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?
Did a search. After reading a few articles, I think I can summarize it like this:
Menora means lamp, and is usually 7 candles. Hannukah menora is a lamp for hannukah and has 9 candles. It is usually called a hannukiah, but that’s hard for non-Hebrew speakers to say, so we usually hear menora or hannukah menora.
Edit: forgot to include the sources. I’ll try to find them all, but here’s the one that, though the shortest, said the most.
Edit: found two more of the sources (1, 2), but can’t refind the longest one. Sometimes, it’s very annoying not having history saved.
No one ever says "hanukia menora’ it’s either ‘hanukia’ referring to the menora used specifically during hanukah or ‘menora’ which is a bit more genetic, but without further explanation it’s usually referring to the one with 7 candles.
I’ve never heard of hannukiah menora, either. I’ve either heard, menora (most common), hannukah menora (least common), or hannukiah (only heard in specific situations).
Hanukia is pretty specifically a menora for hanukia, so it makes sense to be used in specific situations. Menora refers to replicas/modern day versions of the 7-candle light used in the old temple in Israel. The hanukia was based on it, adding enough for all nights.
I think your autocorrect keeps changing hannukah to hannukiah, which caused my misunderstanding haha
Looks like it changed it once, my bad
No one’s bad, mate. We all get caught by autocorrect.
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
Like squares are rectangles, but rectangles are not squares. :)
Exactly!
In my experience, it’s not really a term you’ll come across unless you’re Jewish/around a Jewish family at Hanukkah. I have only ever heard/used this term with my family and other Jews because the generic “menorah” is what’s known to the population at large - assuming they know anything about Jews to begin with.
Ah, so it’s another one of those tightly guarded Jew secrets. Well, thanks for leaking this one
lol wtf is this? I have Jewish heritage and never heard of this
Did you celebrate hanukah growing up? When was the last time you went to synagogue?
Yes. Never went regularly, just for special events, so it’s probably been 5 years.
I’ve never celebrated with my havurah where anyone called it a menora, it was always a hanukia. Different groups in different places though, it’s interesting to hear other people’s experiences for sure.
My family have always been fairly pedantic about it. Only call it a hanukkiah. It’s a square and rectangles thing, hanukkiahs are menorahs but as a menorah it needs to be able to hold nine candles, with one candle preferably on a higher level than the others to be considered a hanukkiah.
I knew of it, but I also went to Hebrew High School once a week for like 6 years. Like CCD style, not full time high school, that was secular for me.
I like the word menorah more, so I use it more!
