Celebrating Hanukkah Today

by Mrs. Brown

Each night of Hanukkah includes the lighting of candles, the reading of blessings, gift giving, special foods and game called dreidel. There are also many songs and readings from ancient books in some homes. We have never actually celebrated Hanukkah, per se, but after learning about it we may incorporate many of these activities from now on!
Let’s take a look at some of the most common elements of the modern day festival!

CANDLES: the chanukiyah (Hahn-uh-key-uh) is a candle holder or menorah with nine branches. Each night of the Festival, at sunset, the candles are lit for that evening with one more candle lit each night to symbolize increasing joy!
First the shamash or servant candle is lit. The shamash is the taller center candle. I love the imagery of the central “servant” candle “bowing” in order to bring light to the other candles. It reminds me of two passages of Scripture:
In Mark 9 we read of a time when the disciples were having a dispute over which one of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God. Jesus answered their question in verse 35 with these words:

Mark 9:35
35And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.

Jesus was telling them to be like Him! In Philippians 2 we read:

Philippians 2: 5-11
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

A FUN ACTIVITY:
My mom told me about this fun and easy craft recipe that can be used to represent a Hanukkah candle:

CANDLE “SALAD”
1 pineapple ring
1 banana
1 orange or red gumdrop or a slice of strawberry
Cut off both ends of the banana and place it into the pineapple ring to represent a candle in a candle holder. Top with the gumdrop or strawberry to “light” your candle! Enjoy!

BLESSINGS: Each night after the shamash is lit, two blessings are spoken. On the first night, one additional blessing is read. This is traditionally done in Hebrew and is often followed by the English translations.

First Blessing
Praised are You, Adonai, our God,
Ruler of the Universe, Who has made us holy through
God’s commandments and commanded us to
Kindle the Hanukkah lights.

Second Blessing
Praised are You, Adonai, our God,
Ruler of the Universe, Who performed miracles
For our ancestors in ancient time at this season.

Third Blessing
Praised are You, Adonai, our God,
Ruler of the Universe, Who has kept us alive
And sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.

GIFTS: This is a newer addition to Hanukkah that began as rewards for children who could answer questions on the history of the holiday!
Gift-rewards were originally known as gelt. It became a tradition to give eight small gifts… one for each day of Hanukkah. Since Hanukkah is around the same time as Christmas it led to this tradition becoming more prominent and popular, especially for families with young children.

Gift ideas:
For young children: Small books, little toys, match box cars, hair ties, and maybe even a baked treat or candy
For older children: Hand lotion, craft supplies, smaller hobby items, tools, journals or handmade gifts
For young adults and adults: Items to save for their own Hanukkah traditions such as a nice menorah/chanukiyah, olive wood dreidel or other items from The Holy Land

FOOD: It is said that many of the traditional feast items are fried because of the miracle of the oil. We have not tried any of these recipes yet, but if we try them we will work on making them healthier by baking or at least frying in the better, high-heat stable oils like coconut oil.

Latkes: some recipes call for white potatoes, but I have also seen some with sweet potatoes. That sounds like it has even more potential to be a little healthier! Potato Pancakes from foodfit.com

3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
1 medium onion
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup egg substitute, or 2 whole eggs plus 4 whites
salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil spray (or 2 tablespoons olive oil)

Serve with:
non fat or low fat sour cream
applesauce

1. Preheat a non-stick electric griddle to 450°F.
2. Peel the potatoes and onion and coarsely grate in a food processor fitted with a shredding disk, or on a box grater. Grab handfuls of the grated vegetables and squeeze tightly between your fingers to wring out as much liquid as possible.
3. Transfer the grated vegetables to a mixing bowl and stir in the flour, baking powder, egg substitute and a pinch of salt and pepper. (The potato pancakes should be highly seasoned.)
4. Spray the hot griddle with oil (or drizzle the oil on it and spread with a wooden spoon.) Spoon small mounds of potato mixture onto the baking sheet to form 3-inch pancakes, leaving 1 inch between each. Fry the pancakes on the griddle until golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes per side, turning once with a spatula.
5. Transfer to plates or a platter and serve immediately with sour cream and/or applesauce.
Serving Size: 3 potato pancakes

Baked Soufganiyot: Baked Soufganiyot--Low Fat Israeli Hanukkah Jelly Doughnuts. Doughnuts is a lower fat recipe from foodfit.com

1 package dry yeast (1 scant tablespoon)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (approximately)
1 cup lukewarm skim milk
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt
grated zest of one lemon
3 tablespoons reduced fat butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup apricot jam (approximately)
confectioner's or granulated sugar for rolling

1. Dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the sugar in the water.
2. Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor equipped with a steel blade. Add the dissolved yeast, milk, egg, egg yolk, salt, lemon zest and the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Process until blended. Add the butter and process until the dough becomes sticky yet elastic.
3. Remove the dough to a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for at least an hour. If you want to prepare the dough in advance, place it in the refrigerator overnight, then let it warm to room temperature before rolling and cutting.
4. Grease 2 cookie sheets. Dust a pastry board with flour. Roll the dough out to a 1/2-inch thickness. Using the top of a glass as a cutter, cut into rounds about 2-inches in diameter and roll these into balls. Place the balls about 1 to 1 1/2-inches apart on the greased cookie sheets. Cover and let rise 30 minutes more.
5. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake the doughnuts for 12 to 15 minutes or until they're golden. Remove from the oven and let cool.
6. Soften the jam in a food processor. Using an injector (available at cooking stores), insert a teaspoon of jam into each doughnut. Roll the soufganiyot in confectioner's or granulated sugar and serve immediately.
Serving Size: 1 doughnut

DREIDEL: this game is a favorite with my children ever since they received an olive wood dreidel as a gift!
The driedel is like a little four-sided top. Each of the four sides has a Hebrew letter. The letters are the initial letters of a sentence: “A great miracle happened there!” The game is played with coins, candy or other small tokens and each letter/side rolled represents an action:

Nun=take nothing
Gimel=take all
Heh=take half
Shin=put in

At the start of the game, each child has an equal portion of items and the remainder is place in the center. We play for a certain length of time (usually 30 minutes or so) and rather than allowing the children to keep all they have at the end we play with chocolate coins and allow each child to eat one and the “winner” to eat two!

Whatever YOUR family does this year, may your lives be filled with the Light of Christ. May you do ALL to His glory. May you stand for what you believe in and rededicate your life to shining God’s light into this dark and lost world. We know that our salvation is not based on our works, but on the work of Christ on the cross, but may be show our love and thanks to Jesus by acting in a way that will bring others to a saving knowledge of The Messiah now at the end of 2008 and as so long as we may be given grace to live in this world, but NOT of it!

Matthew 5:16
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”