HELLO PEOPLE!!! *dances to I Have A Little Dreidel by The Maccabeats* HAPPY HANUKKAH!!!!! I’m so excited!!!!! Sun down brought with it the very first night of Hanukkah! *CHEERS* I absolutely LOOOVE this time of year and this holiday! I love eating homemade latkes and jelly filled doughnuts and reading the story and CELEBRATING!
So what is Hanukkah?
For all of you who aren’t familiar with this holiday, don’t worry! Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the victory of the Maccabees (led by Judah Maccabee) over the Greeks (and the nasty Antiochus) in 161 BC. It also celebrates the miracle of oil that happened! When the people went to light the menorah in the rededicated temple, they only had one day’s supply of oil. But they lit the menorah anyway and that oil lasted all eight days until the new oil was prepared! (Thus, we celebrate for eight great nights!)
Each of the eight nights, we will light our little hanukiah and watch the candles burn out. This is always so much fun. A hanukiah has nine candle holders. On the first night, (at sunset) we will light the first candle using the Shamash (the service candle that goes in the middle of the hanukiah). One the second night we will light two candles, on the third night, three, and so on until the eighth night when all the candles are lit!
What do we eat on this holiday?
Ah , food. Such a huge part of any celebration! Hanukkah is NOOO exception! This holiday has so much good food in it! There is a lot of fried yumminess because, you know, it’s very important to celebrate and remember the miracle of the oil! Be careful with frying, though. Last year our stove was engulfed in flames because of the frying. 😦 Some of the wonderful foods include…
LATKES! *mouth waters excessively* Man, oh man, these are the best! They’re made from potatoes, eggs, and salt. Then they’re fried to perfection and served with apple sauce and/or sour cream. (I dislike sour cream, so I just stick with the apple sauce.) I’d say these are one of the most important Hanukkah foods! 😛 🙂
Jelly Doughnuts (Sufganiyot)! MAKE THESE, PEOPLE, THEY ARE A MUST HAVE! I made them one year and MAN They were so good! I used sourdough to make the doughnut part and then fried them and filled them with jelly and rolled them in powdered sugar and devoured them! SO SO GOOD!!
Blintzes. This is a crepe like thing that’s filled with a variety of things. Last time I made them, I filled them with chocolate pudding! *heart eyes*
Kugel! This is really good. It’s like a noodle (or potato, I think) sweet-ish dish. 🙂
Challah. This beautiful bread belongs in just about all of the Jewish holidays (besides Passover)! I looooove this bread so much and it is so beautiful!
Rugelach. This is so much fun to make! Basically, it’s a flaky dough that’s spread with chocolate or jam and then rolled up and baked. (I once tried making these GF….let’s just say that almond flour dough doesn’t roll very well…but they tasted good.)
Babka. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Mama or I will make this every year and it is always looked forward to. It takes a looong time to make, and it’s kind of complicated, but it is so worth it! Basically, it’s a sweet bread that’s rolled out and filled with something (we do cream cheese & chocolate) and then it’s twisted up, topped with a yummy crumble and baked. When it’s cut, it has a beautiful swirly pattern!
Games and Gifts!
A lot of people will give gifts on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah. (I mean, how fun is that!?) A couple of years ago, our parents gave us a bunch of paper dolls. Jehosheba and I had so much fun cutting all of those out and putting everything together. 🙂
And games!!! Everyone plays dreidel, which is SO MUCH FUN! (And yes, it is technically a gambling game but this is the one time of year that parents promote it with their kids. 😉 ) The dreidel is a four sided top type thing with four Hebrew letters on it. (Nun, gimel, hay and shin – they stand for the meaning a great miracle happened there.) Sometimes we will play with chocolate coins (gelt) or we’ll use pencils. (One year, Jehosheba, Nahum and I had this whole long dreidel tournament where we had a TON of pencils and we spent so long trying to win them all. XD)
Fun Hanukkah Music:
I love it when Mama pulls up YouTube and puts on fun Hanukkah songs. My favorite people to listen to are The Maccabeats! (Look ’em up on YouTube.) Some of my favorite songs by them are:
HAVE A HAPPY HAPPY HANUKKAH EVERYONE!!!!!!
~Hattush
Daughter of the Light 
Okay I’ve never tried any of the awesome food you listed and I do believe I’m missing out 😭💕
INVITE ME OVER TO YOUR HOUSE SOMETIME HATTUSH 😂
I hope you guys have an amazing Hanukkah! 😍💜
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YOU NEED TO TRY SOME OF THEM!!!! They’re soooooooo good!!!!🤤
You’re invited anytime!! 😉😀
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YEAH I KNOW!! I could smell them through the screen…! Well I wish that technology existed 😭😂
Aw thanks! 😂💓
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😂🤣 yeah, that’d be great!!
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Super neat!
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Thanks!
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You’re welcome!
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What’s Hanukkah??? Sorry I feel dumb . I don’t know what Hanukkah is.
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It’s a Jewish holiday that’s celebrated for eight nights. 😁 You’re not dumb.
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Sounds really interesting!
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It is!
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(cheers)
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🙂
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Hanukkah is very fun yes, we make latkes every year little circles of potato amazingness😍, and dreidels are such fun 🙂
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Oooh that’s so fun!!! Latkes are the greatest! 😍🤩
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Tonight Yidden light the first of the Hanukkah lights. The Gemara of Shabbat teaches the famous dispute between Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel concerning lighting the lights of Hanukkah. This famous dispute always puzzled me, what difference does it make whether one begins with lighting 8 candles the first night or only one? What does lighting the lights of Hanukkah have to do with the life and death struggle against Greek cultural domination of the tiny Jewish State?
The B’hag, a late scholar whose Torah shined the light of Torah during the waning domination of the Gaonim schools. The Reshonim scholarship, this “candle of light” followed the lights of the Gaonim schools. The B’hag holds that the rabbinic mitzvot of both Purim and Hanukkah, their light shines as part of the 613 Commandments Israel received from HaShem and Moshe Rabbenu.
The Rambam denounced the light which the B’hag directed the generations of Israel. The B’hag links Hanukkah, as does the Talmud to Shabbat. He held that lighting the lights of Shabbat – this mitzva from the Torah – its light shines on par with the Torah mitzvot of Purim and Hanukkah. To comprehend the light shone by the Torah of the B’hag, Yidden must discern the common denominator which the Houses of Hillel and Shammai, your shared foundation by which their Torah communicated the k’vanna of the mitzva of Hannukah as expressed through the rabbinic halachic ritual of lighting the lights of Hannukah throughout the generations.
The Greek empire conquered the Persian empire, which uprooted the Babylonian empire, who destroyed Jerusalem and expelled Yidden from the lands ruled by the king of Yechuda from the House of David. Greek hostility to the Torah centered not upon the Written Torah but rather the Oral Torah. This latter Torah light expresses itself through a unique logic format by which Yidden, following the Golden Calf, dedicated the souls of their children, to strictly interpret the language of the Written Torah by employing the Oral Torah logic format alone as the light to see and understand the k’vanna and intent of the Written Constitution of the Jewish State.
The Greek schools of philosophy taught a completely different logic system. The logic of Plato and Aristotle overshadow the ancient Greek contribution of knowledge. Yidden, humiliated from our disgrace of the avoda zarah of the Golden Calf, our forefathers swear a Torah oath, to all generations Yidden sanctify our dedication unto the Torah revelation to interpret the Written Torah through the lights of the Oral Torah alone.
The lights of Shabbot, the dedication to strive to achieve shalom among family and friends. The lights of reading the Megillah on Purim, the dedication of tohor, opposed by tuma middot unto HaShem. The Book of Ester, the only Book of the T’NaCH which lacks the Name of HaShem. The Name המן and המלך they teach a רמז Gematria of tohor as opposed to tuma middot. The k’vanna of “kingship” (To make a Torah blessing requires the Name and Kingship), as a king stands as the head of a nation so too the dedication of tohor, as opposed to tuma, middot unto HaShem – middot express the faith unto the revelation of the Torah throughout all and every generation. The mussar of the Book of Ester teaches middot, expressed through the contrast between Mordecai and Haman.
In similar fashion the Gemara of Shabbot, teaches the k’vanna of lighting the lights of Hannukah, expressed through the contrast of opinions expressed by the Houses Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel. What defines the Oral Torah? Logic stands upon the יסוד/foundation of Order. The Order of the Torah logic system in its turn sharply contrasts with the Order of the ancient Greek logic formats which ancient Greek philosophers developed.
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