By Moshe Feiglin
Picture: The Temple Institute Gallery
"Why we do light Chanukah candles for eight days?" asks the Beit Yosef. "After all, the oil in the flask was enough for one day, so the miracle lasted for seven - and not eight - days. If so, what was the miracle on the first day of Chanukah?"
Manhigut Yehudit activist Meir Goldmintz offers his own solution. He says that the fact that after the Maccabees liberated the Temple Mount they went ahead and lit the Menorah in the Temple is a miracle - an internal, spiritual Jewish miracle.
We can appreciate this miracle in light of the situation in our era. After more than two thousand years, the Nation of Israel has once again returned to the Temple Mount. But today, Jews are not even allowed to move their lips in prayer at Judaism's holiest site in the world. The Maccabees on the other hand, made no excuses and feared no one. They fulfilled the commandment to light the menorah in the Temple and bequeathed the joyous holiday of Chanukah - the holiday of faith and hope - to the Jewish People.
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