Hello, this is Jana, and today I'm here with a holiday story to commemorate Hanukkah,

the Jewish Festival of Lights.

Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

First, a tiny bit of history.

After the time of Alexander the Great, much of the Middle East was ruled by Greek kings.

One of these, Antiochus the 4th, forbade the Jews from carrying out their religion.

A group of Jewish warriors called the Maccabees led a revolt against Antiochus in the year 167 BCE.

When they retook Jerusalem, they rededicated the temple.

They wanted to relight the oil lamps.

Although they could only find a tiny bit of oil,

the oil miraculously lasted for a full eight days. This was a miracle.

The symbol of Hanukha is a candelabra called the Menorra. Each night of the festival, one candle is lit as the blessing is spoken.

There are eight days in all, but there are nine candles.

The ninth, which stands in the centre, is used to light the others.

Hanukkah is a time of family fun and celebration. A traditional game is to spin a dreidel, a kind of spinning top with Hebrew

letters on it. Prizes are often chocolate, gelt or money. Hanukkah is also associated

with festive food such as doughnuts and creamy fried potato and onion balls called lukas. Food features in the ancient

Jewish story which I have chosen. The main character is the wife of a rabbi or a priest. It's called

the nosy neighbour. Most of the rabbis were very poor, but the poorest of all was Hanina

Bendoza. Even on Friday, his wife had nothing to cook and nothing to bake. You know how

busy your mother is on a Friday? You know what good odours come out of the kitchen. You can smell the freshly baked

pies, donuts and cookies. You can smell the chicken soup. But the wife of Ben Dosa didn't even have to

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