Hanukkah!

Hanukkah has begun! This Friday Erev Shabbat was also the first night of Hanukkah. We were fortunate to have an invitation to spend the entire Shabbat with our friends Rachel and Schlomo, in their lovely home in Nachlaot, near the shouk, Machane Jehuda.

We have been marvelling at the number and variety of Hanukkah menorahs--Hanukkiot--in Jerusalem. Their construction seems to me to exhibit the hermeneutic principle of constraint and freedom that is characteristic of what Fisch identifies as Hebraism: there is the constraining obligation to a prior authoritative word that you covenantally accept, and there is also a release of imaginative and creative power to carry out that word. Dr. Schaeffer spoke of "form and freedom," and it is essentially the same thing. Here, there is the requirement to have eight candles that are all equal, one for each of the days of Hanukkah, and one other candle that is set apart and distinguished in some way--it is not one of the Hanukkah lights, but only the Shamesh, the helper, to provide light for lighting the other candles, since it is a rule that you cannot use the Hanukkah candles for any other purpose (such as providing illumination in your home) than celebrating the miracle of Hanukkah--the dedication of the temple, when the limited supply of sanctified oil miraculously burned for eight days. So we have seen wonderful displays of them all over Jerusalem. Here are a few:








We decided to make our own, which is another option. Ellen suggested buying children's colored clay, so here is Libby constructing our own temporary Hanukkiah:



In the afternoon we walked around the busy streets of Jerusalem and through the shuk, where everyone was busy shopping for Shabbat, and then to our friends' lovely home:


We lit the first light of Hanukkah, then the Shabbat candles to welcome in Shabbat, and then went to Friday night services. After that, dinner and early bed. Schlomo and I were up at 5:00 to go to a synagogue that displays its zeal for prayer by starting the Shabbat morning service as early as permitted. Libby and Rachel went to a later service at a different synagogue, that displays its zeal by joyful singing. Constraint and freedom!

After lunch and our Sabbath rest we all walked to another friend's house for a study session--it is traditional to spend some time during Shabbat studying Torah or Talmud. We read and discussed some of the verses in Jeremiah, chapter six, where Jeremiah prophecies against the inhabitants of Jerusalem: "they say 'peace, peace,' but there is no peace." There was something so immediate and uncanny about reading this while sitting in a home in Jerusalem.

We returned to end Shabbat with the brief Havdala service, and then lit two candles for the second night of Hanukkah. Here is Rachel and Schlomo's Hanukkiah, in a glass case for displaying outside:


When we got back to our apartment, we lit our own. Happy Hanukkah!