Hi everyone and welcome again to the Light Lab Podcast! So great to be here with my dear friends Cantor Ellen Dreskin,
Hello everybody!
And Rabbi Josh Warshawsky!
Hello! Good to be back!
And I am Eliana Light and today we are talking about Hanukkah because hopefully, if the podcast magic works then yo, dear listener, could be listening to this on Hanukkah. So I want to ask our distinguished panel today. What are some favorite Hanukkah traditions or memories that you have? Ellen, why don't we start with you?
Well, I'd love to talk about a tradition that Billy and I started with our kids. And that was all throughout the year, we have a pushka collection. And each Shabbat and holidays, we're putting money in the pushka. We do that for the entire year. And then during Hanukkah, we take one night of Hanukkah and to emphasize the giving of gifts instead of the receiving, we spend the evening counting all our change in pushka goes for the entire year. And then we take it and that evening we go shopping, whether it's Toys for Tots, or books for kids or food for the food pantries in the middle of winter. And it really became a very fun special night of Hanukkah to spend it that way and hopefully to give our kids a lesson that they will then pass on to future generations.
Wow. I love that also having a time set aside to count the money in the ttzedakah box that we set aside for charity because so often it just piles up and piles up and then like what do we do with it? So that's really really beautiful. Did you want to say something about the Hanukkah elf?
A very odd Hanukkah tradition from when I was growing up in Houston, Texas, where we were definitely in the minority in our school district in our neighborhood, etc. Magically before right before the first night of Hanukkah, the Hanukkah elf would appear in our house. Now the Hanukkah elf was about two feet tall, had a wreath of holly around his head and a big red jacket with a black belt and the buckle and a big red Christmas ornament for a nose and he has a statue and he would just like be outside the back door the morning before the first night of Hanukkah. He would sit on a special place in our living room bureau for the eight nights of Hanukkah and then he would magically disappear. And I think this was my parents nod to you can have something that looks like Christmas in your house during Hanukkah I guess to make us feel more like part of the larger community and our household was a Jewish household and yet living in that time and partially living in Texas, I guess, there was still that nod to to this winter holiday celebration that wasn't quite Christmas was definitely was not Christmas, but brought up just a little bit of Christmas into Hanukkah. But when I was 11 years old, and my grandmother told me that it was my parents who put the Hanukkah elf there and made the Hanukkah elf disappear. Now I get it. I was 11 years old. But I still did not want to hear that it wasn't the magic of Hanukkah making this. This Seagull family miracle happened each year.
Wow, Ellen, I love that story so much. And it reminds me, you know, I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and it was the same kind of thing. I remember at my dance studio, we would listen to Christmas records. And Miss Dottie really wanted to make sure that there was a Jewish record for the Jewish girls. And so we listened to Herman the Chanukah candle had a very shiny light over and over and over again. Of course, I knew that there was good Jewish Hanukkah music and it like made me squirm and I got upset and she's like, No, I'm doing this for you a little Jewish girl. But yeah, yeah. Lots of bittersweet memories.
I never heard of that song before. Now I'm gonna have to go find it.
Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know? I really am. None of that. It's all good. Josh, what do you have for us?
That's so funny. I love that too. Well, speaking of music, you know, I always loved we didn't live so close to our family. But most of the time we try very hard to have at least one night of Hanukkah celebration with with family and a family Hanukkah party and my great uncle's. One of them played guitar and he would always pull out his guitar and play all like the old Hanukkah classics. And I would remember we'd like all the cousins would just all gather around and we'd sit at his feet and he would sing them all together. And it was really nice to get to be together and get to be singing. And so I always love that and then I've been lucky enough to spend two Hanukkahs in Israel, where the sufganiyot are just so much better than they are here in America. And there's just like every single possible flavor and like insertion of jelly and different different decorations. And so I always, I always think about those glorious doughnuts.
And the little jelly tubes?
The jelly right where you because you don't want it to get too moist on the inside before you eat it. So you can squeeze the jelly in right before you eat it. It's brilliant. It's brilliant.
It's very, very smart. I love Hanukkah. I think part of why I love Hanukkah growing up is we we really went all out because it's the Festival of Lights. And that's my name. So it was the festival of us and we had so many Hanukkah decorations. Every year, my mom would buy more tchotchkes now I've tried to define tchotchkes. I'm not really sure how to do. It's like stuff you don't actually need, but it's like fun to have around, I guess I would say. We have especially Disney Hanukkah memorabilia. Um, it just brought up so many warm feelings. Personally, I think because you know, my father was a rabbi and my mom worked in the Jewish school and Hanukkah was a holiday we got to celebrate at home. Like maybe there was one time we did something as a community, but it really was a home holiday. And there's a mitzvah that you shouldn't work by the light of the Hanukkah candles, which meant that while the Hanukkah candles were burning, no work, no homework, no, nothing. Really had to be together. We played dreidels, we did puzzles, we read books, it was really a beautiful Hanukkah time and so much magic can happen around the Hanukkah candles. This is really our central ritual of Hanukkah is lighting the menorah or the hanukkiah every night for the eight nights of Hanukkah. And like many rituals, we do it a lot. And we don't often stop and think about why though there are these reasons for us lighting the Hanukkah candles. Let's dig into them a little bit. Ellen, why don't you get us started?
Well, I love that you just mentioned the hanukkiah slash menorah. Because that's something that many people can understand or might not yet understand that menorah and hanukiah are not the same thing. And hannukiah is a type of menorah. So many times on the bima of our synagogues, we would see a menorah. That's going to be a seven branched candelabra, right. We know it's a hanukiah, specifically for Hanukkah, when we see eight branches, and the ninth of course for for the shamash to light the others. And we got to ask this question, well, what is it about the eight days? And I recently learned that our holiday comes from the Books of the Maccabees, which not only the Book of Maccabees, it's not in the Tanakh it was it didn't make the cut into the Tanakh. But the Books of the Maccabees the Second Book of Maccabees, tells the Jews in the diaspora already that they're going to celebrate Hanukkah for eight days or eight nights in order to commemorate the holiday of Sukkot, which they didn't get to celebrate that year because the temple was occupied, or the temple was in ruins and needed to be rededicated. And HeChag, the holiday. And so the minute that we rededicated the temple in Jerusalem, the first thing we needed to do was commemorate the Sukkot that we had missed. And and that's one of our reasons or that's the Maccabee Book's reason for the eight nights. Right there - we're back in the time of like 168 BCE, the the Greeks have taken over the land of Judea, and then the Maccabees came forward against Hellenistic Judaism against secularization against assimilation, and rekindled literally not only the Ner Tamid in the temple, but the Jewish spirit in our hearts. So the story goes.
That's beautiful. Light is so potent because it's real. And it's also a really great metaphor. They rekindle the Eternal Light, how does an Eternal Light go out? Well, it had, and we rekindled it and then also rekindling this flame. That's a story, besides the sukkot part, the story of the Maccabees and the Greeks is one that is pretty well taught I'd say in Jewish education, though I didn't know about the Sukkot thing until I was much older. And I absolutely love it Sukkot's my other favorite holiday. And I think during during these times of COVID, at least last year, this was coming up a lot in the sense of, Well, if we can't celebrate Sukkot, now we can celebrate it later. If we can't do these things as a community, we can find other times to do it. Beautiful. The other part of the story that a lot of us learn is - Josh, let you take it from here.
Yes, well, I mean, Sukkot is also one of my favorite holidays, and so getting to be able to celebrate Sukkot at any time and again is always a really nice thing. And I you know, I think the other miracle that we talk about a lot is the miracle of the oil, which actually doesn't appear in the Book of Maccabees, but it's one that the rabbi's really harp on in the Talmud, there's lots and lots of pages that are dedicated to how we're supposed to light it what we're supposed to do, we'll talk about that in a few minutes. But it's all about again, rekindling that flame. We had this Ner Tamid, the Eternal Light that Eliana just mentioned, and it was lit in the Temple all the time, it was always supposed to be lit. And there was this time when we weren't able to light it and a lot of the things in the temple got destroyed. And when they finally came in to relight the light, it had to be lit, we learned in the Torah often about what the Ner Tamid is supposed to look like what kind of oil we're supposed to use, it has to be very pure. And there wasn't any pure oil, there's only enough that was supposed to last for one day and the, the miracle happened, and it lasted for eight days. And so now we get to celebrate and enjoy that. And that's the miracle. That's the the acts that we do on Hanukkah, right? We think about all the things that happen with the Maccabees, but what we do is we light the candles, it's this tangible experience, it's this thing that we can continue to do. And a lot of the rituals that originally happened in the Temple, once the Temple was destroyed, we brought those rituals back home, like putting salt on our challah and bless it on the table, the table being like our, our altar in our homes. So too, we light the Ner Tamid. We like the Eternal Flame in our homes, and publicize it out from our windows to share with the world.
That's so so beautiful. One of the things I love about being Jewish and Jewish ritual is that we have these holidays, we have these practices. And there are lots of different reasons for almost everything we do. Most of the things that we do as Jews have more than one traditional reason for doing them, at least from what I can think of. And that means that we get to come up with our own reasons. And it means that we can be inspired by our ancestors to figure out what is my kavanah? What is my intention for doing this ritual today. And for a lot of our holidays, we have the historical narrative, we have the spiritual narrative, and we have the naturalistic narrative. With a lot of the other holidays it has to do with farming and agriculture. But for Hanukkah, I think the simplest answer and maybe my favorite for why we like candles on Hanukkah, is that it's dark, and it's cold. So we gather together, and we like light. Right? It seems obvious, but there's a reason that so many different cultures have a festival of lights. We are not unique in that, going all the way back to the winter solstice, and gathering together and lighting fires during the winter solstice. Christmas is a festival of lights. Kwanzaa is a festival of lights. Diwali is a festival of lights. Lunar New Year is a festival of lights, right? All of these things. If you look up Festival of Lights on Wikipedia, you'll see a very long list of other holidays, not just Hanukkah, there is something so pure and simple and beautiful about that straightforward answer. Why do we get together with our friends and family and light candles? Because it is dark, and we want to bring more light into our lives. But just like with so many other things that we do as Jews, we ritualize it, we formalize it, and we put a blessing in front of it. And there are a couple of candle lighting blessings. And then there are songs that we sing after. So now we're going to explore them. And of course, if you go to the show notes, you can follow along. Again, there are these words that we always say and when we're in the middle singing, ba da dah dah. This is the tune a lot of people use, right, we're not necessarily thinking about what we're saying. I think first and foremost, a blessing is a chance to stop and pause. When I was a kid I used to think of blessings kind of like magic words. Like in order for the ritual to quote unquote, work, you had to say a series of words. And that kind of imbued it with magic. But now I think that the words are more of an opportunity for us to slow down. And notice what we're actually doing. It's very easy to do things without noticing. I think that's like a theme that's coming up over and over again for us. And our liturgy, including these blessings, encourages us to slow down and notice. So I'm going to read the traditional version of the first blessing. And I'll say Adonai, even though it is yud hay vav hay, which as we have talked about in earlier episodes of this podcast does not equate to Adonai meaning My Lord, yud hay vav hey if we want to translate it has something to do with present tense being that connects to being present, right? But most people are gonna say Adonai. So for now, we're going to go with Adonai. Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech HaOlam asher kidshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu lahadleek ner shell Hanukkah. And I would translate that as: We experience your blessing Holy One of all time and space through this opportunity for holiness through mitzvot, which you have given us lighting the Hanukkah candles. The second blessing that we say goes like this: Baruch atta Adonai Eloheinu Melech HaOlam, sheasa neeseem la'avoteinu byamim hahem bazman haze. We experienced your blessing Holy One of all time and space source of miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time. We're going to talk more about that in a second and then on the first night of Hanukkah, we say the shehechiyanu. Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech HaOlam, shehecheyanu, vekeeyenamu, veheegiyanu lazman haze. Which I translate as: We experienced your blessing, Holy One of all time and space through being present in the sacred time, the blessing we say for new things, which is why we only say it on the first night of Hanukkah. We then light the candles. How do we light the candles? Ellen, what's up with that?
Well, you know, there's always more than one answer to any question that has to do with Judaism. And this one goes all the way back 2000 years, how do we light the candles? Well, maybe we thought we knew you know, it's easy. We light one candle on the first night, two candles the second night. But if you go back 2000 years to the Talmud, you see there's a discussion between two very famous rabbis Hillel and Shamai. Shamai actually says on the first night of Hanukkah, we use the shamash, the helper candle, to light eight candles the first night, seven the second night 654, all the way down to on the last night of Hanukkah, only one candle. And Hillel has the opposite opinion. What do you mean, on the first night we like one on the second night we like two etc, etc? And the Talmud because it always wants to give merit also, to the minority opinion, lists the opinions of both Hillel and Shamai. And why would Shamai say eight on the first night and then decrease? And Shamai says, Well, that's because you you're lighting according to how many days are left, I'm looking into the future. On the first day, there's eight days remaining on the second day only seven days remaining. And Beit Hillel is exactly the opposite the outgoing days, the number of lights is the number of day. Now, it's funny, because I mentioned Sukkot before and Shamai's opinion is that the lights have to do with the bowls that were sacrificed during Sukkot. So Shamai had this, this line from Sukkot to Hanukkah still going on there. And Hillel's opinion is that there's a principle. That in sacred matters such as sacred ritual, you elevate yourself, and you elevate the light as it were. So each night it is upon us to increase the amount of light that we're bringing into the world with the passing of each day. And of course, we know from what we do today, customarily that it was Hillel's opinion, that became the popular one. Although I do know at least one or two households in my time where one hanukkiah they light starting with eight the first night and decrease and simultaneously the other chanukiyah in their house. They're starting with one and increasing. So we give merit to all of our scholars.
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I only think I have 1 chanukiyah out but I would be interested in doing it both the Hillel and Shammai way. Not only are there so many reasons for the rituals that we do, but our ancestors also did not agree on how to do this. And they had so many incredible discussions trying to figure out what would be the most meaningful, what connects us the most to the holiday. And we are the recipients of that we also get to look back on their struggles, their ideas, their arguments for the sake of heaven and find meaning in that ourselves. I love that.
I love the way that you said that Eliana I think that that that finding significance. And that's the second time you mentioned it a little bit earlier. Also the idea of being able to find significance for ourselves. We have this example of how to do that based on all the arguments that are happening in the Talmud. They have all these different opinions. And they didn't just give us the answer. They gave us everybody's answers. And sometimes they tell us what the predominant custom was, but they give us all the options because it's important to realize that there are lots of options just like there's lots of options today, all the options that we have now are not new. And the fact that we have options is a great thing. So we light all these but we let all these candles, we like them in whichever tradition you follow, and we add our own and attribute our own significance to them. And we conclude with these two songs that are the traditional songs. There's a whole bunch of songs that lots people add also, but the two main ones that we add right after we light, are Maoz Tzur and Haneirot Hallalu. And we're going to get in a little bit more and deeper into what these songs are actually about. But I think the idea of why we sing these particular ones is that we wanted to have one song that's about the holiday itself what's actually happening in the holiday why we're celebrating, that's Maoz Tzur, that goes through all these different trials and tribulations that we've had, and we've won we've overcome them, and so we sing this on Hanukkah. The other one is about the acts that we just partook in, we light the candles. And so we say, Look, we just lit the candles. Here's what we do with them. We're going to enjoy them. We're going to celebrate with them. Here are some of the things that go along with how we're supposed to engage in that particular act.
And with that, we'll be right back.
As we like to do, let's dive a little bit deeper into the liturgy. I'm going to start with these opening blessings because that second blessing that bayamim hahem bazman haze, that's always intrigued me. And that phrase bayamim hahem bazman haze is also from the al hanism insert. Al hanism is the piece that is inserted on Purim and Chanukah interestingly enough into the liturgy during the Amidah. And during birkat hamazon, the grace after meals. And so that phrase comes up a lot bayamim hahem bazman haze, which is traditionally translated as in those days at this time, but I have seen and of course off the top of my head I can't remember where but dear your listeners you can tell me if you've seen it, I have seen some places where it doesn't say bayamim hahem bazman haze, it says bayamim hahem u'bazman hazeh. And that, to me makes all the differences in the world, right? Who did miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time, means the miracles happened a long time ago. And we remember them because it's winter. But if you say, in those days, and at this time, it means that there is still miracles that are happening today. And that gets me at least to think of, well, what is a miracle? I do a program for middle schoolers and high schoolers where we look at this, and we play a game called Miracle or Not. And I'll start with the holidays like the splitting of the red sea, miracle or not? The oil out lasting eight days, miracle or not? A small band of fighters overcoming a huge army, miracle or not? And it starts to get them to think of well, what is actually a miracle? A miracle is something that happens that you don't expect, that elicits a (gasp) sort of response, a wow response, and maybe there's some sort of pyrotechnics involved. It's kind of big. At least that's how we used to think of it. But do we see miracles today in our lives, then? How can we look at everything like a miracle? You know, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel likes to talk about radical amazement. How can we see our life and not take anything for granted? See that everything is incredible and wonderful. Is that close to being a miracle? You know, we keep coming back to it in the Reform Siddur, it's called Birkot HaShachar the daily blessings, nisim bechol yom the miracles every day. And this gives us a choice - it can be bazman hazeh, or it can be u'vazman hazeh, that magic ooh, reminding us that there is the potential for miracles in our own time. Maybe me breathing is a miracle. Maybe the sunset is a miracle. It depends on what I'm expecting, what I want to happen, and maybe I get to choose, as that quote that I think is missattiributed? Missattributed often to Albert Einstein, I don't know who actually said it, right, "There are two ways to look at the world. One is if nothing is a miracle. One is if everything is." And we get to choose which one.
And even as as as Hanukkah comes around each year, I think that people ask the question, well, what is the miracle that we're celebrating? Is it the spiritual one? Is it the legendary one of the oil? Is it the military one? And perhaps a combination of all three. Going back just for a second to the on the al hanisim that you mentioned, thanking G!D for the miracles that that were performed. One of the miracles mentions says the ve'al hamilchamot sheasita la'avoteinu, and thanks for all the wars that you made on our behalf. And in contemporary times and in some sidurim, I certainly see the word milchama, war, being changed to nechamcha to comforting moments. Ve'al hanechamot, she'asita la'avoteinu, to all those moments of comfort that you brought to us because some people are not about celebrating a military victory. That that's not the part that that's not the miracle they want to emphasize.
Yeah, it's not the miracle we want to emphasize often but it is something that we sing about in Maoz Tzur. So Ellen, I'm going to force that segue to get you to share a little bit about Maoz Tzur with us.
Maoz Tzur is I grew up not even knowing what Maoz Tzur was. But each Hanukkah we sang the hymn Rock of Ages. And I knew when I was a kid, three verses of Rock of Ages, all in English, I didn't know any of the Hebrew words. So I went looking for what's the source of this song that we sing every year? And I found out that my Maoz Tzur, the piyut, the poem, is actually from at least the 13th century, maybe even earlier the 12th century. We don't exactly know who wrote it. However, we know that that person's first name was Mordechai, and that's because they're in the first five verses, aha, now we find out they're actually six verses to Maoz Tzur, the first five verses the first letters of each verse, an acronym that say Mordechai. So we know that the lyricist's, the piton's name was Mordechai, and that's pretty much about all we know. The melody that many of us Ashkenazi Jews sing anyway, da-da-da-da-da-da-da that comes along a little later. It's a German melody, but still old by the 15th century, that melody is in use. So we have six verses why six verses? And is it really a Hanukkah song? Turns out that the first five, or four of the five or six verses have to do with different times that the Israelites or the Jews were oppressed by other nations, and were redeemed by G!D. There's a verse that has to do with Egypt, the next verse is about Babylon, the one after that about Haman about Haman, who was an Aggedite, and finally the Greeks, the Hasmoneans. There's really only one verse, that last verse that has to do with Hanukkah. So then I went looking well, what about the English words that I know of Rock of Ages led our song praise thy saving power? So this German melody, but where did the English words come from? And then I found my fun fact of the day, many of us might be familiar that there's a very famous dictionary of Talmudic language, and it is called by one of the editors, the main editor of this Talmudic dictionary. It was a guy named Marcus Jastrow, and it's called the Jastrow dictionary. Why do I bring that up here? Because I found out that in the 19th century, Marcus Jastrow was the one who wrote those English words to the Rock of Ages hymn that I've been singing all my life. So really, it's a much longer song. It's not specifically a Hanukkah song, but we have shaped it and edited it a little bit to make it our Hanukkah hymn.
Wow, thank you so much. We're going to include a link to all of the verses of Maoz Tzur for you to read. I remember when I learned about this for the first time, I think at the Conservative Yeshiva when I was there after high school, I didn't know all of the different verses. And also how it brings up a lot of interesting theological questions because it was written at a time where the Jews of Europe were being persecuted by the Christians the time of the crusades, and a lot of really terrible things. Last verse says, Alright, G!D, we're being persecuted now. Like, remember all those times that You saved us from all of the verses that we just saying, like we're being persecuted now? How about you come bring that help that you brought in all those other times. And it's heartbreaking. And it's also like the pattern that we see. And as much as we can talk about miracles, that now we have a different definition of miracle, it would also be nice for the same kind of miracle that we had at Passover. And we had that at Purim. We had at Hannukah to happen for all of these calamities in our life. So it doesn't give us a lot of easy answers. But it does leave us with some with some really big questions.
The only other thing that I would add, is it the language at the direct translation of the Hebrew is is quite harsh. It likens our enemies to barking dogs and and asks G!D to wreak vengeance upon these wicked nations. It's it's not sparing it's not nice, it's not fun and calm and light filled necessarily. So and for those times, we were in dire straits, and we really needed help. I'm glad you brought that up.
So the other song that we sing at the end of at the end of lighting the candles, we move from Maoz Tzur from this military song to Haneirot Hallelu like I mentioned, which is a song about the acts that we just committed the act that we just did. And I did not grow up singing this particular this particular song I grew up singing the first verse of Maoz Tzur, and I learned about this one later. And then I went to Israel, like I mentioned for a variety of Chanukahs and everyone there thinks this one for sure. And so I that's where I sort of learned a lot of the word. But the words are actually really beautiful. It's it's law, and sometimes you find law to not be beautiful, and I looked at it and really thought wow, there's something really powerful about what we're being told here. Haneirot hallalu anu madlikim, these lights that we're kindling right now. Al hanisim ve'al niflaot, just like Eliana and Ellen mentioned, here's the al hanisim, and it says like Ellen said, al hateshuot ve'al hamilchamot, and on the military victories, and on salvations it that's in the Ashkenazi tradition, and in the Sefardi tradition, it actually changes it to nechamot, like Ellen mentioned, the Sephardi version is the one that says, and on the comforts. Oftentimes, I think that the Sephardi tradition has a much more poignant choice for their wording. In the Havdalah blessing also blessings for light at the end of at the end of Shabbat, instead of using the word Yeshua over and over again, La'Adonai HaYeshua the word salvation, the word that's repeated over and over in the Sephardi version of Havdallah is Hatzlacha, which is success, which makes me feel like we have a little bit more of our own agency in what's happening in our in our lives. Rather than just praying for salvation, we're asking for continued success and how can we be a partner in our own in our own successful journey. But that's that's havdallah will for another time. But continuing on with the prayer, sheasita lavoteinu, on those mitzvot, on those amazing amazing things that happened for us way back then at this time, there's not that ooh here, but I wish that there was an ooh here, or actually maybe we should just be adding that Ooh, Oohvayamim hahem here. Oh, sorry oovazman hazeh. And then we get the actual specific laws. Bechol shmonat yemei hachanukah, on all these eight days, haneirot hallalu kodesh hem, these lights are holy. What does that mean? Ve'ain lanu reshut lehishtamesh bahem ella lirotam bilvad. We don't have permission to use them, only to look at them. I love that idea that we're not supposed to do anything else except to sit and enjoy them. Right? Usually, you do an act because you need it right? We use it to read by we use it to cook by, here we're only allowed to enjoy them. And we're not often commanded to just sit and experience something to just sit and be. And so what does this blessing tell us? What does this song tell us? It says what we're supposed to do right now is just bask in the glow of the candles and be together. Just sit around and enjoy for just a minute. We don't often get told to pause and just be. So I love that idea. cedei lihiyot u’lehalel leshimcha hagadol, in order to celebrate and praise G!D's name, al nisecha ve’al niflotecha ve’al yeshuatecha. for all the miracles and salvations for all the wondrous deeds that are done every single day. So that's why we say this, this particular prayer.
One of the reasons that I love what you're talking about Josh is also the idea that, you know, so now there's a military victory and that miracle and there's the oil story and that miracle, and then some say that the reason we're not allowed to use the light but just to be with it is because the real miracle and this goes back to nisim bechol yom, perhaps, everyday miracles, the real miracle is that there is light at all, and that we had the ability to kindle it. And that in itself is a miracle that we should just be with an absorb because that's the one that we miss every all the rest of the year is that there is light at all. So miracle number three or four or five or eight for Hanukkah, right there.
Or miracle number a million. I love that so much. And we're going to explore a little bit more about haneirot halllalu in a bit so stick around! We'll be right back!
Welcome back, everyone. Now the blessings before lighting the candles, the candle blessings, have that melody that a lot of us know Baruch Ata Adonai Eloheinu melech HaOlam I'm not really sure where it's from. I'm not really sure where it's from, but maybe someone can tell us where this tune is from. We've also in this room, haven't heard other melodies for that candling blessing. But if you have other melodies, please share them with us post about it on our Instagram page. We want to know! There's so much diversity in all of our tradition and we want to explore it. But we're going to be focusing on songs that we sing after lighting the candles. Ellen, can you tell us about a couple of your favorites?
Well, sure we haven't really mentioned the dreidel experience yet or the games been specific about the games that we sometimes play after we light candles, but there's an acronym for the four letters on the ffour different sides of the dreiedel, for nes gadol hayah sham, a great miracle happened there. Of course in Israel it's nes gadol hayah poh, that last word is different because of the miracle didn't happen there in Israel, the miracle happened here. I love the Debbie Friedman melody for just these four words nes gadol haya sham, it's actually a five part choral piece and we all hear the the harmonies that go to the wordsnes gadol haya sham. What I love about it is that Debbie also added the words in the background to Mi chamocha baelim B'Adonai, Who is like You Adonai? Why did she add these words to ness gadol haya sham? Because I, love the fact that she highlights, that mi chamocha baelim Adonai, you take the first letter of those four words and what does it spell? Maccabee. Maccabee. So mi chamocha also becomes a Hanukkah prayer, a Hanukkah song as well. And Debbie combines them. Debbie Friedman made an entire album her album called Not by might not by power, is a Shabbat Hanukkah service. So she has new versions of mi yemalel, she has a contemporary version she wrote of maoz tzur, and that whole song Not by might not buy power as well is from the Haftarah for Shabbat Hanukkah, and so it's really, I highly recommend everyone listening to the entire album, particularly we've been talking a lot about maoz tzur. It's a setting of maoz tzur that will be like nothing you've ever heard before.
Wow, Ellen, thank you so much for bringing us all of these snappy melodies we were talking before about how they're all snappy and snazzy, high energy. Really, really great. I'm going to take it in a bit of a different direction. When I was growing up, we would sing Haneirot Hallelu and we would use the melody by Cantor Baruch Cohon. I'm going to pronounce his name incorrectly I've asked my mom is it Cohen? Is it Cohon? Is it Cone? I think it's Cohon? And my mom was always so proud because that was her childhood Cantor in LA who wrote this melody and who also wrote the musical Howdy Miss Rosen which my mom starred in when she was in high school and still rememers most of the words and will sing them to you if you ask her now. I remember most of the words too. Anyway, Howdy Miss Rosen, great if any of my listeners know where you can let us know any of our listeners. But he has a great melody for Haneirot Hallelu because there's a part we all sing and it goes yaba bim bom bim bom bim bom, bim, bom, bim, bom, bim, bom, bim, bom And then over that is the Hebrew. And then another beautiful, a beautiful English interpretive translation. And we'll put a link to that in the show notes so that you can listen to it and learn it, maybe even sing it with your families, very popular for children's choirs that one. Another one that I know because of a choral arrangement is one of the only Maoz Tzurs that I knew. And I always wondered where did it come from? I did some research. It is an old Ashkenazi Italian melody that was transcribed set down in music in 1724 by the Italian composer, Benedetto Marcello, who according to this website that we;ll link in the show notes was a younger contemporary of Vivaldi. And so you might hear a little bit in this choral arrangement, which always just grips my heart and moves me and we'll play a couple seconds of that now.
Josh, what's one of your favorite Hanukkah songs to sing around the Hanukkiah?
Mine's a little bit newer. In fact, it's brand new. I had a lot of favorites growing up. But this is a melody for I had the melody that I wanted to share is a melody for Haneirot Hallelu, which we've been talking about a lot already over the course of this episode. And the words are inspiring to me. And at some point a year, a year ago, another person asked me a rabbi a teacher asked me if I knew any melodies for haneirot hallalu that had all the words in it. And I didn't know very many and so I decided to try and write one. So that's what I did. So I'll share a little bit of it now. Haneirot hallalu anachnu madlikin, anu madlikim al hanisim. Haneirot hallalu anachnu madlikin, bechol shmonat yemei hachanukah. Al hanisim ve’al haniflaot ve’al hateshuot veal hanechamot. Sheasita lavoteinu veimoteinu bayim hahem bazman hazeh. Bechol shmonat yemei hachanukah, haneirot hallalu kodesh hem, ve’ain lanu reshut lehishtamesh bahem, ela lirotam bilvad, cedei lehodot u’lehalel leshimcha hagadol al nisecha ve’al niflotecha ve’al yeshuatecha. Al hanisim ve’al haniflaot ve’al hateshuot veal hanechamot. Sheasita lavoteinu veimoteinu bayim hahem bazman hazeh. Haneirot hallalu anachnu madlikin, anu madlikim al hanisim, bechol shmonat yemei hachanukah, vechol shmonat yemei hachanukah.
Wow, it's so beautiful. Can those first two parts be sung on top of each other because I was I was trying to do that sounded pretty cool.
I don't know maybe! Try it out! a
At least a little bit a little work over there. Yeah, it worked, you know, until it didn't but it was really nice. Well, it did. So, so beautiful. It has a sense of warmth and family but also a sense of victory. You know, my friend Uri Salzberg talks about the part of a song that sounds like We did it! But just like it has that kind of we did it sort of energy. I love that. Ellen, what are you thinking?
Oh, it's just it's very broad and expansive. You know, these long these these sustained notes that gives you a chance to really also think about an absorb what you're saying. And of course, the opportunities for harmony. And then you put it in a major key. It's very contemporary, and I think really brings home that point of in every generation, we celebrate the miracles of our generation, as well as commemorating the miracles of the past. And for some reason, Josh your melody really captures that expansiveness for me.
Thanks so much. I think that one of the goals was to be able to have it be sung communally. You know, bring in all these different harmonies like all these different lights being kindled, and to be able to think about the weightiness of just pausing and enjoying, and at the same time being able to just celebrate. Right this is this is a, We sing the melody that I knew what I was where I was al hanisim ve'al hapurkan, which is very fun and sort of militaristic marchy, like let's celebrate, but like you were saying in a minor key. And I wanted this to be something that had this like big uplift and so that's sort of where the melody came in and be able to bring it up and sort of lift it out and having the this is a haneirot hallalu and having the chorus be this al hanisim part because that's the reason that we're doing what it is that we're doing.
Well I'd let's not let go by without mentioning that you have also included imoteinu with avoteinu which I think is important in the way we sing our our songs today. So thank you for that.
Yeah, including both our fathers and our mothers. So so beautiful. And can we listen to this rendition of this song today?
I hopefully yes. By the time this recording this podcast comes out ideally this song will be out into the world wherever you find your music to let's go with yes!
Amazing. And if not now, soon speedily and in our days.
Amen.
U'vezman hazeh.
And and with that, we'll be right back!
welcome back, everyone. What a light-filled, miracle-filled, warm and fuzzy episode we have had, as we like to do at the end, we're going to do a practice but we're going to try something new. This is going to be a practice for watching the Hanukkah candles. One of my favorite parts about lighting Hanukkah candles is just watching them, right? That's what we're supposed to do, bask in the glow of the Hanukkah candles. And so you can save this for when you can be in front of some Hanukkah candles, or you can just imagine a flame in your mind just for a couple of seconds. So I invite you to get into a comfortable yet rooted position. Feeling yourself connected to the earth through your feet or through your seat, folding your shoulders back. Imagining that your back straight, a straight up five that letter via your head connected to the heavens, your seat or your feet connected to the earth and taking a deep breath in. In breath to lift and out. Out breath to ground. Again in breath to lift out breath to ground. As you close your eyes for a moment if you're able. Starting to follow the pattern of your breath and sinking into the oneness that is this moment right now. Now I invite you if you have lit Hanukkah candles in front of you open your eyes to see the candles and if not, I invite you to imagine the hannukiah of your dreams of light with candles on whatever night you would like it to be. And I invite you to take a moment and just notice. Be with the light of the candles. First, how many colors can you see? What are the colors that you notice in the candle flame? How many gradations of colors? Are the colors changing? And what is the shape the flame is making? Is it an oval? Are there jagged edges? is the flame light dancing? Can you bring your awareness to the shape of this flame? And I invite you now to take take a deep breath in and see if you can even smell a light scent of fire, the smell of these burning candles. And if you're able you can even take your hand, run it a little bit over not too close though, over your hanukkiah and feel, far away, the warmth of the candle not to keep you warm, but just to feel it to know that it's there. Take a moment just you and that light. Just to be in awareness of it in relationship with it to have it in your sense of vision. No need to focus on the past or the future. Just you and the light. The light of the candle reflecting the light of your soul, the light of the shamash, the helper candle, who lights all of the other candles and yet it's light isn't never diminished. When we are able to share our light, our own light does never diminish, we just bring more light into the world. You are invited to pause this podcast and sit with these candles as long as you'd like. I love paying attention. And seeing if I can watch the candles enough to notice the exact moment that the candle goes out. And the smoke the little plume of smoke rises up. So I give you permission right now sit, be, enjoy these candles. And we'll end as we usually do with a blessing. Based on what we've talked today, Ellen, what is your blessing? What is your prayer for us today?
My prayer is that at this in these dark times, be it seasonal or otherwise, and may we be able to look inside. And remember that there are miracles that there are a nisim happening all around us. And that we can both kindle the light and, and be the light and bring it open heartedly that others.
Amen, amen. Josh?
May we be able to see and recognize the light in ourselves and the light that comes from the people around us be able to bask in its glow. And just be and enjoy it and be present.
Amen. You know, our our candles or hanukkiah are not meant to be lit inside of our house so no one can see them. They're meant to be in the window. They're meant to be in a place where other people can see. So that we can publicize, let people know about this miracle that has been going on. Take your pick of which miracle. But may we be in places where we can be proud to light our hanukkiot in our windows, to share it with our neighbors and our friends to be that light and to bring that light even as we recognize the darkness around us. May we have that courage. May we have that community and feel that light even if we're the only hanukkiah on the block. May we be that light. I want to thank you all so much for joining us today. Thank you so much, Josh and Ellen. Thank you so much listeners and we can't wait to be with you soon. Take care everyone!