Divine Design

With a spiritual freedom symbolic of the holiday itself, Jewish artisans over the centuries have fashioned Hanukkah lamps of all kinds--including examples depicting an oak tree being climbed by a honey-seeking bear, miniature hairs holding candle wicks and a menorah whose eight branches are topped by tiny Statues of Liberty. Some newer designs incorporate abstract, shiny metallic shapes.

With the eight-day Jewish holiday beginning tonight, when the first candles on Hanukkah lamps are lighted, the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum in Sepulveda Pass has mounted an exhibition of 35 such lamps originating from the 17th century to the present.

Jewish religious law--so precise in so many ways--has been virtually silent on the shape, style and material of Hanukkah lamps, says museum Director Nancy M. Berman.

“There has been free license to invent or borrow forms and use folk or fine art reflecting styles of the times,” said Berman, who makes similar points in her recently published book, “The Art of Hanukkah.”

Such creative freedom fits the primary symbol of Hanukkah, which recalls the events of 21 centuries ago when a small band of Jews led by Judas Maccabeus recaptured and rededicated the Jerusalem Temple, which had been desecrated by Syrian rulers in the Hellenic era.

The lamps commemorate the story that a small container of lamp oil miraculously kept the lights burning throughout the eight days of the temple’s rededication.

Rabbinical commentaries call for the Hanukkah lamp to be placed in a doorway or near a window. The time and order of lighting, and which oil is best to use, also are part of Jewish legal tradition.

The only restraint on design, Berman said, is that some rabbis say that the eight lights should not be at different levels.

“Some Jews certainly accept it as Jewish law that the eight candles are to be on the same level,” agreed Ron Wolfson, who teaches at the nearby University of Judaism and has written a book on Hanukkah. “Rabbis apparently wanted to distinguish the Hanukkah lamp from torches used in ancient, non-Jewish festivals.”

Nevertheless, Wolfson noted that “the Jewish community includes a wide variety of practices” when it comes to Jewish law and tradition.

At the Skirball Museum, which is affiliated with Hebrew Union College of the liberal Reform wing of Judaism, some contemporary versions of Hanukkah lamps on exhibit have their wicks at varied levels.

One example is the “Los Angeles Lamp,” created in 1986 by noted local sculptor and furniture designer Peter Shire. Shire and Berman will discuss Hanukkah art Sunday at 3:30 p.m. during a daylong Hanukkah festival at the museum, which opened in April.

Non-Jews sometimes confuse the seven-branched menorah, or candelabrum--an ancient symbol of Judaism described in the Bible--and the eight-branched Hanukkah menorah. The latter would appear actually to have nine branches, but the ninth “branch” is called the service light, or shammash in Hebrew, and is not counted.

During the Middle Ages, many Hanukkah lamps were not variations on the menorah but flat-backed artifacts, something like a plaque, with the oil receptacles and wicks often near their base rather than at the highest points, according to Berman. Some lamps were hung on a wall; others sat on tables.

Some exquisite Hanukkah lamps, at the Skirball and other museums, incorporated architectural styles of Gothic, Islamic or neoclassical, columned buildings--depending on where and when the Jewish artisan lived.

The whimsical “Oak Tree” Hanukkah lamp, which shows a bear climbing a tree and a hunter taking aim, was made in Poland about 1800.

The “Statue of Liberty” lamp, created in 1986 by Manfred Anson, who escaped from Germany during the Nazi era, “equates the ancient victory of the Maccabees over their oppressors with the modern democratic ideals of America,” said Berman.