Blog Archives
YOUTUBES FOR CHANUKAH
1) A country western version of the dreydle song
2) For those of you who remember the Mac vs. PC commercials, here is the Christmas/Chanukah parody
3) The Maccabeats sing about Chanukah
Contributed by Jerry Weissman, who commented: “I like them all, but the first one by Captain Smartypants is fun.”
CHANUKAH AND THE MOON © JEFFREY WARREN HYMAN
This year the Jewish holiday of Chanukah begins 6 days before the new moon on 12/16 and it ends 2 days after the new moon on 12/24.
Chanukah is always the darkest 8-day period for the sun and moon in tandem, and the sun and moon in tandem are always furthest South for the year. The sun is always furthest South in December (12/23) and the moon always reaches its extreme southern declination around the new moon in December. With the southern tilt of the earth the moon is now furthest South for the year. And the sun and moon are both always furthest South for the year on the last night on December 23 … 5-6 pm for the sun and 6-7 pm for the moon. The last night of Chanukah is an amazing sight and event. The ancients knew all about this, while the astronomers today could care less about this.
SEVEN IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT CHANUKAH
1. It is always the darkest period for the sun and moon in tandem for the entire year.
2. The sun and moon can be seen in tandem furthest South for the entire year.
3. There is only a crescent moonlight now or no moonlight. There are only around 12 hours of moonlight on eight nights, and between 7PM and midnight only around 7 hours of moonlight for eight nights. So Chanukah is really a darkness festival, while Sukkoth with about 56 hours of moonlight on eight nights you might say is the true “Festival of Lights”. Perhaps that’s why Jewish people sleep outdoors in open huts (Sukkot) to harness all that Harvest moonlight and to witness the lunar splendor at that time.
4. Chanukah is said to be an emotionally trying period. People shouldn’t be alone then and they should give gifts now to cheer each other up.
5. There is also a navigational alert for the sun and moon now. In many locales the sun and moon give South compass headings even though they will rise East (ESE) and set West (W/SW).
6. The 4 sided Jewish Dradle depicts the four quarters of the moon:
FIRST QUARTER = H win a little (the waxing moon).
SECOND QUARTER (the week before full moon) = G The best week of the month. Win a lot
THIRD QUARTER = S (the week after full moon) lose a little. This is the mellow waning moon in the 3rd quarter.
THE FOURTH QUARTER = N (the week before new moon) Lose a lot.
7. Every year on the last night of Chanukah (12/23 this year) the sun and moon in tandem will set furthest South for the year. This is one of the great annual astronomical sightings and it’s the same as it was in ancient times.
Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Warren Hyman. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.moonscope.com
GOBBLE TOV! FROM THE GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE
EDITOR’S NOTE: The lighting of the Diane Kaplan Memorial Chanukaiah will be at 5:30 every night for eight nights, starting on Wednesday, November 27, the day before Thanksgiving.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013311200005
CELEBRATING THANKSGIVUKKAH:THREE OF THE BEST YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON THE SUBJECT
Best enjoy this because it will not happen again until 79,811 CE and that is longer than Wonder Bread takes to get hard.
Celebrating: Thanksgivukkah, videos you do not want to miss!
Contributed by Jerry Weissman
The confluence of Thanksgiving and Chanukkah by Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer
Note: Gerald L. Zelizer is the rabbi of Congregation Neve Shalom in Metuchen, N.J.
American Jews shouldn’t fret too much at this year’s awkward overlap of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. Sure, it may require some culinary dexterity at Thanksgiving dinner. But thematically, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving are an even more perfect fit than Hanukkah and Christmas.
This year’s confluence is a once-in-about-2,000-lifetimes experience. Hanukkah and Thanksgiving on the same day last happened in 1861, except that Thanksgiving wasn’t established until 1868! And the next time the first day of Hanukkah will happen on Thanksgiving – Thursday, November 28 – will be in the year 79,811. Who can plan that far in advance? So let’s enjoy this solar and lunar overlap and celebrate all that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving have in common. Religiously, there is a direct line connecting Thanksgiving, Sukkot and Hanukkah. Here’s how it works.
American Thanksgiving had a close affinity to biblical Sukkot. Both holidays included the theme of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest. It’s likely that the pilgrims who linked their migration and experience with the ancient Israelites learned to thank God for their harvest from the stories they read in what they called the “Old Testament”.
And Sukkot, in turn, was very much linked to Hanukkah. In fact, Hanukkah may have actually been Sukkot. The Second Book of Maccabees records that after the Maccabees cleansed and rededicated the Temple, “the sanctuary was purified on the twenty-fifth of Kislev (Hanukkah). The joyful celebration lasted for eight days. It was like Sukkot, for they recalled how only a short time before they had kept the festival while living like animals in the mountains, they observed the joyful celebration, which lasted for eight days. And so they carried lulavim and etrogim and they chanted hymns to God, who had so triumphantly led them to the purification of the Temple.”
So Hanukkah was probably a delayed Sukkot, with its theme of Thanksgiving spilling over from the harvest into the cleansed and rededicated Temple. The overlap of American Thanksgiving with the Sukkot/Hanukkah Thanksgiving, then, is not a calender oddity, but a calender tour de force.
We are accustomed to Hanukkah’s proximity to Christmas and to the influence of that holiday on some of the cultural celebrations of Hanukkah. In reality, Christmas and Hanukkah are thematically opposite. Hanukkah celebrates the affirmation of Torah through both a war against the Syrians and a civil war. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, whom Paul and the early church fathers understood as replacing the authority of the Torah. On the other hand, Thanksgiving, Sukkot and Hanukkah all share a theme of giving thanks: in the first two, for the harvest; in the last, for the rededication of the Temple.
So here’s to giving thanks for this unusual but perfect confluence. It’s not just the culinary ease of substituting latkes for sweet potatoes with the turkey. There is a core message that links them together beautifully.
Contributed by Jerry Weissman
CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS
Please mark your calendars to remind you of these upcoming events.
- Wednesday, 11/27/2013—Thursday, 12/05/2013: Chanukkah.
- Wednesday evening, 11/27/2013, 5:30 P.M.: Erev Chanukah. Lighting the first candle of the Diane Kaplan Memorial Chanukkiah at the Civic Center. If you come at 5:30.30, you’ll probably miss it, especially if it is cold. We will light each successive candle on each successive night of Chanukah at precisely 5:30 P.M.
- Thursday, 11/28/2013: Thanksgiving, and the first day of Chanukah. We will light the second candle at precisely 5:30 P.M.
- Sunday, 12/01/2013, 2:30 P.M.: Thanksgivukkah party at the home of Stuart and Hilary Lewin, concluding with the 5:30 lighting of the fifth candle of the Diane Kaplan Memorial Channukiah at the Civic Center.
- Monday, 12/02/2013, 12:00 noon: MAJCO Candle lighting at the State Capitol in Helena.
The Aitz Chaim Ram's Horn 