Haredim Abroad Keeping Ninth Day Of Hanukkah Out Of Doubt

Some Haredim are questioning the reliability of the modern calendar.

Boro Park, January 2 – Ultra-Orthodox Jews who live outside the Land of Israel are applying to the recent holiday of Hanukkah a stringency that has long been associated with four other festivals: keeping an extra day because of an ancient uncertainty over the lunar calendar date.

Growing numbers of strictly observant Jews in the US and Britain have begun to extend their observance of the Festival of Lights, keeping it for nine days, just as the Biblical festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are observed for one additional day outside Israel beyond the seven, one, and eight days of those respective holidays. On both the eighth and ninth nights, those maintaining this stringency light eight candles or oil lamps.

The Jewish calendar, which follows the lunar cycle, depended in ancient times on the testimony before the Sanhedrin, or Great Court, of witnesses who observed the emergence of the new moon, the date of which would be declared the first of the new month. That date could fall on either the 29th or 30th day since the previous New Moon. Messengers carried word of the new moon to far-flung communities, but those beyond a certain distance could not rely on receiving word of the right day in time to observe any festivals that month on the right day. As a safeguard, the practice emerged outside the Holy Land of observing both possible dates. But as persecution and other difficulties in late antiquity forced the eventual disappearance of the Sanhedrin rendered that process impracticable, a fixed calendar took hold. Nevertheless, for various reasons, outside the Land of Israel the practice persisted of keeping an additional day. Inside Israel, even Rosh Hashanah is kept for two days, as it occurs on the first day of the month of Tishrei when messengers will have no time to spread word of the right date.

Now, however, some Haredim are questioning the reliability of the modern calendar, and have begun to apply the same practice to Hanukkah. Rabbi Chumra Yesera of Congregation Anshei Minhag Schtuss explained that some observers have gone as far as to light two separate sets of candles, one for each possible correct night. “I don’t require my congregants to follow the stringency to this extent, but for my family, we light one candle the first night, and then on the second, which might still be the first, we light two and then one separately, adding one to each set as Hanukkah progresses. On the ninth night we only light the second one, since according to the first one the holiday is over.”

Additionally, he noted, many of the Hanukkah practices other than candle-lighting are extended for a day. “We also recite Hallel on the ninth day,” he added, referring to a series of Psalms of praise added to morning prayers on certain festivals. “But this stringency isn’t for everyone, especially those who are recovering from recent recircumcision in case the one they had as an infant wasn’t kosher enough.”

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