Post-pandemic Hanukkah

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Don and Suzy Krieger, Pat Singer, with Latkehs and apples sauce inb 2018. Gordon Lustig leading blessing songs in 2018.

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HANUKKAH

From Page 16

delivered Hanukkah packages to community members, Tenenbaum said.

This year will likely be a hybrid celebration, to accommodate those who want something in person as well as those not ready for crowds, Tenenbaum said. It’s too soon to say exactly what form this second COVID Hanukkah celebration will take, he said.

“We don’t know yet what we’ll do this year,” he said.

Officials at Napa Valley’s other main Jewish organization, Beth Shalom synagogue, are hopeful something in-person can be safely pulled off, Rabbi Niles Goldstein said.

“It’s still several months off, and there are still concerns with physical proximity,” said Goldstein, who has been the shul’s clergyman for about four years. “Hopefully we will have a gathering with people lighting the menorahs and with food and fun, but we don’t know if we’ll be able to do that. We’ll have to see what things look like (later in the year).”

A typical Beth Shalom Hanukkah celebration involves a party — like those done worldwide — celebrating both a military victory of a Jewish family called the Maccabees wresting control of the Second Temple in Jerusalem from the much larger forces of the Syrian Seleucid Empire – as well as “the miracle of the oil.”

As the tale goes, when the Maccabees regained control of the

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Former Rabbi Lee Bycel greets members of Congregation Beth Shalom in Napa on the last day of Hanukkah in 2012.

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Luke Simon-Fotouhi spins his dreidel as the congregation of Temple Beth Shalom join in singing the dreidel song on the last day of Hanukkah in 2012.

Temple, they needed to rededicate it, and for this, they needed special oil. But there was just one surviving vial of this oil – enough only for one day. Somehow, though, the oil in that vial lasted the entire eight days it took to produce more holy oil and get it to the Temple.

Hence, the eight days of lighting the Hanukkiah or special eight-branched candelabra (plus one for the candle with which to light the others).

“Usually, it’s a Hanukkah party, with menorah lighting, latkes, apple sauce and a big, fun party,” Goldstein said. “Last year (because of the COVI-19 pandemic), we did it from home via Zoom. It was great to see everyone, but not nearly as celebratory as a gathering in person.”

The fact that this commemoration goes on, worldwide, for more than two millennia, no matter what else is going on in the world, is significant, he said.

“This light has never been extinguished, even in the worst times in Jewish history,” Goldstein said. And like the Jewish leaders in other strife-ridden Hanukkahs past, this generation of Jewish leaders will come up with a way to carry on, he said.

“Like everywhere, COVID has thrown a wrench into our plans, and I don’t know how we’re going to handle it. I suspect we’ll do a hybrid model,” he said. “A lot of this will depend on how the situation evolves over the next couple of months.”

Tenenbaum said some positives have resulted from the shift many religious leaders, including Jewish ones, have had to make to continue doing what religious

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David Issever lights the menorah in 2013 before a crowd in the Shops at Napa Center in obser-

vation of Hanukkah. Hanukkah, which coincided with Thanksgiving this year, was celebrated publicly in Napa with latkes and donuts and the lighting of the menorah followed by a performance by Jewish rapper Ari Lesser.

institutions do. And this is something apropos of Hanukkah.

“The idea of Hanukkah is to bring positive energy, and we need this more than ever,” he said. “Symbolized by the lighting of the menorah just as it’s getting dark, Hanukkah brings joy, light, and good spirits to humanity, publicly and at the moment of light and dusk. We bring the light in the battle against darkness. We need to shine the light on the darkness now, more than ever, and humanity can benefit from this tremendously.”

For information on Chabad of Napa Valley, or Touro, contact rabbi@tu.edu or call (707) 4925993, or (707) 363-6451.

For information about Napa’s Beth Shalom synagogue, contact office@cbsnapa.org or call 707.283.7635.