Suggestions for Hanukkah

If you are a Noahide who is observant of the 7 Noahide Commandments, you may be interested in lighting Hanukkah candles. If so, you can buy or make a menorah lamp for yourself (very easy), or you can usually obtain one from your local Chabad Center. The lighting may be done in the correct manner according to the Jewish custom, but without saying the Jewish blessings when lighting the candles, if your intention is to publicize the Divine miracles of Hanukkah, and thereby educate your family and others about the greatness of G-d. There are alternative readings and Psalms that a Noahide can say when lighting Hanukkah candles, and we have posted some suggestions below.

Even if you don’t light a menorah, you can still mark the days of Hanukkah this year in some of the additional customary ways. This includes the option to say the chapters of Psalms listed below, reading and thinking about the history and messages of Hanukkah, and enjoying some traditional recipes. You can also attend public lightings of outdoor Hanukkah menorahs that might be taking place near you during the festival. Contact your local Chabad organization for more information about times and places. The following recitation paragraph, adopted from the Jewish traditional liturgy (version of the Ari Zal), can also be said during the days of Hanukkah:

"In the days of Matisyahu, the son of Yochanan the High Priest, the Hasmonean and his sons, the wicked Hellenic government rose up against the people of Israel to make them forget Your Torah and violate the decrees of Your will. But You, in your abounding mercies, stood by them in the time of their distress. You waged their battles, defended their rights and avenged the wrong done to them. You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the wanton sinners into the hands of those who occupy themselves with Your Torah. You made a great and holy name for Yourself in Your world, and effected a great deliverance and redemption for the people of Israel to this very day. Then the Israelites entered the shrine of Your Holy House, purified and rededicated Your sanctuary, kindled lights in Your holy courtyards, and instituted these eight days of Hanukkah to give thanks and praise to Your great Name."

Below is some reading material, and a recipe for traditional Hanukkah “latkes” (potato pancakes). There are 8 days in all, so please check back for additional information that may be posted as Hanukkah continues.

Here is a main web site that many Jews go to for information, multi-media, and activities for Hanukkah:

www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah

PLEASE NOTE: The Noahide prohibition against theft is very strict. If you are using the Internet at work, please take care to not make personal photocopies and/or printings on expropriated company-owned paper.

SUGGESTIONS FOR NOAHIDES ON HANUKKAH:

HOW TO LIGHT A MENORAH: The Hanukkah lights should be candles, or wicks in oil.

The lights should be able to burn continuously for at least half an hour, and that half an hour should be sometime after nightfall (not earlier than about 20-30 minutes after sunset, depending on the location).

A menorah has candle holders positioned in a straight row, with an additional "shamash" ("servant") light each night, which is placed near but apart from the row of Hanukkah lights (higher, or outside the row, etc.). It is lit first, and if it is a candle, it can also be used to kindle the row of Hanukkah lights.

On the first night, one Hanukkah light is kindled on the right side of the menorah. On the second night, add a second light to the left of the first and kindle the additional light first proceeding from left to right, and so on each night for 8 nights.

The following statement, abridged for Noahides, is appropriate to be said after kindling the lights each night (other similar versions may be said as well):

"We kindle these lights to commemorate the saving acts, miracles and wonders which You have performed in those days at this time through Your holy Kohanim priests, in order to offer thanks and praise to Your great Name for Your miracles, for Your wonders and for Your salvations."

This year, Hanukkah starts Friday, Dec. 11, '09, at sundown. On each Friday night of Hanukkah, Jews should be careful to finish lighting the Hanukkah lights, and then light their Shabbat candles before sundown, in order to avoid profaning their Sabbath. Hanukkah ends Saturday, Dec. 19, '09, at sundown. The recitation paragraph above can be said throughout the festival, during the night or day, especially as part of your prayer of thanks after eating a meal.

Some people have a custom to say the following chapters of Psalms on each day of Hanukkah, which are related to the message and spirit of Hanukkah: Psalms 91, 67, 30, 133, 33.

It's a good thing to give extra charity during Hanukkah to a proper charitable institution or cause, or to needy individuals. It's good to have a charity box or can (a "pushka") in your home, that you can drop coins into frequently and then give them to a proper charity when it is filled up.

Parents can give small gifts of money (Hanukkah "gelt") to their children on some or all of the days, to teach them to put part of their money (for example 10%) into a charity box at home, to be given later to a proper charity.

It's customary during Hanukkah to eat some traditional foods fried in oil. This is to remember the miracle of the small jug of pure oil - only enough for one day - that was miraculously found and which then burned in the Temple's menorah for 8 days after the Greek army retreated from Jerusalem. It's also customary to have some dairy foods and drinks, to remember the military victory of the Maccabee priests (Kohanim, descended from Aaron) over the Greeks. This is because Jerusalem was retaken by the Maccabee brothers through of the heroic act of Yehudis, their righteous sister. (She came to the Greek general and fed him a feast of cheese and wine. When he fell asleep, she dealt to him the end he deserved, and the leaderless Greek army panicked and retreated.)

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For toddlers: Menorah Plush Toy
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The "Jewish Experience" radio/audio series on the history of Hanukkah:

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YUMMY!!

Click here for a traditional recipe:

Hanukkah "Latkes"

(fried potato pancakes)

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Fun toys and videos for Hanukkah:

Click Here

(Note: we recommend to not give gifts specifically as "Hanukkah presents" since this recent development distorts the true message of Hanukkah. Rather, gifts can be given just as at any other time.)

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Hanukkah insights, presented with permission from Sichos in English:

Based on the Talks of The Lubavitcher Rebbe,

Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson

"What Is Chanukah?"

The Gemara asks in Tractate Shabbos, "What is Chanukah?" As Rashi explains, the Gemara is inquiring as to what miracle brought about the establishment of the festival of Chanukah.

The Gemara answers: "When the Hellenists entered the Temple, they defiled all of its oil. Then, when the royal Hasmonean family overpowered and was victorious over them, they searched and found only one cruse of pure oil ... sufficient to light the menorah for a single day. A miracle occurred and they lit the menorah with this oil for eight days."

This raises an obvious question. The paramount miracle of Chanukah was that the Jews were victorious in battle over the Hellenic forces: that G-d delivered "the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few." Why, then, was Chanukah established not for this preeminent miracle, but for the miracle of the cruse of oil? How did the subordinate miracle metamorphose into the consummate and primary miracle?

The primary peril the Jews faced during this period was not the threat to their physical lives, but to their spiritual lives. Demanded the Hellenists: "Inscribe upon the horn of an ox that you have no part in the G-d of Israel." (The physical battles resulted from the Jewish people ignoring the decrees against their religion.)

Precedence was therefore given not to the miracle of vanquishing the enemy in battle (safeguarding the body), but to the miracle of rescuing the soul of the people. This was the miracle of the oil - the miracle that related to performing a mitzvah with the lights in the Holy Temple, lights that are symbolic of Torah and mitzvos in general, as the verse states, "For a mitzvah is a lamp and Torah is light."

But why does the Gemara give such scant and passing mention to the actual victory in battle and moreover, make no mention at all about its miraculous nature?

Granted, the main aspect of Chanukah is the spiritual victory and miracle, but there was a truly miraculous physical victory as well. Moreover, the spiritual triumph came only through the physical triumph. Shouldn't the Gemara have mentioned - at least in a subordinate manner - the miracle of the victory in battle?

The battle of the Hellenists was not a simple spiritual struggle against the Jewish religion per se, but against specific aspects of it. In the words of the VeAl HaNissim prayer: they sought "to make them forget Your Torah and make them violate the decrees of Your will."

It was not the Torah per se that the Hellenic regime wished to uproot from the Jewish people, but "Your Torah" - i.e., that Torah is of Divine origin and as such transcends human intellect.

Nor were they against the Jews' practice of the Torah's mitzvos as a moral and ethical code. It was specifically the "the decrees of Your will" - the suprarational commands that defy all logic and reason and are performed only out of acceptance of the Divine yoke - that they wished to outlaw.

That is to say, the war waged by the Hellenists was against the Jewish notion that G-dliness utterly transcends all aspects and elements of creation and nature, and as such cannot be grasped with human intellect.

We can now understand why, when the Gemara asks as to what miracle brought about the Chanukah holiday, it only mentions the miracle of the oil and makes no mention of the victory in battle. For when speaking of the essence of Chanukah - "What is Chanukah?" - it is solely the miracle of the Chanukah lights that symbolize the spiritual illumination - "A mitzvah is a candle" - that resulted from the spiritual victory.

And although the military miracles anteceded and made possible the lighting of the menorah in the Holy Temple, the spiritual aspect and content of this festival so predominates that it completely eclipses its physical aspect of victory in battle. This is to the extent that the physical aspect is completely ignored when we speak of the miracle that defines the essence of Chanukah.

Chanukah, with its spiritual dimension entirely overshadowing its physical dimension, empowers us to attain a level of spirituality where the supremacy of the soul over the body is so absolute that the body is virtually invisible - the body's needs become of no particular import.

For although the soul is vested within the body, and the soul in this world can only serve G-d through the medium of the body, nevertheless the bodily needs are completely eclipsed by his spiritual being and essence.

So that when one looks at the "Chanukah" individual, one sees not a material creature, but a spiritual one; the entire physical dimension of the person serves but as a vehicle to the successful fulfillment of the spiritual service of the soul.

Based on Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XXV, pp. 237-242