All 8 candles

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Happy 8th and last night of Chanuka! 
Grandkids Eyal and Libby lit the eight candles.

I am spending a few months with my daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren down in Australia, in their home just north of Sydney. 
Whether you are doing Chanuka or Advent right now, I wish you all a happy holiday season.
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All candles brightly burning

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The 8th, final, candle of Chanuka tonight!

Tomorrow is the last day of the festival of lights.
The name of the 8th day is Zot Chanuka.  See why here.
According to tradition this last day is the essence of the holiday. 

Still unlit candles,  just waiting for their chance to shine.
What a difference, eh?  
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Chag sameach, happy Chanuka!
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Ten candles tonight

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Lots of light tonight, with the two Sabbath candles joining the Chanuka lights.
The chanukia, made from a liquid-filled bottle, and the candlesticks are both gifts from my sweet daughter, Naomi.
Tomorrow night we kindle the 8th and last candle of the Festival of Lights.
So happy Chanuka and Shabbat shalom!
Oh, and also chodesh tov (a good month) to you, as the Hebrew month of Tevet begins today.
And enjoy the last day of 2016.
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Warm candles on a freezing night

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Wishing you all Sabbath peace (Shabbat shalom) and a happy 6th candle of Chanuka!
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Our Scouts' Chanuka torch parade

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The Scouts in Meitar had their traditional first-night-of-Chanuka torch parade tonight!

It was freezing cold but the kids walked many blocks through the town.

Sufganiot, jelly donuts, were waiting at the end.

Happy Chanuka!

Painted on the Scounts den, the motto, "BE PREPARED."
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Final night of Chanuka

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Happy 8th and last night of Chanuka! 

A happy Chabad Chanuka party

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Tomorrow is the 8th and final day of Chanuka.
But yesterday we got one last Chanuka party in -- the nice one offered by Chabad.
Grandsons Dean and Eyal made pretty sheltered candles.

 Then they moved on to another craft table.
The Meitar community center's gym was filled with tables full of art supplies and the nice Chabad young ladies helped the younger kids create what would later be needed in the shadow theater.

Luckily the grandkids were too busy to notice this  boy helping his mother spin cotton candy,  known in Hebrew as sa'arot savta, grandmother's hair.
I figured the sufganiot / jelly doughnuts distributed at the end of the party would be enough sweetness. 

Eyal and Dean got front row seats on the mats, the better to see Rabbi Shneur Kurtz light the chanukia candles and  to hear as he called the winning numbers in the raffle.

Then the lights dimmed and wondrous stories of light were read out, beginning with the creation of sun and moon.
All the kids who had made stars came behind the screen and waved their stars.
When the narrative turned to spinning dreidls, all the kids who had cut out dreidl silhouettes  came up.
And so on.

I was amazed by how, with only low-tech ways, the Chabadnikim created a warm atmosphere of true Chanuka celebration.
The kids and I loved it.
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First night of Chanuka

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Grandsons Dean and Eyal kindled the first candle of Chanuka tonight together with some of their cousins.
Each used a chanukia [menorah] that he/she had made.

At Eyal's class party each first grader got to make their own sufgania [jelly donut].
Now vacation starts.
The kids don't go back to school until December 8.
Happy Chanuka!
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From Herod to Adam

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Christian neighbor-friends invited me to dinner yesterday evening.
Chanuka candles, Sabbath candles, and Advent candles all together  made lots of happy light--and even reflections for Weekend Reflections.
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That was before we heard the news from America, from Connecticut.
More appropriate now are  memorial candles, so many of them.
 Sigh . . .
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It being so near December 28, the Christian Feast of the Holy Innocents, their prayer  came to mind for today, this awful day:

"We remember this day, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents . . . Receive, we beseech thee, into the arms of thy mercy all innocent victims; and by thy great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish thy rule of justice, love, and peace . . . "           
 ---Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Holy Innocents
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Home-made Chanuka treats

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My daughter in Australia  is a lot braver than I am.
In the kitchen and everywhere else.
She actually chose to make soofganiot from scratch

 with the help of Libby,

Eyal, and Dean.

Ta-da! Perfect  jelly doughnuts-soofganiot for the holiday!
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I didn't get to taste these Chanuka vittles but I did get vicarious pleasure from Naomi's three photos of the family in action.
(Today is V day at ABC Wednesday.)
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Previous posts about soofganiot:
Floating in oil ,  An army travels on its stomach, and Happy [x]anuka.
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Like night and day

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This is how chanukiot looked last night, after all 8 + 1 candles were kindled.

And early this morning, this is what I saw in a street in Jerusalem!

A sure sign that today is Zot Chanuka, the 8th (last) day of the holiday.
The man was pouring boiling water from his electric kettle to melt the wax.

No longer needed this year, his Chanuka menorah will be clean and ready, come December 2012.

(Jewish days begin at sunset and end 24 hours later, at sunset; so last night we lit the candles for the last "day" of Chanuka.)
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For some funny views of my two Chanuka lamps please see here and here.
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An army travels on its stomach

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And while we are on the subject of soofganiot/jelly donuts, take a look at the (approximate) statistics on how many of them soldiers ate this week of Chanuka!
And that is only at their bases, not at home.

And while you are at the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's blog, you can cast your vote for their Photo of the Year.
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I just hope our soldiers will not feel too heavy to move after eating 385,000 soofganiot.
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Happy xanuka

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As far as I can figure, [x] in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the sound of a voiceless velar fricative.
Good enough for X-Day at ABC Wednesday, no?
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So happy [x]anuka! hehe
Today is the 8th and last day of Chanuka.

In Tel Aviv, on one of the fancy streets, this shop was full of many varieties of traditional fried in oil soofganiot (jelly doughnuts).

But I much preferred these simple free ones because of the nice and friendly Chabad man who was offering them to everyone after they lit the Chanuka lights.
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This was at HaTachana, the new complex of shops and restaurants that Tel Aviv recently opened.
It is the site of the old Turkish railway station and freight warehouses, etc.
You can see the brown railroad car in the background of the photo.

"Young Chabad" wishes you Happy Chanuka with their happy sign and joyful Jewish music.

Some of my family responded to the music and started dancing.
Some (secular) men joined in the circle, something the religious would not allow back in Jerusalem.
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Seven or nine? Or 8+1 ?

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A table outside a shop on Jaffa Street laden with all kinds of chanukiot.
And from the bakeries down the street the smell of soofganiot (jelly donuts) frying in oil.
Sure signs that Chanuka is coming!
The first light will indeed be kindled on December 20.

The Chanuka chanukiah, with eight arms and one for the servant candle (8+1=9), is not to be confused with the menorah, the lampstand with seven branches that was used in the Temple in ancient days.

The sculpture in the photo is "Menorat Hashalom" by Salvador Dali.
It is the first thing travelers see when they land at Ben-Gurion Airport and exit from Terminal 3.

In case you were thinking of climbing on it, note that the sign says "Climbing prohibited."
And just for fun enlarge the photo to see two young women stretched out for a rest.

The reflections in both pictures are for James' meme, Weekend Reflections.
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Reflections of Chanuka Past

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I know, I know, Chanuka ended last night. But I just HAD to share these memories for James' Weekend Reflections.

The proper way is to display your chanukia (Chanuka menorah) in a window or at the door or even outside in order to "publicize the miracle" that a cruse of ritually pure olive oil lasted for 8 whole days when the Temple of old was rededicated.

I wonder . . . would showing the Chanuka lights on Skype webcam would qualify as "publicizing the miracle"?

Reflections even on my old table.

And my mouse pretended it was part of the celebration by bearing light and changing to the colors of the candles.

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Tonight we return to the two Sabbath candles.

Gam zu le-tova. Shabbat shalom.

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Ner shmini

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Tonight we lit the 8th candle.
And ate latkes and soofganiot.
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Happy last day of Chanuka!
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Chanuka menorah with mouse

I never expected the flames of the Chanuka candles to be reflected in the wood of my old table. But it happened, and just in time for James' "Weedend Reflections" meme.

Even the mouse got into the light show, going from blue to green and red.

Today is the 8th (last) day of Chanuka.

Yesterday afternoon, just before sunset (the beginning of the Sabbath), the chanukiya full of candles was lit for the last time until next December.

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To "publicize the miracle" the Chanuka lamp is placed in a window.

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The ancient terrace wall seen from my back window is necessary because our village is built on the slopes (and the top) of a little mountain. I like to look at the stone wall and reflect on its history.

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Bench form Chanuka lamp

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Happy last day of Chanuka.
This unusual chanukiya in Hechal Shlomo museum shouted to me: "Take my picture for RuneE's 'Bench on Friday' meme!"

Apparently BENCH form Chanuka lamps have been made since the Middle Ages, in Europe and other places.
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Not on the one shown above, but on some, the bench form provided a place for the Chanuka lights on the “seat” level, while the “arms” supported two candle-holders. One could be used as the shamash (servant), while both together functioned as candle-holders for the one or sometimes two Sabbaths of Chanuka week.

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Sorry, but I don't have the provenance of this particular chanukiya.

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Shabbat shalom & chag sameach.

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The archetype SHADOW

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A shadow attempts to kindle a shadow candle.

Then comes lightbearer in the shadowlands . . . and there is light.

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Happy 7th day of Chanuka.

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UPDATE: Toby alerted me to a meme called Shadow Shot Sunday down in Australia at "Hey Harriet" blog. Let's try it!
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Floating in oil

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Yet another batch of soofganiot frying in hot oil!
What would Chanuka be without them?
Today I caught sight of these jelly-donuts-in-progress as I walked down Jaffa Road, near the shuk/souk/market.
The smell of calories attracted my attention.

(Enlarge the photo to see the finished product on the left.)

Soofgania comes from the Hebrew word that means sponge, sfog, which comes from a similar Ancient Greek word.
And indeed this dough absorbs hot oil like a sponge, as do latkes (grated potato pancakes), that other traditional Chanuka treat.

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The holiday was instituted not to celebrate the 165 BCE military victory of the Jews over the Seleucid Greeks (who defiled the Temple with pagan worship), but rather to celebrate the miracle of the olive OIL.
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When the victorious Jews came to rededicate the Temple, they found only one small vial of still-pure oil (i.e. with the seal of the high priest intact). They needed to rekindle the menorah and keep it burning throughout the night every night; but to press, prepare, and consecrate a fresh supply of oil would have taken eight days.
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The Talmud (in tractate Shabbat) says:
"What is Hanukah? The rabbis taught: . . . The vial contained sufficient oil for one day only, but a miracle occurred, and it fed the holy lamp eight days in succession. These eight days were the following year established as days of good cheer, on which psalms of praise and acknowledgment (of God's wonders) were to be recited."
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So that's why our "days of good cheer" are now filled with oily tasty soofganiot.
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