Chabad lights up ‘Lego Menorah’ for Hanukkah

What would Hanukkah be without a 12-foot-tall menorah made of Legos? On Monday, Chabad of Santa Barbara continued what has become its tradition of constructing a giant menorah, the candelabrum used to celebrate the Festival of Lights, out of the toy pieces. The finished “Lego Menorah,” towering at La Cumbre Plaza, is composed of more than 4,000 Lego pieces.

At left, Rabbi Mendel Loschak secures the menorah. Top right, Madav Katz lights candles on the menorah on the second night of Hanukkah. At right, sister and brother Jaslyn, 2, and Eric Van Lenten, 5, help with the building, as do Jeff Holden, from left below, Dina Loschak and Jim Stevenson.

Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem in the second century B.C., when, in a miracle, lamps of the menorah burned for eight days on one day’s worth of oil. The nine-branched menorah, or Hanukiyah, used to observe Hanukkah has one branch for each of those eight days, plus a central light, the “shamash,” used to light the other candles.