The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Hanuman S 191

members have a reputation for being honest in their financial dealings rather than corrupt, as the Palestinian Authority is thought to be. Israel sees Hamas as a major threat and has adopted a policy of assassinating Hamas leaders. That includes the founder, Sheikh Yassin, whom it assassinated on March 22, 2004. In addition, the United States has tried to eliminate funding to Hamas from overseas. Nevertheless, in January 2006, Hamas won a majority of the seats in elec tions for the Palestinian parliament. Some observ ers attributed its victory not to its anti-Israel stance but to its activities within the Palestinian territories. Still, the victory raised troubling questions about the future of the peace process and the relations of other countries to the Palestinian governing body. Further reading: Khaled Hroub, Hamas: Political Thought and Practice (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2000); Walter Laqueur, ed., Voices of Terror: Manifestos, Writings, and Manuals of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Other Terrorists from around the World and throughout the Ages, (New York: Reed Press, 2004). Hanukkah The Jewish festival of lights. It is cel ebrated for eight days every year, beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Hanukkah is one of the Jewish festivals that non-Jewish North Americans know best. That is because it falls around the time of C HRISTMAS and now involves the giving of gifts. Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Mac cabees over the former Greek rulers of Israel and Judah in 164 B . C . E . According to the book of 2 Mac cabees, the festival began with the rededication of the Temple in that very year. Its eight days of cel ebration made up for the failure to celebrate the festival of Sukkot a few months earlier because of the war. The T ALMUD preserves a later story that is now invariably connected with Hanukkah. On rededicating the temple, the Maccabees found only enough oil to burn for one day. Miraculously, it burned for eight. This story supports what has

A German Hanukkah lamp (menorah) in silver with an eight-headed mythical animal resembling a peacock, from the 18th century (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.)

become the central feature of Hanukkah: lighting an eight-branched candelabrum known as a meno rah. The most traditional menorahs burn oil, but today many Jews use candles. Some RABBIS have even sanctioned the use of electric lights. A popular game is played in celebration of Hanukkah. It uses a dreidel, that is, a small top that one spins with one’s hand. A dreidel has four flat sides onto which Hebrew letters are inscribed. In Israel these letters are “n,” “g,” “h,” and “p,” the beginning letters of a four-word Hebrew sen tence that recalls the reason for Hanukkah: “A great miracle happened here.” Outside Israel the last letter is “sh,” not “p,” because the sentence reads “A great miracle happened there.”

Hanuman A hero in the Indian epic the R AMAYANA .