January 10th - Hanukkah

Mazel tov!  Today I am celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights that encompasses the end of the of Kislev and the beginning of Tevet, which are months in the Jewish calendar.  Hanukkah traditionally covers eight days, but as with other religious holidays, I condensed my celebration to one day.  For those that are interested, Hanukkah will be taking place from December 8^th until December 16^th this year.  So get your driedels ready!

You may know the story of Hanukkah from various pop culture references (Ross dressing up as a superhero Armadillo on Friends springs to mind).  The eight nights celebrate an event described in the Talmud, a Jewish holy book.  As legend has it, the candles at the Maccabee temple remained lit for all time.  After their enemies had been driven from the temple, the Maccabees found that only one container of olive oil, which was used to light the candles, remained.  Their enemies had profaned the rest of the oil, which meant that this one container had to last until more oil could be pressed and made ready.  Somehow (call it fate, call it luck, call it Karma), the remaining container of oil lasted for eight full days, allowing the Maccabees enough time to make more.

Hanukkah commemorates this miracle by lighting one candle on the Menorah each night.  As I’m only celebrating it tonight, let’s skip a bit and call tonight the eighth night.

Today’s celebration began after work.  I made a traditional Jewish meal of Matza Ball soup, potato latkas with apple sauce, borcht, and, to add some nutritional content, some steamed broccoli.  I also had some Manischewitz wine, which is kosher and is often used to celebrate these holidays.   

 After the meal was eaten, I blessed it with a prayer that is added to the usual after meal prayers:

"We thank You also for the miraculous deeds and for the redemption and for the mighty deeds and the saving acts wrought by You, as well as for the wars which You waged for our ancestors in ancient days at this season. In the days of the Hasmonean Mattathias, son of Johanan the high priest, and his sons, when the iniquitous Greco-Syrian kingdom rose up against Your people Israel, to make them forget Your Torah and to turn them away from the ordinances of Your will, then You in your abundant mercy rose up for them in the time of their trouble, pled their cause, executed judgment, avenged their wrong, and delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and insolent ones into the hands of those occupied with Your Torah. Both unto Yourself did you make a great and holy name in Thy world, and unto Your people did You achieve a great deliverance and redemption. Whereupon your children entered the sanctuary of Your house, cleansed Your temple, purified Your sanctuary, kindled lights in Your holy courts, and appointed these eight days of Hanukkah in order to give thanks and praises unto Your holy name."

After dinner, we played the game of Dreidel, using a piece I made out of paper, cardboard, and toothpicks, as opposed to the traditional clay…

 

The game is played in this way.  Each player starts with a certain amount of markers, which represent gelt. On each spin of the dreidel, a player puts two markers into the pot.  Each side of the dreidel corresponds with a certain move:

From left to right, Nun means nothing, Gimel means take everything in the pot, Hay means talk half of the pot, and Shin means put one in to the pot.  The winner is the one who gets all of the markers.

While this may look like it's just an early form of gambling, the letters do mean something very profound.  Outside of Israel, the letters represent the phrase "A great miracle happened there."  Inside Israel, the letters represent the phrase "A great miracle happened here."

 I needed a great miracle to happen.  I lost...badly.  But overall, I think I've won out in the end.  I've never celebrated Hanukkah, so it was very enlightening to go through this experience.  I listened to Hanukkah music (not as catchy as Phil Spector, but close), and I danced.  I drank wine and ate fried foods.  Instead of the somber expression of faith that I grew up with (Catholicism isn't know for it's "foot loose and fancy free" attitude), this holiday was a joyous time.  L'chaim!