This photograph, taken during the festival of Chanukah, shows a man dressed in traditional Hasidic clothing with a camera around his neck, walking down a street in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Mea She’arim. Attached to the stone wall next to the door hangs a lit chanukiya, which is encased in a glass box to protect the flames from the wind. There seem to be four lights in a row, indicating the fourth night of Chanukah, with the shamash light in a glass enclosure on top of the box. The sign on the wall, written in Hebrew and English, indicates that the building is a shop that sells religious articles. It also advertises that a scribe works in the shop who can check whether a person’s tefillin (phylacteries) are kosher (fit for use).
An important feature of lighting the Chanukah candles is to make the lights as public as possible so as to publicise the Chanukah miracle. For this reason, many religious families in Israel light the chanukiya outside their homes so that passers-by can see the lights.
The ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Mea She’arim is often visited by Israeli and foreign tourists during Jewish festivals such as Chanukah and Sukkot in order to enjoy the festive atmosphere. This area is also a place for buying Jewish books and religious items, which could explain why the sign is written in both Hebrew and English.
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Chanukah - Chanuka celebrates the rededication of the Temple by Judah the Maccabee and his army after their victory over the Greeks in 165 BCE. One of the well-known miracles of the Chanukah story is the small portion of oil that was able to light the Menorah in the Temple and burn for eight nights. Chanukah begins on 25 Kislev and is celebrated by lighting a Chanukiya for eight nights. It is also traditional to eat fried foods (to symbolise the oil) and play with spinning tops known as dreidles.
Chanukiya - A chanukiya is the special menorah (candelabra) that is lit on the holiday of Chanukah. Candles are lit to commemorate the miracle of the oil, which despite being enough to last for only one day, miraculously lasted for eight days. The chanukiyah is lit every night of the eight-day festival with an additional candle being added each day, so that by the last night, all eight are lit. Chanukiyot are traditionally placed in the window or by the door of the house in order to publically proclaim the Chanukah miracle. Ideally it is lit with oil, preferably olive oil, but candles are also permissible and are more common nowadays. The chanukiyah is often wrongly called a menora, which was the seven-branched candelabra lit as part of the daily worship in the temple. The chanukiya, however, has nine branches, one for each of the days of Chanukah and one for the shamash, the candle which is used to light the others.
Mea She’arim – Mea She’arim is a Haredi or Hassidic (ultra-Orthodox) neighbourhood in Jerusalem. Founded in 1874, Mea She’arim is one of the oldest Jewish neighbourhoods built outside the walls of the Old City. The area was designed as a courtyard neighbourhood, surrounded by a wall with gates that could be locked at night. Several different Hassidic groups have formed communities in Mea She’arim, and they can be identified by their own style of clothing. Today the neighbourhood is inhabited mostly by the most extreme ultra-Orthodox communities, and many attempt to live as enclosed and insular a life as possible. At the entrance to the neighbourhood are posters demanding visitors and residents to adhere to strict “modesty” regulations. Many of the residents of this neighbourhood do not pay taxes, vote in the general elections, or even use the national electricity system. The residents of the neighbourhood mostly wear traditional Hassidic clothing. The children attend independent religious schools, and the common language is Yiddish, since the community opposes the use of the holy language, Hebrew, as a daily, secular language.
