Oil is one ingredient that dominates Jewish cooking during Hannukah.
The answers lie ahead. Light in the Darkness You may not realize that the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah celebrates, among other things, freedom from religious and ideological persecution, freedom of belief, and the right to worship in a 'temple' or sacred space of one's choosing. To the Jews' dismay, they found that almost all of the oil vessels in the Temple had been polluted and that there was not even enough pure oil available to light the flame until they could secure more oil. The one acceptable vial of oil held only enough oil to burn for one day. This allowed the Jews time to prepare new supplies of holy oil to keep the 'Ner Hatamid' burning bright.