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Greenwich Time
Lori Winthrop of Greenwich helps her daughter Jennifer, 5, light the first candle on a menorah last night during the celebration of the first night of Hanukkah at the Chabad Center. At right is Jennifer’s twin, Sydney.

Greenwich, CT — Standing on a plastic chair, Chabad Rabbi Yossi Deren exhorted children to dance while he checked the light bulbs atop a giant menorah set up for Hanukkah.

“One more song and we'll light the Shabbat candles!” he shouted through a microphone.

Chabad Center of Greenwich mark the start of Hanukka

Greenwich Time
Lori Winthrop of Greenwich helps her daughter Jennifer, 5, light the first candle on a menorah last night during the celebration of the first night of Hanukkah at the Chabad Center. At right is Jennifer’s twin, Sydney.

Greenwich, CT — Standing on a plastic chair, Chabad Rabbi Yossi Deren exhorted children to dance while he checked the light bulbs atop a giant menorah set up for Hanukkah.

“One more song and we’ll light the Shabbat candles!” he shouted through a microphone.

Members of the Chabad Center of Greenwich lit the giant menorah and marked the start of Hanukkah yesterday evening at their center at 75 Mason St.

This year the beginning of Hanukkah had special relevance because it coincides with the beginning of Shabbat, or Sabbath, every Friday night.

Wives and children lit the Shabbat candles, a Sabbath ritual, before the Hanukkah celebration.

Afterward adults attended a prayer service, and young children attended a class on the origin and meaning of Hannukah.

Deren led adults in a service of combined Shabbat and Hanukkah prayers encouraging the congregation to “stomp their feet” and sing along.

“There are no formalities,” Deren said. “It is only a service of prayer.”

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, lasts eight days and commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago following the looting of the temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Syrian king who persecuted Jews.

According to Jewish scripture, despite only having a small amount of oil for the newly rededicated temple’s menorah, the candles miraculously stayed lit for eight days, giving rise to the tradition of an eight-day festival.

Downstairs, Chabad Youth Directors Leah Rapoport and Zelda Reiber acted out the parts of Antiochus and a soldier and scolded the children for their Jewish traditions.

“No Torah! No Shabbat! No circumcision!” Reiber said as Antiochus.

Rapoport said at the beginning of Shabbat that women and children traditionally light the candles to ask God to bring more light into the world.

“It’s an auspicious time to bring light into the world and wishing for a powerful week,” Rapoport said of the ritual.

Tess O’Brien, 3, a pupil at the Chabad Preschool, said that she enjoyed lighting the menorah and getting presents during the holiday.

“Hanukkah is fun,” she said.

Eli Yaakoby, a Greenwich resident, said that Hanukkah is a time for the impossible to come true, as illustrated by the scriptural story about the lamp that burned magically.

“First it is a time of miracles where everything is possible,” Yaakoby said. “It is the victory of the spirit over material things, and a time of great food and beautiful traditions.”

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