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Why is Chanukah eight days long if there was enough oil for one day?

by Rabbi Naftali Silberberg

  

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This question is as old as the holiday itself... If the pure oil which was found was enough for one day, then seemingly no miracle occurred on the first day of Chanukah. Why then isn't Chanukah celebrated for seven days -- starting with the 26th of Kislev, when the miracle began?

Many answers are given for this glaring question. In fact, Rabbi Yosef Karo (16th century author of the Code of Jewish Law) penned a book wherein he suggests 100 different answers for this question!

Rabbi Yosef Karo (author of the Code of Jewish Law) wrote a book wherein he supplies 100 answers for the question why Chanukah is celebrated for eight days when the miracle of the oil was only for seven.
The following are a few of the answers given:1

1. Considering that it would take another eight days to procure pure oil, the jug of oil which contained enough oil for only one night was divided into eight equal amounts. They figured that they would light an eighth of the oil each of the next eight nights. Miraculously, on each of the eight nights of Chanukah the oil which should have lasted only an eighth of the night lasted for the entire night.

2. After they filled the Menorah with oil on the first night, the jug remained full. The same happened on the ensuing seven days.

3. After the first night when they entered the sanctuary to clean the menorah, they found that the cups of the menorah were still full of oil; despite having burned the entire night.

4. We celebrate the first day to commemorate the miraculous victory over the Greeks.

Footnotes

  • 1. Beit Yosef on the Tur, Orach Chaim 670; see also Likutei Sichot, vol. XV, p. 183.

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Chanukah
An eight day mid-winter holiday marking: 1) The miraculous defeat of the mighty Syrian-Greek armies by the undermanned Maccabis in the year 140 BCE. 2) Upon their victory, the oil in the Menorah, sufficient fuel for one night only, burned for eight days and nights.
Kislev
The ninth month on the Jewish calendar, normally corresponding to November-December. The holiday of Chanukah starts on the 25th of this month.
Menorah
Candelabra. Usually a reference to the nine-branched candelabra kindled on the holiday of Chanukah.