Hannuka YouTube Links

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is behind us, our Edot class has been focusing on learning about the Jewish holiday of Hannuka, as it relates to a running theme of our curriculum - cultural borrowing.

We began by reviewing the customs and laws of Hannuka. Students volunteered how they celebrated the holiday at home, and these customs were listed on the board. The students were then asked to look over the extensive list they generated, and share which of the items on the list were mandated by Jewish law (halacha). It was a surprise to many of them that playing the dreydl game and eating latkes (potato pancakes) were not required. The only halachic ritual we are required to perform is lighting the hannukiya (the 9-branch menorah used only for Hannuka), adding one more candle each night, and placing the hannukiya where all can see it  - "l'farsem et ha'nes" - "to make famous the miracle."  Everything else, from playing the dreydl game to eating the latkes, giving presents, eating chocolate hannuka gelt, etc., all falls under the category of customs or traditions ("masoret" in Hebrew).

Once we established the difference between "halacha" and "masoret," we continued the lesson by reviewing the history behind the events of the Hannuka story, beginning with the conquests of Alexander the Great in the early 3rd century B.C.E., the spread of the Hellenistic (Greek) culture, and the ultimate clash of cultures when many Jews began to adopt the Greek culture. The Maccabees, as we know, were victorious, and the Talmudic era Rabbis, living about 500 years after the events of the Hannuka story, emphasized that the miracle that occurred was not so much that the small Maccabean army was able to defeat the large, well-organized army of the Syrian-Greeks. Rather, the true miracle was that a minority culture could survive in the midst of a larger one, and the lesson we could share with the rest of the world was that religious freedom should and could be attained "not by might, and not by power, but by spirit." This lesson is what the ritual of lighting the hannukiya is meant to help us remember each year.

This past Sunday, recalling what we had learned about the prevalence of the Greek culture in the Mediterranean world some 2,000 years ago, we took a close look at our own American culture and how American Jews have adopted many of its elements, giving them a "Jewish twist" and making them part of our own culture. We viewed 4 YouTube videos, each of which reflected how we have borrowed extensively from our American (western) culture to enrich our Hannuka celebrations. Below are the links to these YouTube videos. See if you can isolate the American cultural elements in each. Enjoy!


The Maccabeats sing "Candlelight"
Hanuka with Veronica Monika
Adam Sandler's Chanuka Song
Hannuka Flash Mob in Jerusalem