Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Hanukkah (Second Edition): The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration
    Hanukkah (Second Edition): The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration
    Hanukkah (Second Edition): The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration
    Ebook297 pages3 hours

    Hanukkah (Second Edition): The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration

    By Ron Wolfson

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Create a meaningful and happy Hanukkah in your home—with story, celebration, food and song.

    This newly-designed, easy-to-use edition of a classic spiritual sourcebook offers updated information, more family ideas, and new resources for every aspect of your holiday celebration.

    Information on every aspect of Hanukkah is covered, including:

    • The story of Hanukkah
    • Celebrating—for families of every constellation
    • Songs and prayers in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish (with clear transliterations)
    • Recipes for traditional and modern Hanukkah foods
    • “December Dilemmas”—coping with other traditions’ celebrations
    • Firsthand explanations and ideas from real-life families around America

    Hands-on advice and practical suggestions invite families into Hanukkah’s spirituality and joys, from the making of luscious latkes and Hanukkah crafts to the stories of the heroism and the miracle that are remembered every year with the lighting of the hanukkiyah.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTurner Publishing Company
    Release dateMay 2, 2013
    ISBN9781580237499
    Hanukkah (Second Edition): The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration
    Author

    Ron Wolfson

    Dr. Ron Wolfson, visionary educator and inspirational speaker, is Fingerhut Professor of Education at American Jewish University in Los Angeles and a cofounder of Synagogue 3000. He is author of Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community; The Seven Questions You're Asked in Heaven: Reviewing and Renewing Your Life on Earth; Be Like God: God's To-Do List for Kids; God's To-Do List: 103 Ways to Be an Angel and Do God's Work on Earth; Hanukkah, Passover and Shabbat, all Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs Art of Jewish Living family guides to spiritual celebrations; The Spirituality of Welcoming: How to Transform Your Congregation into a Sacred Community; A Time to Mourn, a Time to Comfort: A Guide to Jewish Bereavement and Comfort; and, with Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, What You Will See Inside a Synagogue (all Jewish Lights), a book for children ages 6 and up. He contributed to May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor, Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un'taneh Tokef, All These Vows—Kol Nidre, and We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism—Ashamnu and Al Chet (all Jewish Lights). Dr. Ron Wolfson is available to speak on the following topics: Building Good Tents: Envisioning the Synagogue of the Future God's To-Do List The Seven Questions You're Asked in Heaven Blessings and Kisses: The Power of the Jewish Family A Time to Mourn, a Time to Comfort Click here to contact the author.

    Read more from Ron Wolfson

    Related to Hanukkah (Second Edition)

    Related ebooks

    Judaism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Secure In Our Rituals

      Dec 10, 2021

      Secure In Our Rituals
      8 min read

    • Article

      Joyful Celebration

      Dec 17, 2021

      Joyful Celebration
      2 min read

    • Article

      Winter Is Coming

      Sep 1, 2020

      Winter Is Coming
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Rituals of Winter

      Oct 25, 2022

      The Rituals of Winter
      4 min read

    • Article

      My Grandfather’s Marbles

      Mar 13, 2024

      My Grandfather’s Marbles
      5 min read

    • Article

      Light The Way

      Feb 4, 2023

      Light The Way
      6 min read

    • Article

      Family, Traditions & Favorite Memories

      Sep 20, 2022

      What do you love best about the holidays? Is it the festive decorating, the time spent with family and friends, the delicious foods that only come out once a year, or the glory and revelation of the season? In my big Italian family, the holidays alwa

      1 min read

    • Article

      Breaking With Christmas Tradition

      Nov 15, 2022

      “WHAT YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS?” I shouted in disbelief. “What? do you mean there wasn’t a donkey?” Clearly this nun had gone mad. She smiled angelically at me and persevered. “Most scholars agree that given Mary and Joseph’s social and economic position

      3 min read

    • Article

      Believing Is Seeing

      Dec 1, 2022

      Believing Is Seeing
      4 min read

    • Article

      THIS IS YOUR goodfood

      Oct 28, 2021

      You can get in touch with Tami through our social channels, or email goodfoodmagazine@immediate.co.uk I asked our Facebook Together community, ‘What does Christmas mean to you?’ ‘Snuggling on the sofa with my two sons (aged 16 and 21) watching a Chri

      2 min read

    • Article

      The BEST Day Of CHRISTMAS

      Oct 24, 2019

      For me, Christmas Eve is about the stockings: the anticipation of that weight on your covers when you wake up; that woollen crunch as you move your legs. Everything in our stockings is wrapped except the walnuts, apple and satsuma that mark the end o

      4 min read

    • Article

      Christmas in Nairobi

      Nov 27, 2021

      Christmas in Nairobi
      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘For Everyone Who Knocks, The Door Will Be Opened’

      Dec 13, 2023

      Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk REST assured, no emperor has given an order or issued a decree. But nonetheless, at Christmas, many of us will follow one particular Bib

      4 min read

    • Article

      Thursday, December 23

      Oct 15, 2021

      Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 (NIV) CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN a big deal on my side of the family. Who doesn’t love a

      1 min read

    • Article

      In Praise Of RITUALS

      Oct 22, 2020

      Christmas always rustled. It rustled every time, mysteriously, with silver and gold paper, tissue paper and a rich abundance of shiny paper, decorating and hiding everything and giving a feeling of reckless extravagance. ✢ Tove Jansson, Finnish aut

      2 min read

    • Article

      Gifts of Heritage

      Sep 22, 2020

      Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Victoria Classics Book Club selection Little House on the Prairie, observed, “Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a ch

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Taste of Tradition

      Aug 16, 2022

      Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is a time to reflect, count our blessings, and be grateful. With anticipation, we look forward to the festive season ahead. Tradition is a gift handed down through the generations. My favorite is t

      6 min read

    • Article

      ROLLING Back The YEARS...

      Nov 11, 2019

      Author Debbie Johnson’s children are all grown up now – but that doesn’t mean she’s changing a single thing about Christmas... “When he was little – perhaps four – my son was so convinced of the existence of Santa, in all his magical glory, that he

      4 min read

    • Article

      On The BEST Day Of CHRISTMAS

      Dec 1, 2020

      Anstey Harris lives in Kent. For me, Christmas Eve is about the stockings: the anticipation of that weight on your covers when you wake up; that woollen crunch as you move your legs. For us, everything in the stocking is wrapped except the walnuts,

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Christmas Couple

      Nov 26, 2022

      The Christmas Couple
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Hanukkah (Second Edition)

    4.5/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Hanukkah (Second Edition) - Ron Wolfson

      PART I

      The Art

      of Hanukkah

      1

      What Is Hanukkah?

      I don’t know what I think—but in the real world Hanukkah is a very important holiday and everybody goes crazy over Hanukkah because they get a lot of presents and they get to stuff their mouths with delicious food made with oil which makes them fat. I don’t know what it is for me.

      KAREN BOBROW

      What Is Hanukkah?

      This simple question begins the Talmud’s brief discussion of Hanukkah. For those rabbinic sages in Babylonia who were busy creating the future of Judaism—the Judaism we now practice—the question was not rhetorical. It wasn’t for pedagogic purposes. Gathered in Babylonia, some three or four hundred years after the original event, the Rabbis had some serious questions about the true meaning of a holiday which was widely celebrated, but whose central message was less than clear. For the Rabbis the meaning and purpose of Hanukkah was indeed in doubt; so was its authenticity. Hanukkah wasn’t in the Torah, it wasn’t part of the Bible, it wasn’t a clear and obvious mitzvah (commandment) from God. Instead, Hanukkah celebrated the political and social independence of a country that had long since been destroyed. In many ways, it was false pride and an inappropriate reliance on the past memories of military victories which led to its fall. It made heroes of the Hasmonean dynasty, a dynasty which after the Judah generation turned into some of the cruelest and most hateful of all the Israelite kings. Yet, Hanukkah was something which every Jew celebrated; it was a very popular holiday. The Rabbis’ challenge was to give this common practice a viable meaning, one which was worth holding onto and celebrating.

      Their solution was to center the celebration of Hanukkah on the miracle of the oil, an event which involved God’s intervention and kept the celebration’s central focus away from the Maccabees and their victories. It made Hanukkah a holiday celebrating how God helps us when our own strength fails us.

      When we approached writing this book on modern Hanukkah practice, we began with the same question: What is Hanukkah? For us, too, the question was not a self-obvious introduction. It was not a pedagogic prompt. In our day and age, Hanukkah has become the premier public Jewish holiday, the one most obviously celebrated and the one whose practical meaning has become most obscure. More than fifteen hundred years in Christian society has shifted Hanukkah’s meaning and purpose. Hanukkah has grown and mutated, faced off against Christmas, retreated, and then reentered the struggle.

      It is very clear to us that the true meaning of Hanukkah is again on the move, and with it, the ways Hanukkah is celebrated. In researching this book, as we have done with each of the other Art of Jewish Living volumes, we followed the rabbinic dictum: Tzei u’lemad, go and learn. As the Rabbis did when they faced problems of practice, we went and looked at what average Jews (and in our case, some very special Jews) were already doing. When we looked at their practice and their understandings, we found some very interesting common threads.

      a. The very lack of definition of specific Hanukkah practice frees families and empowers tremendous creativity. In many senses, Hanukkah is a much more comfortable holiday because it doesn’t come with the same kinds of formal guidelines and expectations as does

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1