Origin 200 to 600 CE
A nine-branched lamp lit over the eight nights of Hanukkah. Eight lights are for the nights; the ninth, the shamash, is the servant light used to kindle the others, set apart in height or position because the eight are not to be used for any practical purpose, including lighting each other.
Lights are added one per night rather than lit all at once, and the standard practice follows the school of Hillel in increasing rather than decreasing. It is placed in a window or doorway facing the street. That placement is the halakhic requirement of publicising the miracle, and it means the object is meant to be seen from outside by people who are not Jewish, which is why its visibility has been a barometer of Jewish safety in a given place and time.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItThe household that keeps it 2 ConsecrationNot consecrated; an instrument, not a consecrated object 2 Origins
Origin Period Learn More
The Lamp of Eight Nights, and the Ninth Light That Serves
The hanukkiah is a nine-branched lamp lit over the eight nights of Hanukkah, and it is defined by a distinction that is easy to miss: one of its nine lights is not counted at all.
Eight, and the servant
Eight lights stand for the eight nights, one added each evening until all eight burn on the last night, recalling the tradition that a single day supply of oil in the rededicated Temple burned for eight. The ninth light, set apart in height or position, is the shamash, the servant, used to kindle the others because the Hanukkah lights themselves may not be used for any practical purpose, only looked at. The whole arrangement is built to keep the eight commemorative lights pure of ordinary use, which is why a lamp for kindling them must be added.
Publicising the miracle
The hanukkiah is placed where it can be seen from the street, in a window or a doorway, because the point of the observance is the publicising of the miracle, the public proclamation of the deliverance it recalls. This is why it has served, like the shofar, as a barometer of Jewish security, since a lamp displayed in a window is only displayed where Jews feel safe to be seen. It is regularly and mistakenly called a menorah, but the seven-branched menorah is a different object of the Temple, and the nine-branched Hanukkah lamp is its distinct and later relative.
Nine Branches Instead of Seven, and Who Is Allowed to Light Them
A hanukkiah has nine lights rather than the menorah's seven, eight for the nights of Hanukkah plus a ninth, the shamash or helper light, used to kindle the others so that the eight themselves are not used for anything but being looked at.
Materials, from tin to silver
Because a hanukkiah is not built to a Temple specification, its material ranges freely from cheap tin or painted clay, common for a child's first lamp made at school, up to elaborate cast silver pieces passed down as family heirlooms. Both oil cups and candle sockets are traditional, oil being the older form and closer to the story the holiday commemorates, candles the more common practical choice today.
Who lights it, and where it is placed
Any Jew, typically the head of a household with the family gathered, lights the hanukkiah each night, and the custom of placing it in a window or doorway facing the street exists specifically to publicize the miracle to passersby rather than to keep the observance private. Because it carries no inherent sanctity in its metal or wood the way a Torah scroll's parchment does, a hanukkiah requires no special disposal when retired, a cracked or broken one is simply replaced, and undamaged old ones are often kept as decoration or given to family long after they stop being used for the holiday itself.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The hanukkiah is lit over the eight nights of Hanukkah.
Belongs to Tradition
Contrasts With
The menorah is routinely confused with the hanukkiah, which has nine branches and is a different object for a different purpose.
Rejected Here
Hanukkah is not observed. The festival has no warrant in the twenty four books and rests on rabbinic authority that Karaite Judaism does not accept, so no lamp for it is kindled.
Element Of
Eight lights and a servant light, kindled at nightfall and set where they can be seen from the street.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.