Teachings: Hanukkah

Here's a way the gift of the gelt can be transformed: [Yiddish for money given as gifts on Hanukkah]

On one of the nights of Hanukkah open all of the tzedakah boxes in the house and count the money. You might also keep a tzedakah box on the counter by your desk at work, many caring people who come through the building will help to keep it brimming. Announce the total.

When almost all your congregants raise their hands to the question "Do you have a Christmas tree up this season in your home?" it's quite unsettling for a rabbi. This happened to me back in 1989 in a rural pulpit. The Hanukkah-Christmas dilemma full-blown. What to do, if anything?

A creative program came to mind during a night of troubled dreams. The president of the congregation, ever a supporter of my tendency towards R&D on behalf of the Jewish future, organized everything perfectly to my specifications. And the virtually all of the congregation came.

This article first appeared in a publication of the 92nd St. Y.

The menorah is mentioned 27 times in the Torah. Precise details of its construction are given when Moses is alone, on the mountaintop, listening to God and seeing the Architect’s vision [Ex: 25: 31-40]. The menorah becomes a symbol of this listening and holding of the Light.