#ner hamaaravi

[todaysjewishholiday]

18 Menachem Av 5784 (21-22 August 2024)

According to tradition, the seven lamps of the menorah in the Beit haMikdash were lit every evening before sunset, and left to burn through the night, but one of the lights, the ner hamaaravi, would keep burning even after the other lamps went out. Thus, the kohen assigned to light the lamps of the menorah was able to light the other six lamps by kindling a taper in the still-burning flame. This continuously burning lamp is the inspiration for both the ner tamid (eternal light) that hangs in front of the Torah ark in a synagogue and the shammes in a hannukiah from which the other flames are kindled.

Legend also has it that the wickedness of king Ahaz was so great that on the eighteenth of Av early in his reign the miracle of the ner hamaaravi was withdrawn and the menorah went out completely. From that time forward the lamp burned out entirely during the night and had to be lit completely the next day.

Ahaz adopted Assyrian religious practices and worship of the Assyrian pantheon after seeking political support from the Assyrian Empire against his neighbors, including the Northern Kingdom of Samaria. He made Judah a tributary state of the Assyrians, starting a period of national subjugation to foreign empires which continued through the end of the second temple period and the dissolution of the Jewish community in Judaea following the Bar Kokhba revolt.