Families make menorah for congregation

SWAMPSCOTT – At sundown on Sunday Hanukkah, which is also known as the Festival of Lights, begins and this year the holiday will burn a little brighter at Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore.A big part of the Hanukkah celebration is the menorah, which contains nine candles – the server candle is lit first and from that candle, the Hanukkah candles are lit, one more each night until all are lit.Rabbi Yossi Lipsker said most families have their own menorah, but the temple did not have one until very recently when two families who belong to Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore made a menorah for Lipsker and the congregation.”It was a work of love, a work of art and a gift of light for our community,” Lipsker said. “It was a very thoughtful act.”Marc and Beth Andler, who own Andler Bottles, a glass manufacturing company based in Springfield, and Nancy Rosen, who is a local artist, have been collaborating on the project for a year.Rosen said she made a smaller menorah for Marc in the past.”Marc got these really cool glass bottles and he said it would be cool if we could make a menorah with them,” she said. “I said let’s do it again. Let’s make one for Yassi (Lipsker). (The Lipskers) give so much to the community and we wanted to give back at a deeper level. We wanted to create something permanent.”Beth said the two families decided to make the menorah to try to give back to the Rabbi, who means so much to the community.”It is given from the heart to the Rabbi,” she said. “He just brings so much to the table and to the community. I think the Jewish community and the community as a whole are lucky to have the presence of Rabbi Lipsker and Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore.”Rosen said she did most of the physical labor but the menorah was a true collaboration.”I started formulating an idea,” she said. “Beth and Marc would stop by. I was constantly consulting with them about the idea. It was a joint process and everybody had input. It’s about the group.”Rosen pointed out the cut glass mosaic base looks like an Israeli flag rippling in the wind.”We made three prototypes,” she said. “Because we had to find a way to support the weight of the glass and the contents. We had to put 50 coats of varnish on it. Art is very time consuming.”The tradition of lighting the menorah stems from 167 B.C. when the Syrian army took control of and defiled the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. After three years of Jewish guerrilla warfare, the Jews entered the defiled and half-demolished Temple. They started cleaning and rebuilding the Temple and the work was completed on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev in 165 B.C. They planned a celebration to rededicate the Temple but there was only one jar of the consecrated lamp oil, which had been sealed and hidden away. It was only enough oil to burn the Temple menorah for one day. According to Jewish tradition, the lamp burned for 8 days and 8 nights, giving the priests the eight days needed to prepare more oil.