Chanukah Ruminations

Today is the eighth day of chanukah so this seems like a good opportunity to share some of my favorite tidbits about it. This is a holiday which gets conflated with Christmas but actually has nothing whatsoever to do with Santa Claus or Christ and much more to do with respecting all spiritual/religious practices. It’s also delicious. And fun.

When is Chanukah?

I guess that I should start with when chanukah happens. We Americans think that it floats around weirdly, usually somewhere in the middle of December but sometimes (like this year) almost on top of Thanksgiving and sometimes (like next year) way later and on top of Christmas. Here are the dates for chanukah for five years. It starts at sunset on the first day and ends at sunset on the last day.

• 2021: November 28 – December 6
• 2022: December 18-26
• 2023: December 7-15
• 2024: December 25 – January 2, 2025
• 2025: December 14-22

What’s that all about? Chanukah, like all of the Jewish holidays, runs on the Hebrew calendar, not the Gregorian calendar that we all know and love. The Gregorian calendar was introduced relatively recently, in October 1582. By contrast, you could legitimately claim that the Hebrew calendar was introduced in Genesis 1:5 with, “And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.” Thus, Hebrew calendar days begin at sunset. On the Hebrew calendar, chanukah begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev; it never moves.

Why does the 25th of Kislev float around, relative to the Gregorian calendar? Because the Hebrew calendar is tied to lunar months. Every time there is a new moon, a new month begins. The Gregorian calendar adds a leap day ever four years to stay in sync with the solar year (earth’s orbit of the sun). The Hebrew calendar year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year so it adds a leap month seven times in every 19 years to stay in sync with the solar year.

You might ask, if G-d created the Hebrew calendar, why didn’t G-d make it easier to understand? I’ll tell you: I don’t know.

The next time someone asks you when chanukah begins this year, just answer, “On Kislev 25;” you will always be right. When they ask you, “When’s that?” tell them to Google it.

Why Chanukah?

There are bunches of stories about chanukah, as with any ancient custom. One of my favorites goes like tihs:

Way back in 164 BCE, the Maccabees, a group of Jewish guerrilla fighters, recaptured the Temple from the the Greeks. The Greeks, being The Bad Guys du Jour, had forbade Jews to practice their religion, made Jewish observances illegal, and defiled the Temple. Not good. Thus the guerrilla war. When the Maccabees recaptured the Temple and went to light the menorah with the special holy oil, they found only one cruse of oil. This was a serious problem because one cruse would only burn for one day and they needed eight days to prepare more holy oil. The Maccabees lit the menorah with the little bit of oil that they had, having faith that somehow it would all work out. Miraculously, that cruse of oil burned for the entire eight days.

This story illustrates how important it is to allow each person to worship G-d (or not) in his/her own way. I have my own beliefs and you have your’s. It’s important for me to remember that my beliefs are only right for me and that I have no right to impose them on you. And vice versa.

This story also shows how to begin a project even when you don’t know how you will finish it. If you need to do something then don’t procrastinate, just start. Things will work out right in the end.

Delicious Chanukah

How can you best commemorate the miracle of the oil? By eating fried foods, of course! Can there be any doubt? Of course not! The two most traditional are probably latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly donuts). This year, though, I found a recipe for delicata squash and corn fritters. I could not find anywhere to buy delicata squash (nor could I even find anyone who had even heard of delicata squash) so I substituted sweet potatoes.

From the taste of these, I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that the primary reason for the miracle was to give us an excuse to make and eat fritters. No doubt at all. Here is the recipe: Delicata Squash and Corn Fritters

David hosted our combination chanukah + thanksgiving family gathering this year. Kevin made the latkes. Here are the three of us. Doesn’t Kevin look lovely in his frilly apron?

His latkes were just as good as my fritters. That got wondering whether the good Lord could have performed two miracle around chanukah instead of one. It seems perfectly reasonable that, during chanukah, fried foods would have no calories and no ill health effects.

I ran my idea past the best rabbinical authority (“best” means that I had his cell phone number so I could text him). He opined that actually the fritters and latkes had double the calories because of the weight of 2200 years of Jewish history layered on top of the sour cream on top of the food. I dunno ’bout that. What do you think?

Flaming Chanukah Fun

Many chanukah rituals are fun but lighting the candles is right up there at the top, at least for pyros like me. Chanukah menorahs, technically “chanukiahs,” come in all shapes and sizes. Here are several that I got to see during this year’s holiday.

Ideally, the candles should be lit next to a window where they can be seen from the street. This reminds all of us that religious freedom is important.

My Wish for You

Regardless of how you celebrate this season, I wish happiness, peace, and wellness to your family and you.