Showing posts with label channukah. Show all posts

03 January 2018

If you’re a craftsperson, you’ll definitely appreciate these handmade Menorahs.
Hanukkah is all about spreading the Hanukkah lights publically. These Menorahs are perfect (and quite literal) examples of that.
The upcoming wood Menorahs are a great to draw some creative inspiration.

Wooden Hand Painted Hanukkah Menorah

These Menorahs are proof that wood Menorahs don’t have to be dull. In fact, with the right dose of Jewish creativity, they become quite the opposite.
I hope you found some inspiration, or perhaps your next wooden Hanukkah Menorah…
Hanukkah Sameach .

Bright clay menorahs

Handmade clay Menorah/Hanukkia for Chaunukkah.
This is a lovely clay Menorah of tiny houses, a Hanukkah menorah and a Hanukkah gift. It is handmade, houses of Israel scenario menorah which makes a perfect Jewish holidays gift, tiny houses menorah, mountain village menorah . They are a very colorful and vivid clay menorahs. These menorahs are made of white clay, carved & painted with many bright ceramic colors. They have 9 holes for candles in which 8 are on one level and one is a bit up for the "Shamash".
These will absolutely add warmth and joy to your holiday atmosphere. Happy Hanukkah!

Clay tiny menorah

Menorah Story

The Lights of Hanukkah: A Book of Menorahs

Giant felt dreidels

Dreidel is Yiddish for "spinning top." A dreidel is a pointed, four-sided top which can be made to spin on its pointed base. Dreidels are normally made of plastic or wood, though there are silver or glass "designer dreidels" available on the market, usually intended for display purposes. It is customary to play dreidel games on the holiday of Chanukah.
It is told that the dreidel, known in Hebrew as a sevivon, dates back to the time of the Greek-Syrian rule over the Holy Land—which set off the Maccabean revolt that culminated in the Chanukah miracle. Learning Torah was outlawed by the enemy, a "crime" punishable by death. The Jewish children resorted to hiding in caves in order to study. If a Greek patrol would approach, the children would pull out their tops and pretend to be playing a game. Read the Chanukah story here.
By playing dreidel during Chanukah we are reminded of the courage of those brave children.

Giant felt hanging dreidels

Dreidel

Dreidel Game: Who will play with me?

The Dreidel that Wouldn't Spin: A Toyshop Tale of Hanukkah

The Parakeet Named Dreidel

02 January 2018

Hanukkah days counter

When the Greeks entered the Temple they defiled all the oils and when the Hasmoneans prevailed and defeated them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the Kohen Gadol. It contained only enough oil to light for one day, yet a miracle happened and they used it to light for eight days. This aspect of the Hanukkah story, learned from the Talmud, is commonly taught to Jewish children in Hebrew and Sunday schools across America; and it is surely the most remembered part of the holiday narrative, told and retold throughout the world. Perhaps this miracle-centered version occurs so often because Jews are more familiar with the Talmud than with the Apocrypha where the historical books of the Maccabees are found.
Or perhaps the frequency is inspired by the emphasis on the oil and the hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah); they offer something tangible with which to express our deep connection to and appreciation for the valor of our ancestors. Most likely though, the recounting of the miracle is so dominant and popular because it focuses on the role of God in this story, as opposed to the Maccabees’ military accomplishments, a focus echoing a phrase from the biblical Book of Zechariah that is always chanted during Hanukkah: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit…”
Whatever the reason, the talmudic legend remains the account of Hanukkah that most Jews know. Within it, however, are layers of items to ponder and criticize, and questions to answer. For example, even people who seem to accept the legend and not question the miraculous nature will ask why we must celebrate for eight days; after all, if there was enough oil for one day, then the duration of the miracle was only seven days not eight! The common response from the tradition is that the oil burned extraordinarily slowly, diminishing only a bit for each of the eight days, and therein lies the miracle.
Beyond any symbolic explanations for the number eight lie some more practical, concrete, or commemorative explanations. One Rabbinic tradition says that the Hasmoneans (Maccabees) may have needed eight days to become purified, after being in contact with the dead on the battlefield. Purification consisted of being sprinkled with clean water that had been mixed with the ashes of an unblemished, sacrificial red heifer. (my jewish learning)

Hannukah days counter

Hanging rustic Hanukkah days counter made of pine wood and blackboard.

8 Days of Light - Hanukkah Coloring Book For Kids

Journal: Mogen David Pattern (Yellow)

Hanukkah home carousel

Hanukkah, which means “dedication,” is the festival that commemorates the purification and rededication of the Temple following the defilement caused by the Greeks during their occupation of that holy place. Today, the holiday reminds Jews to rededicate themselves to stand against forces that would destroy Judaism and to keep alive the flame of Jewish religion, culture, and peoplehood so that it may be passed on to the next generation.
Originally, the eight-day holiday was intended to parallel the eight-day festival of Sukkot. The Books of the Maccabees made no mention of the legend concerning a small jar of oil that unexpectedly lasted for eight days. Only centuries after the Maccabees’ defeat of the Syrians did the story of the jar of oil, which has come to be a part of Hanukkah, appear in the Talmud.
When the Maccabees entered the Temple and began to reclaim it from the Greeks, they immediately relit the ner tamid (eternal light), which burned constantly in the Temple and has a parallel in our synagogues to this day. In the Temple, they found a single jar of oil, which was sufficient for only one day. The messenger who was sent to secure additional oil took eight days to complete his mission, and miraculously, the single jar of oil continued to burn until his return. The rabbis of the Talmud attributed the eight days of Hanukkah to the miracle of this single jar of oil.

A family celebrates Hanukkah by lighting the menorah, playing dreidel, making latkes, exchanging gifts, and recalling the heroism of the Maccabees.Celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah and the Festival of Lights with the menorah you love the most.

Menorahs

Hanukkah

27 November 2017

Kislev board

Kislev is the ninth month on the Jewish calendar, counting from Nissan. It is best known for the holiday of Chanukah, which begins on the 25th of Kislev. The message of Chanukah is the eternal power of light over darkness, good over evil. Aside from commemorating the miraculous victory of the small and militarily weak Jewish army over the mighty Syrian-Greek empire, on Chanukah we celebrate the miracle of the oil. When the Jews sought to light the Temple menorah after the war, they found only one small jug of oil that had not been defiled by the pagan invaders. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days until new pure oil could be obtained. In commemoration, the sages instituted the eight-day festival of Chanukah, on which we kindle the menorah nightly to recall and publicize the miracle.

The month of Kislev brown paper board

Latkes and Applesauce: A Hannukah Story by Fran Manushkin

Maccabee!: The Story of Hanukkah

18 December 2016

Dreidel game kit

One 19th-century rabbi maintained that Jews played with the dreidel in order to fool the Greeks if they were caught studying Torah, which had been outlawed.
As a matter of fact, the dreidel game originally it has been played by various people in various languages for many centuries.
In England and Ireland there is a game called totum or teetotum that is especially popular at Christmastime. In English, this game is first mentioned as “totum” ca. 1500-1520. The name comes from the Latin “totum,” which means “all.” By 1720, the game was called T- totum or teetotum, and by 1801 the four letters already represented four words in English: T = Take all; H = Half; P = Put down; and N = Nothing.
Our Eastern European game of dreidel (including the letters nun, gimmel, hey, shin) is directly based on the German equivalent of the totum game: N = Nichts = nothing; G = Ganz = all; H = Halb = half; and S = Stell ein = put in. In German, the spinning top was called a “torrel” or “trundl,” and in Yiddish it was called a “dreidel,” a “fargl,” a “varfl” [= something thrown], “shtel ein” [= put in], and “gor, gorin” [= all].
When Hebrew was revived as a spoken language, the dreidel was called, among other names, a sevivon, which is the one that caught on.

from A Different Light: The Hanukkah Book of Celebration

HOW TO PLAY DREIDEL ⤵

Countdown to Hanukkah

08 December 2015

Pebbles Hanukkah wreath - Whising you an Happy Hanukkah

To all my Dear Readers and friends following or visiting Our Jewish Little Place, wishing you a wonderful Hanukkah, Hanukkah Sameach!!!!.
May your homes and lifes be filled with joy and light. Little lights can banish a huge and deep darkness and to fill people with hope for a better and brighter world where to live peacefully.