Standing atop a stepladder with a blowtorch in his hand and a large menorah behind him, Rabbi Berel Levertov of the Santa Fe Jewish Center-Chabad explained the miracle of Hanukkah and sang songs with a handful of socially distanced onlookers on the Santa Fe Plaza as Liv Orovich, the director of a local klezmer band, played the fiddle.
Levertov recited the traditional Hanukkah blessings, called
brachot in Hebrew, as night fell Thursday and fog shrouded the city after a light dusting of snow earlier in the day.
âHanukkah celebrates the victory of the few over the many,â Levertov said.
The Maccabees, who couldnât practice Judaism some 2,000 years ago, prevailed over the Syrian empire. And although the Temple of Jerusalem was desecrated, Levertov said, and they could not find enough oil that had been sanctified to keep the menorah lit, the small amount of oil they could find lasted for eight days.