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A/B Ñ Brachot/Songs A DIFFERENT LIGHT THE HANUKKAH BOOK OF CELEBRATION A how-to guide to a creative candle lighting ceremony: blessings, songs, stories, readings, games and cartoons to engage adults, teenagers and children on each of the eight nights BY NOAM SACHS ZION AND BARBARA SPECTRE A sequel to Marc Chagall, 1946 (© ADAGP, Paris, 2000) A Different Night: The Family Participation Haggadah iii A DIFFERENT LIGHT THE HANUKKAH BOOK OF CELEBRATION Table of Contents The Hanukkah Celebration: I. Rituals, Retelling and Rejoicing Introduction and User’s Guide . viii A. Brachot — Blessings for the Hanukkah Candles . 1 B. Songs — Traditional and Modern . 4 C. The Maccabees’ “Megillah” . 15 8 historical readings, one for each night, that retell the dramatic adventures of Antiochus the King and Mattathias the Priest, of Judah and Judith, of Hannah and her seven sons along with contemporary anecdotes D. Profiles in Modern Jewish Courage . 50 8 biographical stories of heroism of all kinds to be read aloud, one for each night, about great Jewish men, women and teenagers as they face moments of crisis and find resources for daring action: Natan Sharansky, Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, Yigal Allon, Golda Meir, Bella Abzug as well as tzedakah heroes and Righteous Gentiles E. Spiritual Meditations for Personal Rededication and Family Renewal . 99 Optional ceremonies for candle lighting Family and Friends, Food and Fun: II. Gambling, Gift Giving, Games and Gelt Introduction: Guidelines for Celebrating . 115 A. Telling the Tale in Words and in Cartoons . 119 Comics by Tanya Zion: Off to the Olympics! • Antiochus the Mad Maniac • Judah vs. the Elephants • Judith and the General who Lost his Head • Rebus: the Cruse of Oil With Recommended Book, Music and Resource List B. Ethnic Foods : Recipes and their Rationale . 128 Potato Latkas • Moroccan Latkas • Herbed Latkas • Hot Spicy Wine • Blintzes • Sugar Cookies • Persian Potato Omelette iv C. Games and Activities for All Ages. 130 Playing with Fire and Science Experiments with Light • Word Games • Games of Sight and Memory • Quizzes and Guessing Games • Number Games • Arts and Crafts and Drama • Gambling and Spinning Dreidel • Sports • Identifying Menorah Logos • Games of Skill and of Chance D. Gift and Gelt Giving Ideas . 155 8 Ideas for Hanukkah Giving, such as Quality Time Gifts, Homemade Gifts, Grab Bag, and Tzedakah Gifts • Gifts That Create Community by Lewis Hyde E. Christmas and Hanukkah: E. American Dilemmas and Encounters . 161 “Merry Chanukka”: Holiday Practices 1880-1950 • The December Dilemma by Charles Silberman • How Billings, Montana, Defended Hanukkah (1993) • The Mensch Who Saved Christmas (1995) • A Crusade Against the Jewish Christmas Tree (1958) F. Hanukkah Exotica: E. On the Origin and Development of the Dreidl, Card Playing, and Other Hanukkah Customs . 177 I by Rabbi David Golinkin Gallery: The Art of Hanukkah . 183 Hanukkah for Today: Contemporary Jewish Thinkers III. Reflect on the Relevance of the Festival of Lights Introduction. 193 1. David Hartman: Trusting in a New Beginning . 195 2. Daniel Gordis: The Miracle of Survival . 198 Harold Schulweis: Something out of Something . 200 3. Irving Greenberg: Two Kinds of Hero . 202 4. Judith Kates: Judith, the Hidden Heroine . 207 5. Mordechai Gafni: Spiritual Illumination . 213 6. Herman Wouk: Hanukkah Today . 224 7. Mordecai Kaplan: Active, Not Passive, Assimilation. 227 8. Theodore Herzl Gaster: The Right to be Different . 230 Appendix: Frequently Asked Questions . 235 I How to Light Right: The Laws of Candle Lighting I Getting the History of Hanukkah Right: Legends or Facts? I Halley’s Comet and Hanukkah Glossary . 248 v also in this holiday series of the companion volume to A DIFFERENT THE BOOK OF LIGHT THE B CELEBRATION IG BOOK OF is PERSPECTIVES ANDHANUKKAH Pluralist Perspectives on the Festival of Lights : I. Multiple Jewish Identities, Multiple Versions of Hanukkah: PROFILES A Pluralism of Interpretation How different communities and denominations find their particular identity symbolized in the light of the Menorah including Jewish Renewal, Reform, Reconstructionist, Habad, and Secular Zionist Gallery: The Children’s Festival of Lights II. The Historians’ Hanukkah: Recalling the Worst Jewish Civil War Gallery: Elephants at War with the Jews III. The Philosophers’ Hanukkah: Where Hellenism and Judaism Differ Gallery: Warrior Menorahs IV. The Rabbis’ Hanukkah: Rabbinic Reflections on the Warrior, the Zealot, the Martyr and the Family Peacemaker V. The Scientists’ and the Kabbalists’ Thoughts on Lights and Lamps Exploring the scientific understanding of physical light and the Jewish understandings of the symbolic light of the Menorah Gallery: Temple Menorahs and Traditional Hanukkiot Profiles in Modern Jewish Courage VI. Profiles in Modern Jewish Courage Yoni Netanyahu (the Raid on Entebbe), Chana Szenes (Israeli paratrooper in Hungary), Januscz Korczak (father of the orphans in Warsaw), teenage tzedakah heroes, two civil rights rabbis in Atlanta and in Buenos Aires, and Righteous Gentiles The Family Participation Haggadah A DIFFERENT NIGHT for Passover The FamThe Leader's Guide to for customizing one’s own seder ily Participation Haggadah Otto Geismar, A DIFFERENT 1927 by Noam Zion and David Dishon The Haggadah was meant to facilitate a lively people play creative roles. Don’t let the printed dialogue between parent and child, leader and word paralyze the imagination. Talk. Discuss the A D participant. Unfortunately, the Pesach Seder Exodus. You are free. This Haggadah invites you to NIGHT becomes, too often, a rote reading — a service to shape your own Seder. IFFERENT “zoom through” rather than a drama in which — Rabbi David Hartman • The Family ParticipationN HaggadahIGHT • The Leader’s Guide by N vi oam Zio n a S nd H D O A a tto L v Gei O id 1 sma M D 927 r, HA is RT ho MA n N IN ST ITU TE DEDICATIONS rp,Sehæ tKæWnj} The many people who worked on this Hanukkah project as writers, editors, consultants and sponsors would like to dedicate this book to several very special forebears: In honor of the 80th birthday of Rabbi Moses Bertram Sachs, ywlh ˜ymynb hçm br affectionately known as Opa Moshe and Buddy, and in memory of his wife Frances Rose Sachs from his family, friends, and students: by Noam and Marcelle, Mena and Marc, Sharon and Jerry, and all the grandchildren Bunny Rosenthal with Eddie and Ellen, Roy and Leslee, Lynn and Billy, and Leonard and Lainy Sachs and family; Henry and Bella Muller; Henriette and Avi Sonnenberg-Zion; Mel and Judy Sykes, Earl Schwartz, Jeremy Kraff and Morris Rosenfeld, Sandy and Ken Brown, Jerry and Gali, Merle and Anna Hillman; David and Linda, Stanley and Jean Estrin; Sally and David Lowenfeld, Miriam and Forrest Foss, Kass and Joan Lipnick Abelson, Michael and Hedy Milgrom, Albert J. Winn and Scott Portnoff; Jack and Barbara Blumberg (Am Echad Congregation, Waukegan), Leonard and Rivian Silesky, Walter Silesky, Racha and Charles Marks, Esta and Jerry Gold, Betty Kohn and family and the B’nai Emet Synagogue in St.Louis Park, Minnesota; and the Jerusalemites Sarah Fienberg, Irvin and Betty Beiner, Jack and Rose Hoffmitz, Marcia Abrams, Arnold Sullum, Ray Kaplan, Dorothy S. Kripke, Margie and Moshe Tutenauer, Will and Miriam Shuchat, Jack J. and Rhoda Cohen, Avraham and Leona Feder, Harry and Annie Allen and the Moreshet Yisrael Synagogue. In honor of my husband, Phil, our children, David, Michal and Guy, Levi and Galia and our grandchildren, Omri and Tamar from Barbara Spectre In honor of Paul, Rachel and Laura Wiener and the many joyous Hanukkahs we shared from David and Sheila Wiener, their parents In memory of Grandfather Samuel Chazankin, l |z ˜yqnzj lawmç from Gloria hbhz and Mark ykdrm hçm Bieler and family In honor of the 80th birthdays of Harry and Marilyn Saltzberg from Marc ykdrm Saltzberg Harper’s Magazine, NY, 1890 (Beit Hatefutsot Photo Archive) vii INTRODUCTION AND USER’S GUIDE FOR THE HANUKKAH BOOK OF CELEBRATION RITUALS, RETELLING AND CELEBRATING here is, of course, no “Seder” Hanukkah or “Haggadah” for The Family Participation Haggadah: Hanukkah in the sense that there is one for Pesach. Nor did A Different Night — enlivened the seders of Tthe Rabbis or the authors of this book intend for you to have a tens of thousands. Similarly, A Different long, sit-down ritualized meal like the Passover Seder or to read aloud Light will give you more pleasurable options an extensive religious text like the Haggadah. Hanukkah is and should and illumination for each of the eight days remain much more informal and modest in its family celebration. without losing the easy-going flexibility of Still there is a place for a limited “Seder” Hanukkah. with brief readings in order to help us Very simply put, our Seder Hanukkah is choreograph the half hour or so we spend composed of three parts: Rituals, Retelling, around the Menorah every evening. This will and Celebration. The rituals are the lend it sanctity and substance as well as traditional blessings (with transliteration) as creativity and variety. In this book you will well as medieval and modern songs. For find ideas for a beautiful, simple candle those most frequently asked questions about lighting or for a Hanukkah dinner or party. exactly how and when to light the candles, see Our target audience is not only parents of the survey of traditional views in Questions and young children (see Parental Guidelines for Answers: How to Light Right (page 236). Celebrating with Young Children in Chapter II, In addition, we have written original page 116), but also thoughtful adults and Spiritual Meditations to accompany the teenagers, because Hanukkah is not “for candle lighting. These poems express the children only.” We have outgrown a merely desire for personal and family rededication. “pediatric Hanukkah” and we need a more The retelling involves a kind of mature and an even more entertaining “haggadah” or “megillah” that attempts to fill version.
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