Miracle of the cruse of oil

Miracle of the cruse of oil (Hebrew: נֵס פַּךְ הַשֶּׁמֶן) is an Aggadah depicted in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, as one of the reasons for Hanukkah. The story of the miracle, as described in the Talmud, occurred after the liberation of the Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt, and describes how the finding of a jug of pure oil that was to be enough to light the lamp for one day; instead, it lasted for eight days.

During the period of the second temple (~516 BCE-70CE), in around 200 B.C., Antiochus III, the Seleucid king of Syria, took control over the kingdom of Judea or Israel. He allowed the Jews living in Israel autonomous rule for some time, but then his son Antiochus IV replaced him. Trying to unify his kingdom, Antiochus IV prohibited Jews from practicing Judaism, and were commanded to worship Greek gods. Many Jews went along with these demands and were known as Hellenized Jews. Tensions rose and in 168 BCE Antiochus IV invaded Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, killing thousands. Worst of all, he desecrated the holy Temple, the center of the Jewish religion, by erecting an altar for Zeus.

This resulted in a Jewish revolt led by the priest Matityahu of Modiin. These rebellious warriors were known as the Hasmoneans or Maccabees. After only two years of fighting, the rebellion, using tactics of guerrilla warfare, was able to push out a much larger and well equipped Greek army.

After retaking Jerusalem, the Jews cleared out the Temple of all unholy items, and rededicated it. One of the main aspects of the rededication was the lighting of the Menorah. Unfortunately, there was only one cruse of oil which had not been defiled, which contained enough oil to last only one night. Miraculously, the one cruse of oil lasted eight nights.

The commandment and process of lighting the Menorah in the temple might seem like a simple process. However, there is much debate among ancient and modern Jewish scholars over how, when, how long, and many other details revolving around the lighting. Without going into fine details, the basic obligation of lighting the menorah is formulated a few times throughout the Bible.

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