Hanuka Around the World

Following our week-long Thanksgiving holiday break, we took advantage of having just finished our unit of study about the Beta Yisrael of Ethiopia to delve into a mini-unit of study about Hanuka (which began last night!). During the weekday sessions, I introduced the students to the historical background of the holiday, as well as to the specific events that led to the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes and against those Jews who adopted the prevalent Hellenistic culture of the times. This was, in fact, the first and thankfully only time that Jews were involved in a civil war. We also explored the true miracle of Hanuka, which has nothing to do with a story the Rabbis in the Talmud created about 500 years after the actual events of the Hanuka story, in an attempt to erase a violent episode from our national consciousness.

I used the Maccabean Revolt episode of A&E channel's "Mysteries of the Bible" series (many of which episodes can now be found on YouTube) to share the above information with the students. It's a fascinating account, using Biblical (Books of the Maccabees) references as well as other documentary evidence (largely from the Jewish writer Josephus Flavius who wrote a history of the Jews during the Roman occupation of Judea, some 100 years after the events of the Hanuka story took place). The sections I shared with the students were Act I (up to minute 9:32), Act II (minutes 17:43-21:00), and Act V (minute 36:38 to the end of the program) - a total of about 22 minutes.

On Sunday (yesterday), I reviewed what we had learned from the above, then asked the students to share how we celebrate Hanuka today. We generated a list that consisted of lighting the Hanuka candles and saying the blessings, eating latkes, sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and chocolate gelt, singing Hanuka songs, getting presents, and spinning the dreydl. Then, I asked the students which of the things on the list we are required to do according to Rabbinic law. The answer is only the first item on the list - lighting the candles and saying the blessing (we are required to "l'farsem et ha'nes" ("make famous the miracle") by displaying the Hanuka menorah (a more modern term is a hanukiya) to the public (i.e. in a window or outside). The only law relating to the hanukiya itself is that each candle holder or oil reservoir representing the days of Hanuka be at the same level as the others. The servant candle, or shamash, is the only exception. This is to show that each day of Hanuka is as important as the others. I introduced the Hebrew word "halacha," which is how we refer to Rabbinic law in Judaism. Literally, the root of the word has to do with "walking" - i.e. we are walking on the path created for us by the Rabbis. All the other things we generated in our list of how we celebrate Hanuka go under the heading of the second Hebrew word I introduced to the students - "masoret," which means "tradition or custom."

With this explanation of the difference between "halacha," which Jews all over the world follow, and "masoret," which can be very different amongst the edot - Jewish communities established all over the world - I introduced the project we worked on during the remainder of yesterday's session - "Hanuka-Around-the-World posters. Each of 8 small groups of students (4 first session and 4 second session) was asked to illustrate the predominant custom of celebrating Hanuka in its assigned edah. The resulting posters are now hanging on a bulletin board in the hallway.

Here are some photos my TA's each session caught of the students working on the posters, as well as photos I took of the completed posters and the resulting bulletin board designed to be a hanukiya. The 8 candles are the 8 posters.

In Alsace (in France), families use "double-decker" hanukiyot (plural of hanukiya), 8 candles in each of the two levels. Each level has its own "shamash" (servant) candle as well. This way,  parents and children can light the candles together on the same hanukiya.

Many Persians practiced the religion of Zoroastrianism going back to ancient days. In this religion, the number 8 is a symbol of perfection. Jews living in Persia (modern-day Iran) adopted the belief in this symbol of perfection, and instead of lighting just one hanukiya each holiday, light 8 hanukiyot each day, so that on the 8th night of Hanuka, they light 64 candles - the ultimate symbol of perfection (8 x 8).

In Kurdistan (northern Iraq), people were very poor, and could not afford special ritual objects. Jews there were no different. On Hanuka, for example, eggshells were used as the oil holder cups for the hanukiya.

During the Middle Ages, Christians in Lithuania and the Ukraine handed out gold or silver coins to neighbors and friends at Christmas time. Jews living in these eastern European countries (and later in Poland and Russia as well), adopted this custom, and gave gold or silver coins to their children as rewards for successfully studying Hebrew and Torah. During the 1700's, this custom became associated with Hanuka, as well as with education.

Jewish families in Tunisia, in North Africa, hang up their hanukiyot each year on the doorpost opposite the one on which their mezuzah hangs. They light the candles each of the 8 nights while it hangs on the doorpost. They keep the hanukiya hanging there until Purim, about 3 months later.

A common custom for many celebrations in Mexico is to hang a pinata filled with toys and sweets on a tree limb outdoors, then blindfold children and have them swing a stick, trying to break open the pinata. Jewish children adopted this custom, and on each of the 8 days of Hanuka, a huge, dreydl-shaped pinata is hung up, filled with candies and coins. Children must try to break it open while they are blindfolded.

In Morocco, Jewish children are sent out on the 8th night of Hanuka to collect from neighbors and friends all leftover oil and wicks. That night, giant bonfires are created using these leftovers, and people sing and dance around the bonfire until the sun rises.

In Yemen, a custom arose among Arab children of collecting wicks for oil lamps from their neighbors and friends for a week, just prior to the winter. Jewish children adopted this tradition, and associated it with the Hanuka holiday, using the wicks they collected for their hanukiyot.

CHAG CHANUKA SAMEACH! (HAPPY CHANUKA HOLIDAY!)

Don't forget that the coming weekday sessions are Bring-A-Friend days.