society, there was only one. The monotheism of the rabbis, it turns out, is based on that of the Bible but is not identical to it.

Throughout history, Judaism’s core beliefs continued to develop. The religion’s greatest philosophers, from Maimonides in the Middle Ages to the leading theologians of today, have explained the meaning of monotheism in contrasting ways. Their differences are the result of the Jewish people adapting to the changing intellectual climate of the varied societies in which they lived. In addition, Jewish mystics, from Kabbalists to Hasidim to proponents of the Jewish Renewal movement, have explored what monotheism meanings in their traditions.

It turns out there are many meanings of “one.” What is meant by, “God is one”? As so often in Jewish life, it depends on which Jewish answers are being accessed.

Offered by the Konikoff Center for Learning of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, this 10-part course will be taught by Rabbi Michael Panitz, a specialist in the history of Jewish ideas and a veteran teacher in United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s adult education programs. The course costs $60 for Simon Family JCC members; $72 for guests.

Learn more or register at JewishVA.org/KCL or contact Sierra Lautman, senior director of Jewish Innovation at United Jewish Federation of Tidewater at SLautman@UJFT.org.

But was that the original Hanukkah menorah? Demonstrably not.  Both literary and archaeological sources tell us that our first tradition was to have a lamp.  It was filled with a plant-derived oil, preferably olive oil.  The amount of oil and the length of wick would determine how long it would burn – the mandated duration was the length of the evening rush hour, so that a maximum number of people, walking home past our doorway, would see our effort to publicize the miracle of the holiday. Candles came later, probably when many of the Jewish people migrated away from the Mediterranean basin into climate zones too cold for olive trees to flourish. 

The Babylonian Talmud, an encyclopedia of Jewish law, lore, and Bible interpretation from the centuries after the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple, preserves records of how we practiced our religion in its formative era.  The standard practice for Hanukkah, we are told (Tractate Shabbat 21b), was “one lamp per household.”  That is to say, from the first through the eighth nights of Hanukkah, the householders would light one lamp in observance of the holiday. The preferable place to display that lamp was in a sconce outside the house, to the left of the main door.  That way, the house was framed by symbols of Jewish identity: the mezuzah on the right side of the door (as you face the entrance from the outside) and the Hanukkah lamp on the left side. 

It is the nature of fashion to change.  The unadorned, hand-made, pinched-spout lamps of Judean households were themselves an innovation from still-older, simple, saucer lamps, because the pinched spout supported the wick. But that style, in turn, gave way to fancier designs. When Hanukkah was a young festival, in the second century Before the Common Era, the fashion in other parts of the Hellenistic world was to use molds to create lamps. Obviously, having a mold made it easier to produce large quantities of lamps and to put deluxe, elaborate lamps within reach of many more households.  It is quite likely, therefore, that some of our ancestors substituted a fancier lamp for the “cocked hat” style of the older lamps.

Loyal Jews were not the only ones using lamps.  In the pre-Thomas Edison era, lamps were a household necessity. Even in sites from the Land of Israel, there are numerous examples of lamps that definitely would not have been appropriate for Hanukkah use.  Floral and geometric motifs are fine, but not idolatrous themes.  The next lamp, featuring pictures of the Greek demigod “Cupid,” would have been unorthodox, to say the least!

How did we get from the Rabbinic norm of “one lamp per household, each night” to the contemporary practice? The Talmud relates that some people, more punctilious in their observance, would have a lamp for each member of the household.  There is an echo of this practice in many Jewish homes today, where the number of Sabbath candles increases with each addition to the family. 

Finally, we get to the “punctilious among the punctilious” – clearly not the majority in its own day (the 1st century Before the Common Era), but the standard practice today.  Such people would light a different number each day.  One custom was to begin with eight lamps and reduce the number of lamps by one each night, until only one lamp would be lit on the final night of Hanukkah.  That was the practice of the School of Shammai.  The famous rival of that academy, the School of Hillel, reversed the order. They lit one lamp on the first night, adding one each night and concluding with eight on the final night – from which our now-standard practice descends.

Like life in general, and certainly like Judaism, Hanukkah observances reflect the ever-shifting balance of the old and the new.

Dr. Rabbi Michael Panitz is the rabbi at Temple Israel in Norfolk.