KS1 Religious Education: The Jewish Story of Hanukkah

NARRATOR: Welcome to Religions of the World. Judaism: the religion of Jewish people. Solomon and his family are Jewish. They live in Manchester. Solomon and his sister, Eliza, go to synagogue every Saturday with their parents.

The synagogue is a place where Jewish people go to worship. A rabbi leads the service. After the prayers, Solomon and Eliza talk to their rabbi: Rabbi Sydney.

“Mummy said I should ask you why we celebrate Hanukkah,” said Solomon. “What a good idea,” said Rabbi Sydney. “Why don’t you both sit down.” “How many days does Hanukkah go on for?” asked the Rabbi. “Eight days,” said Eliza.

“Right,” said Rabbi Sydney, “ And what do you do each night?” “We light a candle,” said Solomon. “On a special candleholder,” said Eliza. “And do you know what the candleholder is called?” asked Rabbi Sydney. “The menorah,” said Solomon.

“Well, the actual name for it is the Hanukiah as it has nine candleholders on it, but most people call it the menorah,” said Rabbi Sydney. “Now I can tell you the story of it.”

The Jewish story of Hanukkah. About 2,200 years ago, the Greeks marched into the Jewish people’s promised land where the Jewish people lived, to take over the land and its people. One of the Greek Kings was called Antiochus. Antiochus decided that all Jewish people should worship Greek Gods. Jewish worship and reading the Torah (the Jewish holy book) was banned.

After invading, Antiochus and his army attacked the temple in Jerusalem, which was a very important place for the Jewish people. They killed many people and stole lots of holy objects, including the sacred lamp which had always burned brightly every day and every night.

The sacred lamp went out and the Greeks threw away all the special oil that was used to keep the lamp burning. The Jewish people were really upset and angry about this and they didn’t know what to do. But there was a brave family called the Maccabees, who decided to fight against King Antiochus. The name, Maccabee, means Hammer. Judah Maccabee led his brothers in many battles against the mighty Greeks.

They wanted their freedom to worship how they had always done. The Greeks had many more soldiers and even rode on elephants but this didn’t stop the Maccabees. Amazingly, they beat the Greek army and marched back into Jerusalem.

They were the winners. They cleaned up the temple and put a new sacred lamp back on the altar, but when they tried to relight it, they realised the Greeks had thrown away all of the special oil that was needed to keep the flame burning. After searching high and low, they found one last small bottle of oil that the Greeks had not thrown away but this would only keep the lamp burning for one day and it would take eight days to make new oil.

The brothers lit the sacred lamp with the last remaining bottle of oil. By a miracle, the lamp burnt for eight days and every day, the flames grew brighter and brighter. Every year since then, Jewish people have celebrated their festival of lights, Hanukkah. They retell the story of the Maccabees, give gifts, eat special food and play games. And as they light the menorah each night, they celebrate God’s glory and give thanks for the miracle in the temple long ago.

Rabbi Sydney smiled and said, “And that is the story of Hanukkah.” “Thank you, Rabbi Sydney,” said Solomon. “I’m going to tell mummy all about it.” “You’d better hurry,” said Rabbi Sydney as he pointed to Solomon’s parents. Eliza has beaten you to it.”

Eliza had sped off and was excitedly telling the story already. Solomon jumped up and hurried over to help Eliza tell the story of Hanukkah to his mum and dad.