Women and Hanukka

There are a lot of discussions lately regarding if the women are allowed or not to light the Hanukka candles. Some apparently ruled out of nowhere that the role of the women is just to be an extension of their husbands therefore, they have to be part of the event only. 

True is that usually in the Askenazi households there is the minhag (tradition) to do not light the candles, although ironically there is a Hanukiah for each member of the family (not the case by the Oriental Jews).

However, more than a minhag, it is not. According to Gemara (Shabbat 23a), women have the obligation to light the candles, according to the principle of af hein hayn b'oto ha-neis (they were also part of the miracle). They can light for the others as well as to fill the role of lighting it on behalf of the man. Lightning the candles per se is not a personal obligation, but it derives from the general obligation that each household should have a candle lit (ner ish u'berto). When there is no man in the house, a woman can do it. By extension, a woman has the same right as a man to light the candles, although traditionally - the various reform movements do have a completely different take on it - they are excepted from time-bound obligations (like, for instance, praying with a minyan - the minimum 10-men quorum requested for the prayers).

Chag HaBanot

There is another tradition associated with Hanukka which has the women in their center. The Jewish communities from the North African area - Algeria, Libya, Tunisia - do celebrate on the 1st of Tevet chag habanot - the festival of women. It fell on the 7th night of Hanukka and it involves dance, a feast as well as ceremonies aimed at passing down inheritances. If you had some disagreement with another woman, this is the right moment to make peace between each other.

This festival takes place on the first day of the new month - Rosh Chodesh - which customary represent an opportunity for women to gather and celebrate. As it also involves Hanukka celebration, it has a double meaning.

Chag HaBanot - which given its 'feminine' significance is reshuffled recently within the reform communities - started to be celebrated since the Middle Ages and it is held in the honour of Judith/Yehudit, which is also celebrated on the occasion of Hanukka. 

Judith, the daughter of Yohanan, the high priest, seduced the very cruel Assyrian general Holofornes who sieged the city of Betul  - situated nowadays between Jerusalem and Hebron. She served him cheese and red wine and when he fell asleep, she severed his head which was displayed on the walls, discouraging the Assyrian armies who disangaged and the ciy was saved.

On Chag HaBanot one serves cheese, special round cakes - eventually baked by men, crescent-shaped cookies and date-coconut balls.

The current trends/fashions aiming at excluding women from the public Orthodox space are becoming heretic. You don't have to declare yourself modern or emancipated in order to survive, you just have to turn to the complexity of the Jewish law and read them using the knowledge not the limited outlook of a fanatic heart.