Kesher Talk

Hanukkah - ocho kandelikas. It's over tonight, in a blaze of glory. We are supposed to place our hanukkiya where it can be seen by our neighbors, either outside the front door or in a window. (I wonder if this is where the idea of Christmas lights comes from?) I'm on the 7th floor of a big apartment building, and I've got furniture up against the length of my window, but I decided to make my hanukkiya visible from the street this year.

I found a box just the right size to raise it over the edge of the windowsill. It happened to be the cardboard box with foam inside which came with my etrog. Now, there is a tradition of recycling the components of the "four species" for other ritual uses: with some cloves, you can make the etrog into a pomander for Havdalah, and you can use the lulav to brush up the last crumbs of hametz the night before Pesach. So I was very pleased that my etrog box was going to help me announce my Judaism at Hanukkah. I covered it with foil and moved the small file cabinet out of the way so I could get to the window, and it works very well - you can see the hanukkiya in my window from across 8th Avenue.

We chant this psalm during every morning service, but it's especially relevant for Hanukkah.

Another Hanukkah site.

UPDATE: I plum crazy forgot Plum Crazy's virtual menorah lightings. Start here and click forward, looking for posts with "Oy Chanukkah" in the title. This is the best virtual menorah in blogland because when you click on each pic you get links to MP3s of Jewish songs. Not all are Hanukkah-related but you won't care.

posted by Judith @ 12/26/2003 01:31:00 PM