United Synagogue Youth Cycle-athon, Vancouver, 1971. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.09839)
If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca or 604-257-5199. To find out who has been identified in the photos, visit jewishmuseum.ca/blog.
The Jewish Renewal synagogue in East Vancouver, Or Shalom, is marking the eight nights of Chanukah by honoring eight “lights” of life on the city’s east side.
“I had this idea that it would be really special to open ourselves out to our community and to really focus on the notion of Chanukah being a celebration of light emitting from darkness, or the notion of Chanukah as being about light that seems unlikely to continue to shine but miraculously does persevere,” explained Rabbi Hannah Dresner, spiritual leader of the shul. “I would really like our community to focus on what it means to be a human being that is a light in the community.”
The synagogue will have a celebration this Saturday night that recognizes the contributions of eight individuals and organizations that add light to the east side community.
Among the honorees are John Jardine of Vancouver’s Native Education College; firefighters from the hall nearest Or Shalom; a group within the Or Shalom congregation devoted to aiding refugees; Kim Leary, executive director of the Homework Club associated with Britannia Secondary School; members of the Habonim-Dror youth movement; Angela Marie MacDougal, the director of Battered Women’s Support Services; Mount Pleasant Neighborhood House; and Rev. Sally McShane of First United Church, which runs programs in the Downtown Eastside.
“Our miracle story is that, when the Temple in Jerusalem was desecrated, they came in afterwards and wanted to relight the candelabra that was kept lit all the time but there wasn’t enough oil, so they lit it anyway and the miracle that’s celebrated is that that oil was sufficient to keep the lamp lit until olives could be harvested and oil could be pressed and brought forward to the Temple,” Dresner said. “So the notion is that if you light the light and tend it, that there is an element of trust and faith that, if we do our work, then the divine energy will join us in uplifting our world.”
Eight Leading Lights takes place Saturday, Dec. 12, at Or Shalom, 710 East 10th Ave., with a potato bar supper at 5:30 p.m. and communal singing and candlelighting at 7 p.m.
During the Festival of Lights, Chanukah, we light up candles in a special candleholder called a chanukiyah. Chanukiyot come in all kinds of designs, shapes and colors. That is why we will make our own unique version. To be more specific, it is going to be a meowukiyah, since our chanukiyah will take a shape of a cat.
Using white, green and black modeling clay, give your cat a face: make the eyes, the eyebrows, cheeks with whiskers – and don’t forget the pink mouth. Make green paw pads and decorate the pads just like the picture shows or the way you like it. After that, make a few green stripes and attach them to the top of the trunk. Give your cat a tail.
Our meowukiyah is ready! You can play with it, just like you play with your toys, or you can use it to decorate your home. If you take a picture of your creation and print it out, it would make a wonderful Chanukah postcard. Send the pictures of your artwork to curlyorli@gmail.com and win prizes from Curly Orli.
Have a Happy Chanukah, dear Jewish Independent readers!
Lana Lagoonca is a graphic designer, author and illustrator (lunart.ca). At curlyorli.com, there are more free lessons, along with information about Curly Orli merchandise.
Amelia Saltsman’s background makes for an interesting source for her cookbook The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen (Sterling Epicure, 2015). Her mother is Romanian and her father is Iraqi; they met in the Israeli army and then immigrated to Los Angeles, where Saltsman was born and grew up. She and her family live in Santa Monica.
Saltsman is a regular contributor on food in the media. One day, while cooking and sharing her ideas on various social media and her blog, the responses were so overwhelming, she realized “that a new generation of cooks was looking for a fresh approach to Jewish food.” Thinking about her heritage led her to explore her family’s culinary roots more deeply.
When she divided the year into two-month microseasons, she saw how foods meshed with the holidays occurring during those times. The result is 146 recipes plus 135 beautiful, enticing color photographs. Within each two-month section is the description of a holiday, the background image for which is a piece of Arab embroidery. And each two-month section contains recipes connected to the holiday, from starters, salads and soups, to side dishes, main courses and desserts.
There are essays on what comprises Jewish food, as well as explanations for how to use the cookbook, ingredient essentials, kitchen fundamentals, helpful kitchen tools and seven basic recipes. There are two special indexes – recipes by course and by kosher category – a bibliography, information on the holidays, a resource guide, acknowledgments, more about the author and a regular index.
Saltsman said in an interview with KQED Food, “We often overlook today … the innate seasonality of Jewish food, from the late-summer/early-fall pomegranates, apples and quince of Rosh Hashanah and the etrog (citron fruit) of Sukkot, to the spring lamb and herbs of Passover. That Jewish food can be reframed through the lighter, brighter lens of how we eat today while still being true to its traditional roots.”
This is not a kosher cookbook, but the recipes are labeled as meat, dairy, pareve (neutral) and fish, as well as vegan or gluten-free. “The food philosophy is that you should use well-raised, whole, real foods,” she said. “There are no artificial ingredients used in any recipes.”
Weights are given in imperial and metric measures. One of my favorite aspects of a cookbook is anecdotes on each recipe, which Saltsman includes, and which make for a very warm and personal read. One of my other favorite features is numbering of instructions, which is not used in this cookbook.
Recipes are from Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, Syria, Yemen, Persia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Eastern Europe and, of course, Romania and Israel. Some of the recipes I found particularly interesting include autumn slaw with beets, carrots and kohlrabi; Syrian lemon chicken fricasse; braised beef with semolina dumplings; apples in nightgowns; rustic almond-orange macaroons; rice with almonds and raisins; bulgarian cheese puffs; and whole fish with preserved lemons and herbs.
For Chanukah, here are two of her recipes.
BEST POTATO LATKES
(makes 24; pareve or dairy)
2 pounds peeled starchy potatoes
1 small onion
2 heaping tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour or potato starch
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
freshly ground black pepper
2 lightly beaten eggs
mild oil (grapeseed, sunflower or avocado)
sea salt
Using the large holes of a box grater or a food processor fitted with the grating disk, grate the potatoes (about five cups).
Grate the onion on the large holes of the box grater or use a food processor.
In a large bowl, stir together potatoes, onion, flour, salt, baking powder and a few grinds of pepper. Stir in eggs.
Line two or three sheet pans with paper towels. Place the prepared pans, the latke batter, a large spoon and a spatula near the stove.
Heat one or two large skillets over medium heat. Do not use more than 1/4-inch oil. When the oil is shimmering and a tiny bit of batter sizzles on contact, start spooning in the latke batter, making sure to add both solid and liquids Using the back of the spoon, flatten each spoonful into a circle three to four inches in diameter. Do not crowd the latkes in the pan. You will get four or five latkes in a 12-inch skillet.
Cook the latkes, flipping them once until golden on both sides, five to six minutes total.
Transfer the latkes to the prepared baking sheet. Cook the remaining batter in the same way, stirring the batter before adding more to the pan and adding oil as needed at the edge of the pan.
Arrange the latkes on a warmed platter, sprinkle with sea salt, and serve with applesauce or sour cream.
ROASTED SMASHED APPLES AND PEARS
(3 cups; pareve/vegan)
3 pounds medium-size apples and pears
a few sprigs thyme (optional)
2 to 3 tbsp water, fresh lemon juice, calvados, pear brandy or eau-de-vie, hard cider or dessert wine
ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
Halve the pears and apples through the stem end, then core them and place the halves, cut side down, on one or more sheet pans, spacing them one to two inches apart. If using the thyme, scatter it among the pears and apples. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil.
Bake the apples and pears until tender when pierced with a knife tip (30 to 40 minutes). When they are cool enough to handle, slip the fruits from the skins and back into the pan, scraping any pulp from the skins. Discard skins and thyme stems.
Mash the apples and pears with a fork, stirring in enough water or other liquid to help scrape up any brown bits from the pan bottom and lighten the texture of the fruit.
Scrape the mixture into a bowl and serve warm, at room temperature or cover and refrigerate up to a day ahead and serve cold.
This can also be made with all pears or all apples.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly walks in English in Jerusalem’s market.
Food writers are privy to a lot of recipes, and many of them, sadly, are repeats of ones already widely familiar, with small variations in ingredients. Infrequently, though, we get access to a compilation of recipes by a skilled author with an innovative eye and a dash of culinary talent, and the result is nothing short of inspiring.
That’s Daniella Silver’s The Silver Platter (Artscroll, 2015) in a nutshell. Silver has none of the accolades of a celebrity chef – she doesn’t call herself a professional and she never spent a day in culinary school. Still, what she lacks in education she more than makes up for in passion and ingenuity in her work. Her recipes take common, easily obtained ingredients and put them together in spectacular new ways that highlight their flavor and versatility. Lay your hands on The Silver Platter and you feel an urge to get into the kitchen and start cooking.
A mother of kids with allergies, Silver is sensitive about gluten and notes whether each of her recipes is pareve, gluten-free, freezable and if substitutions could make it appropriate for Passover. She collaborated with Norene Gilletz to write this book and adds “Norene’s Notes” at the end of each recipe. That’s great because Gilletz is a no-mess, no-fuss chef who offers great tips on food storage, easy cleanup tricks, uses for leftovers and substitution possibilities.
Each recipe has a color image of the prepared dish on the facing page and all look incredibly tempting. I have a weakness for salads and vegetarian dishes, so I loved the panko-topped bok choy with edamame, the shaved corn and asparagus salad, and the kale salad with roasted sweet potatoes. Eye candy abounds and, in almost every recipe, the ingredient list adds new flavors to old staples. For example, lentil cranberry salad; mango chicken with leeks; parsnip latkes; and roasted squash with red onion and pears.
The Silver Platter is eye candy in the best sense of the word. This is a recipe book that will earn its chefs heaps of praise as they create easy dishes with ingredients that are mostly kitchen staples. That means no hunting the grocery stores for that odd ingredient you’ve never heard of before. Nutritional information for each dish is listed in the appendix and more than half of the 160 recipes, which cover fish, meat, poultry, desserts, appetizers and soups and salads, are gluten-free and Passover-friendly.
This book is a keeper on the recipe shelf. Kudos to Silver on her winning combinations in a recipe book that will inspire even long-dormant chefs to get cooking. Here is but one example, straight from The Silver Platter.
BALSAMIC-BRAISED BRISKET
(meat, Passover, gluten-free, freezes well, yields eight to 10 servings)
1 beef brisket (4-5 lb /1.8-2.3 kg)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp olive oil
3 large onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 can (6 oz/170 g) tomato paste
2 tbsp honey
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup dry red wine or water
Norene’s Notes
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
The New Kosher: Simple Recipes to Savor and Share by Kim Kushner is a beautiful cookbook with more than 100 recipes that reflect many cultural traditions. There are full-color photos aplenty (by Kate Sears), easy-to-follow instructions, and each recipe has its own brief introduction.
Kushner’s bio notes that she spent “childhood summers in Israel with her extended family,” and there “learned to cook by eating, and by participating in family feasts.” In The New Kosher, she writes: “I was raised in a modern Orthodox home in a vibrant kosher community in Montreal and first learned to cook from my mother, who was born in Morocco and grew up in Israel. My mother’s life revolves around food, and her generosity through her love of feeding other people has been the greatest influence on my cooking.”
Now living in New York with scads of education and experience behind her, including the cookbook The Modern Menu (2013), there can be no doubt that the meals, salads, appetizers and desserts in The New Kosher will make for good eating – and for good sharing with family and friends.
Since it’s almost Chanukah, here are two recipes from the book, one for latkes and one for an applesauce that would go with them quite nicely or, as Kushner recommends: “It’s delicious on its own or served alongside roasted potatoes or even sliced brisket, and both kids and adults love it.”
KIM’S QUICK LATKES
(makes about 24)
5 Yukon gold or red potatoes, about 2 lb (1 kg) total weight, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 large yellow onion, cut into large chunks
2 large eggs
1⁄3 cup (2 oz/60 g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1⁄2 cup (4 fl oz/125 ml) rice bran
oil or canola oil
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a food processor, combine the potatoes, onion and eggs, and process with quick on-off pulses until the potatoes and onion are chopped into small pieces, about 30 seconds. Add the flour, baking powder, one teaspoon salt and 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper and process until the ingredients are well combined, a couple of seconds longer.
In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Using an ice-cream scoop … scoop up the potato mixture, drop into the hot oil, and flatten with a spatula or fork to about 1⁄4–1⁄2 inch thick. Cook only four latkes at a time so you don’t crowd the pan. Once the edges are browned, carefully flip the latkes over and cook until the underside is crisp and golden, about two minutes per side. Transfer the latkes to paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining potato mixture. You can serve them right away, but Kushner likes to arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for three to five minutes to give them a final crisping.
To freeze the latkes, let them cool completely, then freeze them in a single layer in large lock-top plastic freezer bags for up to one month. To serve, thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat in a 375°F oven until piping hot, eight to 10 minutes.
If you like, sprinkle the latkes with truffle salt just as they come out of the frying pan but, if you plan to do this, reduce the kosher salt to 1⁄2 teaspoon.
VANILLA BEAN APPLESAUCE
(makes 3-4 cups)
10–15 apples (any variety), 3.5–4 lb (1.75–2 kg) total weight, peeled, quartered and cored
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
In a large pot, combine the apples, vanilla bean and 1⁄4 cup water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for 35-50 minutes without stirring. (The water will prevent the apples from scorching.) The timing will depend on how many apples you use: the more fruit, the longer the mixture will need to cook. To test for doneness, pierce the apples with a fork. They should be extremely soft and almost falling apart.
Carefully remove the vanilla bean from the pot and let it cool for a few minutes. Then, using the tip of a sharp knife, scrape the seeds into the pot and discard the pod.
Let the apple mixture cool for about five minutes longer. If you prefer a smooth applesauce, transfer the mixture, in batches, to a food processor, and pulse until smooth. If you prefer a chunky sauce, use a potato masher to mash the fruit to your desired consistency. Let cool completely, then transfer to one or more glass jars. The applesauce will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.
A Google search for latke recipes reveals 341,000 results, so popular is the Chanukah treat.
My earliest memory of Chanukah catapults me back to Winnipeg’s North End of the 1940s and my grandparents’ cozy, clapboard house on the tree-lined boulevard of Burrows Avenue East. My mother and I lived there then; my father was still away at war. It was the time in a child’s life before words, when smells and sounds and tastes made meaning of the world. Although I couldn’t say latke, much less describe its savory, greasy goodness or its mouth-watering fragrance, I knew what it was with every fibre and neuron of my little being, and could hardly wait for my grandmother to place a warm, tiny morsel into my impatient mouth.
My aproned baba, spatula in hand, bent over the sizzling frying pan in the over-crowded kitchen, flipping the golden discs of shredded potato and onion like a juggler. The tantalizing odor rising from the stove told me that Chanukah was near. My grandmother would make frying pan after frying pan of latkes, stacking them in her large roasting pan, the only container large enough to store the hundreds of latkes she churned out. I knew, once the covered roaster found its way into the old Leonard refrigerator with the compressor on the top, that Chanukah was only a day or two away.
And, joyfully, now Chanukah is almost here again. Though more than 65 years have passed since that first delicious bit of latke found its way into my waiting, toothless mouth, the visions of that kitchen and the image of my beloved grandmother, who has been gone for 31 years now, are as clear as they were then, the taste and the smell just as vivid. And to celebrate, it’s time to pay tribute to the wonderful latke, the traditional Chanukah staple. If we take a look on the internet, we discover the potato latke and its many oily variations listed innumerable times. Even kitchen diva Martha Stewart has her own special recipes posted on her website – 16 at last count. (She also has other sections dedicated to the holiday that are worth checking out.)
When Rabbi Marc Gellman from Toronto appeared on the TV show Good Morning America many years ago to talk about Chanukah, he shared a basic recipe for latkes, with one difference – the addition of nutmeg. He also shared his secret to good apple sauce: “Core but do not peel about eight Mutsu or Rome apples. Cook with one-quarter cup of apple cider and a cinnamon stick.”
If you ever tire of the traditional potato latke, don’t despair. Believe it or not, there is the Jewish Food Experience latke archives to consult. More than 100 varieties can be found there to tempt you, including drunken apple, walnut, cauliflower-cheddar, Sephardi bunuelos, and dozens more, such as chestnut flour, risotto, and Norwegian lox. But I think I’ll pass on the brain latkes!
What to do if you love latkes, but not the fat? The Canadian Cancer Foundation suggests trying a no-oil “lean” latke. Coat a skillet with fat-free cooking spray and smooth the grated potatoes into a large, plate-sized pancake. One serving contains 162 calories and less than one gram of fat. And, if a latke just isn’t a latke without oil, then go ahead and splurge by adding one tablespoon only.
Every year, amateur cook Roger Mummert holds court in his Long Island kitchen for chefs with the tastiest and most extreme latke recipes. Last year, the event was covered by National Public Radio, which archived its report along with recipes for winners, including Larry’s firecracker latke poppers, spana-latke-kopita, and Mexi-latkes with jalapenos and red peppers.
There are many websites that give recipes on how to make a great latke. At the All Recipes site, there are tips about what kind of potatoes to use (russet), how to keep them from turning pinkish-brown (keep them under water) and how to make sure they don’t fall apart when you’re frying them (squeeze the potato mixture in a cheesecloth).
Who would have imagined that there’s also a whole sub-genre of latke humor lurking on the web? In his article “Ritual slaughter of the latke,” Raphael Finkel elucidates the intricate (and phony) Jewish laws that ensure that latkes are kosher. For example, just as kosher meat must be salted, Finkel says we must “remember to salt the potato and leave it to drain for at least 24 hours. We do this in memory of Lot’s wife, Latke, who was turned to salt. Use a lotta salt, in memory of Lot’s daughter, Lotta.” Is that a groaner, or what?
Believe it or not, a scholarly book titled Desperately Seeking Certainty: The Misguided Quest for Constitutional Foundations has a recipe in it for potato latkes. Honest! The authors use that as a starting point to envisage how that recipe might be reinterpreted by leading jurists like retired U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonio Scalia. “Scalia would conclude that latkes were a liberal distortion of the recipe as originally understood, so he would make matzah (unleavened bread ritually eaten at Passover) instead.” Meanwhile, the heavy thinkers at MIT engage in an annual food fight on the same weighty subject.
Speaking of weight, I’ll leave the last word to writer Marjorie Windgall, whose wishes for a modern-day Chanukah miracle are probably shared by latke fans everywhere. She quips, “My hope is that a miracle will occur and the calories of eight days will count as the calories of one.” Me, too!
Sharon Melnicer is a Jewish freelance writer, broadcaster and artist living in Winnipeg.
I thought readers would get a kick out of this. The Arbutus Shopping Centre has winter signs that all have the identical scene – basically Christmas gingerbread houses and bears snowboarding – that say things in several different languages, like “Joyeuses Fête,” “Happy Holidays,” in French, as well as something in Chinese and what you see in the photo in Hebrew.
I couldn’t understand one word of the Hebrew sign, so I took the photo and sent it to my daughter and son who decoded it immediately. It seems that the mall, with all good intentions, took the Hebrew words “Chag Sameach Shel” (“Happy Holiday of”) but wrote the Hebrew letters in the English order, left to right. Chag sameach shel Chanukah!
The Chabad-Lubavitch public chanukiyah in front of Karlsruhe Palace in Germany. When we light the candles, we are, in effect, praying that the light of renewal, love and peace will break out in the world. (photo by Michael Kauffmann via commons.wikimedia.org)
What is Chanukah about? Dreidels? Latkes? Doughnuts? Candles? All of the above? According to the rabbis of the Talmud, Chanukah is primarily about the remembering of a miracle. But what is the miracle?
Chanukah celebrates the miracle that Hashem did for us in the time of the Seleucids, when the Greek occupying power tried to wipe out Jewish culture and absorb us into the Hellenic world. Some say that the miracle is the oil that burned for eight days after the
Temple was re-consecrated, even though there was only enough for one day. Some say that it was the defeat of the Greek army, as the prayer “Al Hanissim,” recited every day during Chanukah, says. Perhaps it was both – the miraculous salvation of the Jews by a power not their own, which was clearly demonstrated by the oil that burnt for eight days. Perhaps that was Hashem’s way of signing His name.
Throughout Jewish history, many rabbis have pointed out that Chanukah is about chinuch, education. What is the way of education shown in Chanukah? It is the way of light. Each day, we light another candle to illumine the darkness and we place this menorah of lights in the window where we can show it to the world. Why on this holiday do we publicize the miracle? The Mevaser Tov (the Biala Rebbe Shlita) asks this question, pointing out, “We do not read the Megillah out in the street, or pour the four glasses of Pesach on the street corners!” The reason, he says, is that the light of Chanukah is a first dawning of messianic light – the light that has been hidden away since the beginning of the world. When we light the candles, we are letting loose some of this light and we are, in effect, saying a prayer that this light break out en masse in the world.
But what does this mean? What is the light of the Messiah? The Tanach says that the messianic age will be when: “the wolf will dwell with the lamb / and the leopard will lie down with the young goat / and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together / and a small child will lead them. / Also the cow and the bear will graze / their young will lie down together / and the lion will eat straw like the ox. / The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra / and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. / They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain / for the earth will be full of the knowledge of YHVH / as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9)
The light of the Messiah is the light of renewal, love and peace. This light that we light both commemorates and anticipates a miracle – the miracle that human beings and God work together to save the world.
Why did Hashem publicly save the Jews fighting the Greek empire? The Aish HaKodesh (Rabbi Kalonymous Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, died 1942, zt’l) explains by pointing out why the Jews of that time warranted a miracle. Surely Jews of many times and places (and certainly his own!) had suffered great losses at the hands of oppressors, murderers and tyrants. Homes, possessions, families had all been lost. Jews had been maimed, broken, scarred and killed. The reason, the Aish HaKodesh says, is that what most pained the Jews at that time was not the loss of loved ones, possessions or even life and limb. Not that they didn’t grieve for these things, but they were not what caused the Jews to rise up in prayer to God and in rebellion against the Greek empire. What animated the Jews was the threat not to their bodies, but to their spirit. When the Greek empire raised a hand against the values of Israel and threatened to wipe them out, then the Jews rose up. In other words, what provoked the miracle was that the Jewish people cared more about an injury to their spirits than their bodies. Faith like that, love like that, can provoke miracles.
We live in a time of great temptation to forget the spirit of Judaism in our anger and grief. The details are well known and do not need to be repeated here. The Jewish people, and the Jews of the state of Israel in particular, are attacked with lies, with knives, with axes, with stones, guns, bombs, cars, tractors and even buses. The temptation is great to respond with hatred, with violence. We are tempted to give back as we get, and some try to, usually with disastrous consequences. Witness the mob in Israel that attacked a Jew they thought was an Arab, or when another killed an Eritrean man. To lose sight of our highest values at a time like this – values of justice, peace, love for all the nations and unwavering menschlichkeit – is to lose our hope to be a light to the nations. That light is the light of Chanukah. Experience teaches us that only from that light will miracles come. That light itself is a miracle.
Matthew Gindin is a writer, lecturer and holistic therapist. As well as teaching holistic medicine, Gindin regularly lectures on topics in Jewish and world spirituality, and has a particular passion for making ancient wisdom traditions relevant in the modern world. His work has been featured on Elephant Journal, the Zen Site and Wisdom Pills, and he blogs at Talis in Wonderland (mgindin.wordpress.com) and Voices (hashkata.com).
Dreidels for sale in Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem. (photo by Adiel lo via commons.wikimedia.org)
“Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay, and when it’s dry and ready, oh dreidel I shall play.” This children’s song has been sung for generations on Chanukah. A dreidel (Yiddish for spinning top; drey is Yiddish for spin) is a unique toy. It is still called by its original name all these centuries later and is enjoyed by children (and adults) of all ages the world over during Chanukah. It is also perhaps the oldest toy in history, but it is not only functional – it is wrought with symbolism.
In Hebrew, a dreidel is called a sevivon. It dates back to the time of the Greek-Syrian rule over the Holy Land, which set off the Maccabean revolt that culminated in the Chanukah miracle. Learning Torah was outlawed and was punishable by death. The Jewish children resorted to hiding in caves in order to study their beloved Torah. When Greek soldiers were on patrol and would approach them, the children would pull out their dreidels and pretend to be playing a game instead of learning. By playing dreidel during Chanukah, we are reminded of the courage of these brave children.
Dreidels generally do not require any maintenance at all. They are silent but strong. They are thrilled to be taken out every year for Chanukah from the cupboard to be a plaything, to see the sheer delight on the faces of generations of Jewish people who have survived so much persecution. They don’t mind if we touch them with our oily or sticky fingers, spin them endlessly, let them fall onto the floor repeatedly in our enthusiasm, smash them down mercilessly when we lose, throw them up in the air when we win, or spin them upside down to show off for our friends and family. They are so happy to be used for the eight-day festival, which this year begins on the evening of Sunday, Dec. 6, and continues until and including the last night, which will be on Sunday, Dec. 13.
Dreidels come in plastic, wood, metal and even crystal and are collector items, too. But, dreidels are not just objects to be admired and collected, they are actually used to play a game, which has rules. Players gather around a table and divide up a pile of items for tokens (coins, candies, peanuts, etc.). Players take turns spinning the dreidel to see how it will fall and then try to win the whole pot based on the turns. A dreidel has four sides and each side has a Hebrew letter: a nun, a gimmel, a hey and a shin.
After spinning, the top lands and the letter that is facing up determines what happens next. For nun, meaning nisht (nothing), you don’t do anything. For gimmel, meaning gantz (the whole thing), you get to keep the whole pot and then everyone has to put one item in to make a new pot. For hey (halb, or half), you get half of the pot and for shin (shtel arein), you have to put one in the pot. It boils down to having to give or take. It also gives us something to think about while we’re waiting for our next turn. Are we going to be givers or takers? Give: G-d gives us so much, so we can share with others this Chanukah (money, food, time, etc.). Take: we can take upon ourselves an additional aspect of spirituality (a Torah class, a mitzvah, synagogue attendance, etc.).
A dreidel is not a simple toy either, though. It is imbued with the blood of martyrs, the tears of the pious and the endurance of the faithful. No matter what material forms it, a dreidel is made of pretty tough stuff, just like us.
The letters on the dreidel spell out the Hebrew phrase, “Nes gadol haya sham,” which translates as, “A great miracle happened there” (meaning in the Holy Land). Israeli dreidels have the letter pey instead of shin to represent the word poh (here).
Aside from being a symbol of courage and a fun game, how does the small, simple dreidel embody the Chanukah message? What’s striking about the dreidel is that its “religious” aspect isn’t readily apparent upon looking at it. In fact, while it’s spinning, we can’t even make out any letters at all and certainly cannot make words out of the letters even when the dreidel stops. Its message is hidden.
Our lives are like a game of dreidel. In the course of our hectic day-to-day routine, we are often too busy to notice the “letters” – those small and big miracles that accompany us all the time. Taking a first breath upon waking in the morning, stepping onto the floor, being able to get dressed, being able to eat, pray, read the newspaper, drive to work and do all of the activities that we may take for granted in our busyness.
I like to think of the letters of the dreidel as modes of being. We all have our “gimmel” days, when we feel that everything is going great for us. Then there are our “hey” days, when things are going well but could be better. On the “shin” days, we spend time wishing for the hey and gimmel days. The “nun” days, when all the good things seem like a distant memory, we feel that we may never have another hey or gimmel day again in our whole lives.
Each of these letters though, represents only one face of the dreidel – a single perspective of the whole. Together, they spell out a sentence – and, every once in awhile, we have to give the spinning dreidel a break and reflect on its message, “A great miracle happened there.” This, of course, refers to the miracles of Chanukah that occurred in the Holy Land when the situation seemed beyond hope. The commitment of a few people turned the situation around (just like a dreidel) and brought about the miracle through G-d’s salvation. The Maccabees didn’t dwell on the fact that they were being oppressed and persecuted by an enemy larger and stronger than they were. They focused on the gimmel that was on the other side of the shin. They used this attitude to act to create a vehicle for a divine miracle.
It’s important to remember that whatever letter we seem to land on, it’s all part of one dreidel and that the dreidel has the message that miracles can and do happen every day. We can transform the dark situations of our lives into the bright lights of the Chanukah candles to help us battle the darkness. We only have to draw on the strength of the Maccabees, those brave children and the letters of the dreidel. When they fall, they get up, with a little help, and spin ecstatically over and over again.
After the terror we have seen over the past few months in Israel every single day, as well as the terror in Europe and all around the globe, we might think of how we can help during these horrific attacks on completely innocent civilians. In our physical world, there is the notion of cause and effect known as the “butterfly effect,” where a butterfly can flap its wings in one part of the world and cause a storm on the other side of the globe.
In a spiritual realm, a small positive action can push away and dispel much evil, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, said – a tiny light can dispel much darkness. How appropriate for us today. We can get involved in positive actions of any type wherever we find ourselves. This goodness will work to counteract the evil, even on the other side of the world.
We need not feel helpless at the terrible news we receive constantly, as there is much we can do through our positive actions. Let’s hope and pray that, as we say in the second blessing on the candles each night of Chanukah, “Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days, at this time,” that G-d will continuously send us miracles and protection wherever we are in the world and wherever His protection is needed.
Chag samayach!
Esther Tauby is a local educator, writer and counselor.
