What are the rules on how we are supposed to give presents on Hanukkah? Every night or only on the eighth? Is this a Jewish tradition? If so, what’s Jewish about it?
When my mother was a kid, they celebrated Hanukkah the old-fashioned way: After lighting the candles, mom’s parents would give her some chocolate gelt, a dreidel and maybe a coin. And that was it. But in raising her own children, mom used to say—jokingly, I think—that we kids were entitled to one major Hanukkah gift each year…on Christmas Day!
Mom couldn’t stand the idea that all of our non-Jewish friends were about to receive magnificent windfalls of toys, while we got nothing. Indeed, she reasoned, it would be hard to imagine a better way to make a small child resentful of his or her Jewishness.
Therein lies the short answer to your question: The “tradition” of giving presents during Hanukkah was provoked by the long shadow that Christmas casts over Jewish homes. And nowhere is this shadow longer and darker than in America, where holiday gift-giving is a national obsession. Historians suggest that the consumerist side of the holiday began to develop in the mid-19th century, and it’s possible that Hanukkah gift-giving began about the same time.
Of course, like all things Jewish, the long answer is not so simple. For the tradition of giving gelt, or money, is apparently an older practice whose origins are unclear. An excellent article by Natasha Rosenstock on MyJewishLearning.com cites scholar Eliezer Segal, who has turned up sources mentioning that European Torah students used to give gelt to their teachers. Segal suggests that this practice was perhaps inspired by semantic and etymological connections between the Hebrew word “Hanukkah” (dedication) and the Hebrew word chinnukh (education).
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From
menurkeys to sweet potato latke recipes, there are many creative ways
to celebrate this year’s unique overlap of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. In
an effort to move beyond the kitsch, I would like to offer some
additional ideas for blending the Hanukkah tradition of giving with the
Thanksgiving ideal of gratitude. Here are eight suggestions (sorry, I
couldn’t resist) of how to use Thanksgivukkah as a launch pad for
learning, giving, and values-based family activities.
[Previously
in The Jewish Week], I discussed three surefire ways to shut down a
conversation with the parent of a child who has a disability. Of course,
talking about disability can be one of the trickiest, most
awkward-moment-producing topics around. Differences raise fear and
anxiety for all of us and that limits the chances for meaningful
dialogue. But I hope that with increased disability awareness education,
like my post of yesterday and this one, we can create more productive
conversations. Try any one or all of these three topics!
In
a once-in-a-lifetime convergence of calendars, Chanukah and
Thanksgiving fall on the same day this year. But rather than choose
between which holiday to celebrate, some families are saying "more
please" to both. That means sweet potato latkes and challah-stuffed
turkey is getting served up beside a cornucopia overflowing with
chocolate gelt, lit by the flickering of a turkey-shaped menorah.
Are
you Jewish or Christian? Increasingly, Americans seem to be checking
both boxes, according to the 2013 Pew Research Center Survey of U.S.
Jews.
From
classics like One Hundred Years of Solitude to recent hits like Hilary
Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell series, complicated tales often come with
charts or maps at the front to help you keep track of the characters and
their movements.
A
piece of my soul died when we decided that Ben’s autism would
necessitate a reexamination of a conventional Bar Mitzvah service.
Having guided so many young people through their studies towards
becoming Bar or Bat Mitzvah, I yearned to have the unique privilege of
preparing my own son, my firstborn, the way my father, also a rabbi, had
long ago prepared me.