Chanukkah’s First Rite

A crowd of more than 80 people laughed and cheered Tuesday night at the annual lighting of the Grand Menorah outside Portland City Hall.

The ceremony has marked the beginning of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish celebration of religious freedom and miracles, in the city for more than two decades.

The event was lighthearted and drew plenty of second glances from curious passersby. The crowd laughed when Rabbi Moshe Wilansky waved from the bucket of a Portland Fire Department snorkel truck.

Wilansky told emcee Paul Aranson of Scarborough that the lighting was in its 21st year. The former Cumberland County district attorney quipped in response:

“We finally became legal.”

Wilansky has lighted the 14-foot-tall menorah, with the Fire Department’s help, each year since 2001. He said he’ll use a stepladder in the coming nights to light the remaining seven lanterns.

The holiday celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after a rebel army drove Syrian Greeks — determined to force their religious traditions on local Jews — out of the city more than 2,000 years ago.

The army wanted to rededicate the desecrated temple after the victory, but had only a day’s worth of oil to fuel a temple candelabrum that was supposed to burn without interruption. They forged ahead with their ceremony anyway, and the oil lasted eight days — long enough for religious leaders to gather more.

“The idea is, a small band of good people won against the evil empire,” said Wilansky, director of the Chabad House-Lubavitch of Maine, an outreach group that represents a branch of Hasidic Judaism.

He urged the crowd to perform at least one act of kindness a day for the duration of the holiday.

“One person could change the world for the better,” Wilansky said.