1. Chanukah is not the Jewish Christmas.
While Chanukah and Christmas both occur near the end of the secular year, and center around lights during the darkest, longest nights of our year, despite these outward similarities, the two are vastly different in religious meaning.
Hanukkah became popular in the U.S. because of its calendar proximity to Christmas, but this Jewish holiday has a religious meaning not even close to the Christian meaning and celebration of Christmas.
Chanukah is, in fact, the celebration of the first successful battle for freedom of religion. To consider Chanukah as a “Jewish Christmas” of sorts is to allow the Christian celebration of Christmas to overshadow and strip away the real meaning of an authentically Jewish Chanukah celebration.
2. Gift giving was never a part of Hanukkah observance.
This has been added in over recent years here in the United States due to the overbearing emphasis of the Christian Christmas celebration throughout all facets of American society. While some Jewish families have developed a ritual of lighting candles and giving gifts over the 8 nights of Chanukah observance, other families replace eight nights of gift giving with a mix of learning, social action, and giving, and many Jewish families do not observe any form of Chanukah at all.
There is no such thing as a “Chanukah Bush” that substitutes for a Christmas tree. While some Jewish families may choose to do this, is it NOT part of an authentic Jewish tradition. It is simply what some Jewish families choose to do here in the United States. Treating Chanukah like a “Jewish Christmas equivalent” buries a unique Jewish freedom celebration under layers of consumeristic-driven gift giving. The real gift of Chanukah was the gift of religious freedom, something for which so many still fight around the world.
3. The Hanukkah candelabra is known as a hanukkiyah, not a menorah.
The menorah is a candelabra which holds 7 candles that stood in the Jerusalem Temple. It became a symbol of Judaism and is carved into one of the gates of Rome. The hanukkiyah, in contrast, has nine candles. One candle is typically in the center, set apart from the other 8, and known as the shamash, or “helper” candle. Its function is to light the other eight candles. We light the candles from left to right, but add candles each evening from right to left.
4. The custom of playing with a dreidel (spinning top) is based on a German game, and came about during a time when being Jewish was outlawed.
While it looked like a common gambling game to others, it was a Jewish teaching game so that parents could quietly pass on Jewish values to their children without being imprisoned for doing so. The dreidl has continued to be a symbol of religious freedom.
5. The traditional Hanukkah foods are potato pancakes (latkes) and jelly donuts (sufganiyot).
Both foods involve frying and oil. Oil symbolizes the miracle of Hanukkah. According to Jewish tradition, the Maccabees found a tin of oil in the Temple after they recaptured it. Containing only enough oil to provide light for one night, it miraculously lasted for eight nights. And that is referred to as “the miracle of Chanukah.”
6. There is no one right away to spell Hanukkah.
Most commonly it is spelled either Chanukah or Hanukkah. Both are used interchangeably. Both are correct, since there is no single direct way to spell Hebrew words in English. Both have 8 letters to honor the 8 nights of Chanukah.
Finally, many have asked what Chanukah means to me personally, and so I offer this brief reflection:
Chanukah is a celebration of finding the light in the darkest time. It is not enough to encounter the darkness. Our mission is to find the light. I am always struck by the story of the Maccabee’s discovery of a single jug of pure olive oil suitable to light the Temple’s menorah.
There they were amidst a completely ransacked and totally desecrated Temple. The place of greatest holiness and connection had been made a shambles, and the worst things imaginable had been done on its altars by those who defeated the Jews and ran them our of their Temple, their country, and barred them from observing their religion.
In similar fashion, I imagine the scenes of Kristallnacht, in Germany, that dreadful night, known as the Night of Shattered Glass. On November 9 to November 10, 1938, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses, and killed close to 100 Jews for no other reason than that they were Jews.
And how did the Jewish people respond? When the killing and violence was over and the Nazis stopped long enough to take a breath, the remaining Jewish community gathered around the shattered glass of who they had been, and they lit the menorah. There was no knowing what tomorrow would bring (and things only got worse from there). But in that moment they found the hope and determination to continue on, to affirm light and life. That is miraculous.
We don’t just show up to the darkness, we find reason for hope and praise. In describing the inspiration for creating the song “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen, who recently died, said, “I wanted to stand with those who clearly see G!d’s holy broken world for what it is, and still find the courage or the heart to praise it.”
In a time of deep darkness and confusion, it is easy to run away. But there is a light that is calling to us. It starts with saying, “Here I am.” But that is only the beginning. We all have our own “single jug of pure olive oil.” The place in ourselves where we hold our light of being, and when we fall short of enough love, energy, or hope, that’s when we need to find the courage to keep on going, to find a cause to praise. It’s not about denying the difficulties; it’s about discovering goodness hiding in their wake.
Chanukah, for me, is lighting my candle in the darkness of a world so broken, so in need of healing. It is the celebration that no matter how dark it may get, it only takes one person standing up and lighting their candle, reminding the world that what matters most is being the light.
For this reason, I do not give Chanukah gifts. Hanukkah, for me, is a moving spiritual time of deep prayer and reflection, of finding again the light within myself in the midst of darkness and shattered glass.
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