Rabbi Carl M. Perkins
Cantor Jamie Gloth
Melissa Rudman, Executive Director 
Arlene Bryer, President

Eight Hanukkah Treats!
December 10, 2020 | 24 Kislev 5781
Dear Friends,

Where do you place your Hanukkah menorah? On a table in your home, where you can see it and sit in its presence for the half hour or so that the Hanukkah candles burn? Or in your window so it is visible from the outside, so that neighbors and passersby can see it? 

This has been an ongoing debate in Jewish life going back hundreds of years. In the Talmud, for example, we’re told that we’re supposed to light the hanukkiah when people are still in the marketplace (the “shuk”). This makes it clear that lighting the candles is a way of publicizing the miracle of Hanukkah within the community.  

But during times of trouble, Jews developed the practice of lighting Hanukkah menorahs in their own homes.  That practice endured, even to our own day.

This year, let's do both -- at the same time.

This is one of those years when just about all of us will be lighting our menorahs in our homes -- for reasons other than those that motivated our ancestors.  

Let’s have it both ways. Let’s light our menorahs in our homes, but let’s also have them visible as we reach out to others via Zoom to offer Hanukkah greetings to family, friends and community. (Let's be careful, safe, and celebratory, all at the same time.)

To add to our Hanukkah joy, I would like to offer everyone eight Hanukkah treats. Enjoy!

1.The first treat is a puzzle: Who is the woman holding the Hanukkah menorah in the photograph below?
(The answer appears below my signature at the bottom of this email.)

2.Next comes a culinary treat, from the great Jewish cook, Joan Nathan: a remarkably simple latke recipe which uses much less oil than most latke recipes. By the way, speaking of latkes: consider attending Latke Making with Wilma this Sunday at 4:00 pm. (Click here for the recipe, and join on Zoom on Sunday at 4:00 pm here.)

3.Rabbi Jonah Rank is a friend and colleague who has reclaimed a medieval piyyut (Jewish liturgical poem) composed in Turkey in the 15th century and intended to be recited on Shabbat Hanukkah. In this piyyut, curiously, Hanukkah and Shabbat get into a fight, debating which of the two is the superior Jewish celebration. Here’s a link to the words; here’s a link to the music; and here’s a link to a sound file. It’s a catchy melody -- that I’m sure sounds very different from the way this piyyut was sung by Jews in 13th century Turkey.

4.Yiddish melodies, anyone? Here’s a link to a nice review of several Yiddish language Hanukkah melodies curated by The Forward's Rukhl Schaechter.

5.For some great Jewish learning from the scholars at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) on the seventh day of Hanukkah, go no further than clicking here.

6.And for Hamilton fans, here is a lovely, soulful rendering of Maoz Tzur, sung by Hamilton star Leslie Odom, Jr. and his wife, Nicolette Robinson.
7.From another Hamilton star, an original song by Daveed Diggs that owes more to Adam Sandler than to the Maccabees.

8.Finally, even though Jews don’t typically invest in lawn decorations on Hanukkah, this TikTok video (on a repeat loop) has a certain charm to it. 
Perhaps that’s because the song we hear in the background is Eyal Vilner’s Big Band recording of “Oh Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah.” -- which is worth listening to in its entirety (click here).

I would like to wish everyone a safe, healthy and joyous Hanukkah!

Sincerely,

Rabbi Carl M. Perkins 

PS. So, you still haven't figured out who that woman in the picture is? It's Golda Meir in 1919, holding a menorah in the Poalei Zion tableau of "Jewish Rebirth" in Milwaukee, WI, 29 years before the creation of the State of Israel.