Jews are big on candles. We light two candles every Friday night to welcome the Sabbath and we do the same again on the eve of every Jewish high holy day. Then there is the memorial candle, called a ‘yahrzheit candle’, these are the ones we light when a loved one passes away, and then in memorial every year after. We light them too for those that we didn’t know but mourn nonetheless. Jews around the world light yahrzheit candles annually on Yom H’Shoah (the Jewish Holocaust remembrance day), and since 7 October it feels like we have had to keep on lighting those candles far too frequently.

Hanukkah candles are different, though. Hanukkah candles are smaller, multi-coloured and they burn fast and bright. Hanukkah candles are candles of defiance. They declare: we are still here.

Hanukkah commemorates the Jewish rebellion of 167 BC led by the Maccabees against the Greeks, who had made it impossible for the Jews to practice their faith. The Jewish army was small but mighty and, against the odds, defeated the Greeks. In the Bible story, the Greeks trash the Jewish temple, leaving only enough oil to light the........

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