– Thank you for the fact that once again joy, prayer and the blessing of the festival of lights, Hanukkah flows and flows also from the Presidential Palace – said Andrzej Duda on Wednesday, addressing the rabbis gathered in the Presidential Palace and participants of the Hanukkah candles ceremony.
Duda thanked “for a personal, extraordinary experience (…) on the fifteenth anniversary of the first Hanukkah at the Presidential Palace in the history of the Republic of Poland, when at the invitation of President Lech Kaczyński, the Jewish community came here so that together with the President of the Republic of Poland, his wife and associates to share this joy of Hanukkah. ” – The joy of the feast of lights, the joy of this special grace that God gave His chosen people in 164 BC A long, long time ago, deep in the depths of history, when Israel, in the sense of a nation, a people, was bound and united with God, he said.
Duda remarked that for him and his associates “it is a great joy that today we can, on the hands of rabbis for the entire Jewish community, in our country, as well as abroad, wish you a happy Hanukkah, happy holidays, happy, full reverie, but such joyful reflection and full of pride “. – Pride in who you are and what you are – he emphasized.
What is the Jewish Hanukkah festival?
Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, began on the evening of December 10. It commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks. When the Greeks conquered Jerusalem, their ruler Antiochus IV forbade the Jewish rites and ordered the persecution of those who did not comply, and established the worship of one of the Hellenistic deities in the Temple of Jerusalem. The Jews defeated the invaders in December 164 BC
During the sanctification of the Temple in Jerusalem, a miracle was to occur – the oil needed to perform the rites would burn for eight days, although it was predicted that it would only last for one day. Since then, the Jews, remembering about the miracle, light a Hanukkah candle for eight days during Chanukah, usually placed on the window sill in a place visible from the street.
Traditional Hanukkah dishes include Potato pancakes called latkes prepared in oil and donuts stuffed with e.g. preserves.
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