Hanukkah

Tonight is the first night of the eight day Jewish holiday known as the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is observed 3 days before the new moon closest to the winter solstice, at the darkest part of the moon phase and the darkest part of the sun phase. Hanukkah is another winter festival with the theme of light and darkness, of moving from dark despair to a place of light and hope.

Hanukkah commemorates a miracle that occurred in 142 BCE, when a single vial of oil kept the temple lamp burning for eight days. 

I like the more ancient Talmud story that explains that Adam left Paradise just before the time of the Winter Solstice. He noticed the days getting shorter and decided to fast and pray for eight days to try to call back the sun.

Agenda:
1. Prepare:
Buy new candles (44 candles), and clean up my Hanukia (otherwise known as a menorah).

2. Make potato latkes:
It is traditional to eat fried foods on this holiday, because of the significance of the oil in the lamp.

Ingredients:

• 3 large potatoes
• 1 small onion
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• dash of black pepper
• 1/2 c. oil
• sour cream and applesauce

Yield: About 15 pancakes-

1- Peel the potatoes and the onion, and grate them together into a bowl. 

2- Transfer to a kitchen towel and sqeeze out as much moisture as possible, then put back into the bowl.

3- Beat the eggs and stir them into the potatoes, along with the flour, salt, and black pepper.

4- Heat the oil in a frying pan, and spoon in the batter. Fry the pancakes until crispy on both sides.


5- Drain on paper towels and serve with sour cream and applesauce.

3. Ceremony:

At sunset, I fit one candle into the Hanukia on the far right, plus a shamash (servant) candle in the center. 

Then I recite a blessing. Most of the traditional Hanukkah blessings don't seem appropriate for me, being not even a little bit Jewish, so I use the Blessing of Praise (Shehecheyanu), which is for the first night of anything, or any new experience:

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, shehecheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higianu laz'man hazeh.

Blessed are You, our God, Sovereign of all, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this season.

For a nice recording of how to pronounce this blessing in Hebrew, look here.

I light the shamash candle and use it to light the first candle of the menorah. We let these two candles burn all the way down tonight.

We continue the candle lighting for eight nights, adding another candle each night, from right to left. The candles are lit from left to right (because you pay honor to the newer thing first).