In the darkest time of the year, Jewish tradition teaches us to honor the miracle of a light in the darkness. Hanukkah, sometimes called Chag Urim, Festival of Lights, celebrates light in a few different ways.
Historically, Hanukkah celebrates the military victory of a small group of Jews, the Maccabees, over the powerful Syrian-Greek army in the second century BCE. Led by King Antiochus, the Greeks put serious restrictions on Jewish practice, trying to force Jews to assimilate into Greek religious practice. The Maccabees won the Temple back and rededicated it for Jewish ritual use In fact, the word Hanukkah means “dedication.” When we celebrate light in the historical telling of Hanukkah, we elevate the story of the Jews as underdog, of resilience, in which the light of the few outshines the shadow of the state military power
A number of centuries later, our rabbinic sages felt that celebrating this military campaign was not the spiritual narrative they wanted to uplift. This is when they crafted the mythic legend many of us are familiar with. In their version, the Jews reclaim the Temple and try to clean it up as fast as possible, so they could rededicate it and get back to regular worship. Unfortunately the menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that provided light in the Temple, could only be lit with oil that had been purified particularly for this sacred purpose. Though they only found enough oil to keep the menorah burning for one day, the oil lasted for eight days and nights which was enough time to prepare more oil. When the rabbis changed the Hanukkah narrative to focus on the oil, they rededicated the holiday to the miraculous the resiliency of a little bit of oil, the inspiration of a small light in overwhelmingly dark times.
On a practical level, it is no coincidence that our festival of lights comes during the coldest, darkest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. It's the time when all of us need a little extra warmth Around the time Hanukkah came into the world, nearby pagans were celebrating Saturnalia and early Christians were exploring Christmas. Though each holiday celebrates something different, our cultures are all intertwined, all yearning for that extra warmth. As you celebrate this season, we hope you are able to invite in more light and warmth around your table!
Light
Lighting Shabbat candles symbolizes the last act of the work week. Therefore, we light the Hanukkah candles first, then the Shabbat candles.
The blessings for Hanukkah connect us to the Hanukkah story, while the Shabbat blessing connects us to passages in the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, that remind us to keep and remember Shabbat.
When lighting the Hanukkah candles many people place them in the hanukkiyah (the ritual nine-branched candelabra used for Hanukkah) from right to left, but we light the candles from left to right. You will often see Ashkenazi Jews light the shamash (the helper candle) first and then use it to light the other candles, whereas you might see Sephardi Jews use a match or a separate candle to light the candles on the hanukkiyah and then light the shamash candle last.
There’s a debate between two ancient rabbis named Hillel and Shammai about the proper way to light the Hanukkah candles Hillel insisted on one candle on the first night, adding an additional candle each subsequent night. Shammai took the opposite approach with a full hanukkiyah on the first night with one fewer candle each subsequent night. Though you'll most commonly see Hillel's approach, increasing the light as the holiday continues, we invite you to light your candles in whichever way brings you joy and meaning.
Blessed is the One who inspires the universe, sustains us, raises us up, and enables us to reach this season
Hanukkah Readings
Want to add a little more to your candle lighting each night?
NIGHT 1
NIGHT 2
“There is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.”
― Amanda Gorman
“If we slow down for a moment and light the candles together, we can see in each other the very same holy presence that lives inside the flame.”
Rabbi Noah Farkas
NIGHT 3
NIGHT 4
NIGHT 5
“Just as one candle ignites another, may we ignite each other’s spirits”
― Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
“This is the season when people of all faiths and cultures are pushing back against the planetary darkness. We string bulbs, ignite bonfires, and light candles. And we sing.”
Anita Diamant
“Light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness, when it’s done right, is a kind of holiness, palpable and redemptive.”
― Mary Oliver
NIGHT 6
NIGHT 7
NIGHT 8
“Hanukkah is about… lighting our candle, while not being threatened by or threatening anyone else’s candle.”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
“Theres a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
Leonard Cohen
“A person needs to ignite their own candle and make of it a great torch to enlighten the whole world.”
Blessed is the One who makes us holy through commandments and commands us to kindle the light of Shabbat.
HANUKKAH READING, PART I: HELLO DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND
The rabbis taught that when the first people, Adam and Eve, were created on the sixth day of creation, they watched the sun set in horror. Up until that moment the only thing they had ever experienced was daylight. As the sky got darker and darker, they were stricken with fear, crying out, “I have done wrong! My sins have set the world out of balance, and the whole earth will be consumed with chaos and darkness!”
From here, the details of the story are murky–in fact, there are two different versions! In one version, they stay up all night, fasting and crying, until the sun rises and they realize with relief that just as light is part of the natural order of things, so is darkness. In the other version, the Divine answers their distress, providing flint for them to light a fire. Adam and Eve kindled a flame the whole night, dissipating both the darkness and their own fear.
We hold onto both versions of the story One reminds us that the dark is just as natural as the light, their dual presence keeping us balanced. The second reminds us that we have the tools and the ability to face the dark, even when we doubt ourselves.
Which version of the story resonates more with you at this moment?
A Blessing For Each Other
In Jewish tradition, celebrations often begin with blessing those present, a reminder that while the festive season holds space for us to feel blessed, we are also empowered to bless others. We invite you to turn to another guest and offer one of the blessings below, or whatever good wishes are in your heart.
May you be blessed and guarded May you know favor and grace May you give and receive kindness and peace
A PRACTICE IN IMPROVISATIONAL BLESSING
Breathe in. Breathe out. Identify someone at your Shabbat table you’d like to bless. Maybe it is the person next to you, or the person across from you. Decide what you’d like to bless them with. Some ideas include light, courage, health, and peace–but feel free to get creative. Say aloud:
[Name of Person] I bless you with May you be blessed May we be blessed And may others be blessed through your blessing. Together we say Amen.
Continue with each guest until everyone at your table has blessed someone else.
Wine
Kiddush allows us to sanctify time. We bless wine, we bless Shabbat, and we remember: we are partners with God in the ongoing process of creation and re-creation, building a better world week after week, year after year.
Blessed is the One who creates the fruit of the vine. Blessed is the One who sanctifies Shabbat.
HANUKKAH READING PART 2: L’CHAIM TO HANUKKAH!
Jews celebrate Hanukkah differently across the world. While you still have your kiddush glass in hand, consider this French tradition. Jews from Avignon, a region renowned for their wine, select an unopened cask or bottle of local wine to greet the holiday. They wait until it gets dark on the Saturday evening of Hanukkah and open it for their household They then travel around the neighborhood, sampling each family’s new vintage, and they toast to each other’s health and the miracle of Hanukkah
If you’d like to try this tradition, crack open a special beverage and toast to your friends seated around the table. Consider inviting each person to bring a special beverage they want to share with the table.
Bread
Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam ha’motzi lechem min ha’aretz.
Blessed is the One who brings forth bread from the earth.
HANUKKAH READING, PART III: THE HEROINE OF HANUKKAH
During Hanukkah, Medieval Jews would celebrate the story of Judith. Similar to the story of the Macabees, Judith's story can be found in a collection of Jewish works that didn't make it into the Bible, called the apocrypha. Judith’s story takes place during the second century BCE, a few hundred years before Judah Maccabee hits the scene.
A widow of three years, Judith had been in deep mourning when a cruel enemy general laid siege to the town. Though the Judeans fought back, the army was too strong. The city's elders had all but waved the white flag of surrender when Judith admonished them, charging them to take responsibility for their famine-stricken community. The elders decide to sit around and mourn for a few more days while Judith did the real work of saving her people. Accompanied only by her maid, she set out for the enemy camp. Smitten with her beauty, the opposing general invited her to a banquet. Judith fed him so much wine and cheese that he fell into a drunk stupor. After praying for help, Judith took his sword and decapitated him With the general down, she urged the Israelites to prepare a surprise attack and they emerged victorious The story ends with Judith leading the town’s women in song and dance with a three month celebration for Judith's acts of heroism
How do we honor Judith's bravery and general badassery? Since the Middle Ages, Jews have eaten cheese pancakes to honor the cheese she fed to the general These cheese pancakes actually predate potato latkes by hundreds of years Though the tradition to eat cheese for Hanukkah died out in many communities, there are some who have kept the tradition alive For instance, Roman Jews still eat ricotta pancakes in honor of Judith. Many people who didn’t grow up with this tradition have started to embrace it by eating copious amounts of cheese (please remember to take your Lactaid). We recommend getting out your cheeseboards, blintzes, fried haloumi, baked brie, cheese latkes or any other treat filled with cheesy goodness it’s what Judith would do!
Why Fried Food?
Jews from backgrounds around the world all have a tradition of eating fried foods on Hanukkah, the oil serving as a symbolic reminder of the oil that miraculously burned in the rededicated Temple for eight days.
In North America, where Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern European) Jewish culture has been dominant, that means latkes fried potato pancakes. The word latke is Yiddish and comes from the Russian work oladke, meaning “small pancake ”
But in Israel and other places where there are larger Mizrahi (North African and Middle Eastern) and Sephardi (Spanish) Jewish populations, the sufganiya rules.
Sufganiya (plural: sufganiyot) comes from the word for “sponge,” sfog in Hebrew and sfanj in Arabic. The classic treat was spongy dough deep fried and coated in sugar. The addition of jelly represents a beautiful merging of Jewish cultures during the waves of Jewish migration to Israel, the Hanukkah treat made popular by Jews in Spain, North Africa, and Arab countries met with the central European culinary tradition of jelly-filled cakes, and the sufganiya as we know it was born
In Israel, the largest chain bakery (Angel) fries up to a quarter million sufganiyot er 18 million sufganiyot are ing the holiday season.
Gratitude
AT THE END OF THE MEAL
V’achalta v’savata u’varachta.
When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless Deuteronomy 8:10
It’s a remarkable thing that Jewish tradition seeks to inspire us to be present before we eat, and all the more so that we are then directed to acknowledge our gratitude after we eat, not for the food itself, but for the incredible feeling of being full
At this time of year, perhaps more than any other, the notion of being sated is powerful. What does it mean to truly be fulfilled? In Hebrew, the root of the word for fulfillment to be whole, to be complete is shalom, the same as the word for peace
May we find peace, a whole and complete peace. May we be fulfilled, not only by our food, but by our family and friends, by our actions and our words.
Brich rachamana malka d’alma marei d’hai pita.
We are blessed with compassion by the One who sustains us with bread.
GRAB A DREIDEL AND PLACE YOUR BETS!
You’ll notice that each of the four sides of the dreidel have inscribed upon it different letters from the Hebrew alphabet nun (נ), gimmel (ג), hey (ה), and shin (ש). These four letters are an acronym for nes gadol hayah sham, “ a great miracle happened there,” the miracle of Hanukkah.
But why do we play dreidel anyway? During the time of the Maccabees, Jews were forbidden from studying Torah. Legend has it that they crafted a clever plan so they could still practice Judaism in secret. Whenever they saw a Greek official approach, Jews studying the Torah would quickly hide their books and take out spinning tops as a cover.
Nowadays, Jewish people play dreidel as a way to remember the story of Hanukkah and more importantly, a way to increase our joy during this dark time So grab a dreidel and some gelt and let's get spinning!
Can't get enough Hanukkah? Taylor Swift might leave the Christmas lights up until January but Tunisian Jews leave their hanukkiyot out until Purim! And some Jews from Morocco have the tradition of adding a ninth night, where then the community uses leftover wicks to create a large bonfire. Hanukkah is such a celebration, sometimes the joy can’t be contained to just eight days
Whether you’re celebrating your first Hanukkah, or you’re an old pro, we hope that this Hanukkah brings you light, resilience, and a taste of the miraculous.
