The Hanukkiah (Hanukkah Menorah) | My Jewish Learning
www.myjewishlearning.com
The Hanukkah Lamp, The Menorah. Hanukkah Candlelighting Ceremony. Hanukkah at Home. Hanukkah, The Festival of Lights. Jewish Holidays.

I'm 62 years old and I just heard about the Hanukkiah for the first time tonight on puppy dog pals. What the heck? How can I live my entire life and never have heard of this. I've been around plenty of Jewish people and we talked about Hanukkah plenty of times. I've known about the menorah. I've known about the dreidel. But I've never heard of the hanukkiah before tonight.

My wife, who has the nearest thing I've ever met to a photographic memory also had no knowledge of this term. She was born and raised in England I was born and raised in America. Neither of us lived in isolation.

What is going on?

  • chillbo_baggins [he/him]
    ·
    11 months ago

    This is correct. A menorah is a general term for candelabra, a hanukkiah (pron. hah-nu-KEE-ah) is the specific type candelabra used for the holiday Hanukah ceremony. A hanukkiah has 8 lower candles and 1 upper candle (the shamas) for counting the 8 days of hanukah. That said, the terms are pretty interchangeable in modern times.

    I had an uncle tell me this at hanukah decades ago and I thought it was a "fun fact." Every hanukkiah is a menorah, but not every menorah is a hanukkiah. Y'know?

    src: am jewish