Chivas and Latkes, It's What's for Dinner

Gather 'round, my darlings, this is the story of Chanukah.

So here's how it goes; long, long ago (approximately 2,300 years, to be more precise) there lived a Syrian king named Antiochus. Now, like most kings, Antiochus wanted every person living in his land to believe what he believed and to do as he said. He wanted all the Jews to basically stop being Jewish and begin to worship the Greek gods, as he did. But us Jews, well, we are strong willed people, we stand up for what we believe in and we never pay full price for electronics. But I digress. So most of the Jews thought Antiochus was full of it and told him to shove it. One of those people was Judah, Judah Maccabee. Luckily, Judah had four brothers and with their help, and the help of lots of other Jews, they fought the Syrians and claimed their holy land (Israel). It took them about three years but I'd say that's really good timing considering how long Israel's wars last now (forever).

So now they find themselves in the Jerusalem temple except it's not really much of a Jewish temple anymore because the Greeks had taken over it with all their statues and feta cheese! Judah and the boys took it upon themselves to de-Greek the temple and make it Jewish again. By the time they finished, it was the 25th day of Kislev, which is a day on the Jewish calendar that translates to anywhere between late November to late December on the Western calendar. Now, in every Jewish tem

ple (or synagogue) there is an eternal light, which is essentially an oil lamp of some sort that should never be extinguished. But here's the thing, during the refurbishing of the temple, they only found a small amount of oil that would light the lamp for about one day. Here's the the show stopper though, the part you've been reading this whole story for: this tiny amount of oil that was supposed to last for only one day, it lasted for 8 DAYS. That's right, 8 days and 8 nights, which was just enough time to compress some olives and make more oil. Man, I'm a sucker for miracles.

Being that we're Jewish and all of our holidays and laws are based on traditions, Judah Maccabee and the Jewish people decided to throw another tradition on the list and make a celebration out of this awesome miracle. So now, every year for Chanukah we light a candle each night for 8 days to commemorate the time that Judah and his army fought off the Syrians and reclaimed our temple. We also eat oily foods like Latkes (potato pancakes) and Sufganiot (jelly donuts) to represent the oil that lasted for so long. In America it is common for people to give and receive gifts duri

ng Chanukah but this exchanging of gifts does not actually take place in Israel, it's more of an American tradition (which I think was created because Jewish parents felt bad for their kids because all of the Christian and Catholic kids were getting gifts for Christmas).

So if you didn't know, now you know. This year, Chanukah is from December 1, 2010 to December 9, 2010 so you guys have about 3 more days to get your Chanukah on! Chanukah Sameach!! (Happy Chanukah!!)

TTFN XX