Light Forms : Jewish Religious Law Has Left the Design of Hanukkah Lamps Open to Artisans’ Creativity, Which Illuminates a Skirball Museum Display Covering 4 Centuries

With a spiritual freedom symbolic of the holiday itself, Jewish artisans over the centuries have fashioned Hanukkah lamps of all kinds: a depiction of an oak tree, being climbed by a honey-seeking bear; miniature chairs, each holding candlewicks, and a menorah whose eight branches are topped by tiny Statues of Liberty. Newer designs incorporate abstract, shiny metallic shapes.

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

Jewish religious law--so precise in so many ways--has been virtually silent on the shape, style or material of Hanukkah lamps, said 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 time 21 centuries ago when a small band of Jews led by Judas Maccabaeus recaptured and rededicated the Jerusalem Temple, which had been desecrated by Syrian rulers in the Hellenistic era.

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

Some exquisite Hanukkah lamps, at Skirball and other museums, incorporate 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 at the animal, 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.

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 nearby at the University of Judaism and wrote a book on Hanukkah a few years ago. “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.

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.

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

One example is the “Los Angeles” lamp created in 1986 by sculptor and furniture designer Peter Shire of Los Angeles. Shire and Berman will discuss Hanukkah art at 3:30 p.m. Sunday during a Hanukkah festival at the museum.

Non-Jews sometimes confuse the seven-branched menorah, or candelabrum--an ancient symbol of Judaism--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, Berman said. Some lamps were hung on a wall; others sat on tables.