Hannukah - Last Post - The Fabulous Maital Guttman

The Miracle of Hannukah 2.0

This year has been a year of miracles. America elected its first African-American President. Michael Phelps (with the help of laid-back Lochte) won 8 gold medals (aka real gelt). And just as I’m sitting in this little coffeeshop, the owner brought over a free pecan-chocolate cake for me to enjoy! Life is filled with miracles, both big and small, and Hanukkah gives us a time to be grateful for these miracles. Which may be why it’s my favorite holiday—we get to eat, we don’t have to go to Temple (sorry Rabbi Abba), we sing songs, we get presents, and we get to bet!

Speaking of betting, here is another miracles- a short video, produced by my 7th grade film class at Kehillat Israel, based on World Poker Tour, in the key of dreidel…


Some may call it a miracle that they were able to produce a video in only three hours. Personally, I am amazed that we live in a time when kids can write, act, and film short videos pieces and then send them all around the world. Here is another video that not only made its way around, but was actually created by users themselves who submitted videos of themselves passing the candle.

Pass the Candle- created by PLP favorite, Michelle Citrin and William Levin.




And for the deaf or hard of hearing:





This Hannukah, I am grateful for the miracles that surround us everyday. As we approach a new year, may we always remember that miracles can happen, we just have to believe…

Happy Hannukah to all!

Night #3 - Hannukah Torah from NOLA - Nathan Rothstein

What are we celebrating when we light candles? Presents, donuts, candles, family…what? Are we enjoying our assimilation into American culture where they have Christmas and we have Chanukah so we can see our family and get unwanted clothes (well, in my case, the only clothes that make me look presentable)? Or are we remembering a crucial moment in Jewish Identity history, when the fate of our people could go in two directions. Do we succumb to the Seleucid Empire and accept their customs or do we stay the people of one god and keep our traditions?

Where our story picks up, the Jewish people were having a problem. There was no strategic plan and the vision was lost. The massiveness and wealth of the Hellenistic Empire was rubbing off, and some Jews felt that the Jewish Priesthood was out of touch with new ideas. But Judah and his Maccabeus felt passionate about the preservation of our traditions. He probably thought what Herzl had believed many years later after the Dreyfuss Trial: no matter how much we assimilate, we will always be Jews. If we do not know our traditions or our history, who are we? And this question can lead to a new role for Hanukkah. I think these are the things that we should celebrate. We should ask ourselves, and talk to our friends and family about what will it mean to be Jewish in the future. What problems do we see and what can we do to change our internal problems within the Jewish leadership and how do we have better relations with outside communities?

to continue reading, visit Nathan Rothstein's blog.

Night #2 - A Little Hanukkah Torah from PLP's Very Own Sarah Weiss

My favorite time of year is and always has been the month of December. Not because of the weather or lack there of in Southern California. But because for as long as I can remember, it was the one time when my entire family could come together and celebrate Chanukah. Being one of triplets with 2 much older siblings, coming together in one location was always a challenge.

Last night, the first night of Chanukah, my family and I were together (minus my older brother who lives in Alabama), and it was truly magical. There is something about lighting a Chanukah menorah that touches me in a way unlike anything else. Helping my mom cook latkes and smelling of those latkes for days are experiences that I can only hope to have with my children. To me, Chanukah is about not only celebrating a miracle, but it is about being with the people you love the most. It’s not about the presents, (although they are a perk), but to me it is about performing the rituals that so many of my ancestors performed.

Being a song leader, I was able to perform a tradition that many in my family have done in the past. Playing guitar and singing made the night even more special, as my 3 year old nephew smiled from ear to ear.

These are just a few reasons why Chanukah means so much to me. May you all my touched by the light of Chanukah, and may the new year bring you only joy and love.

Laguna Beach's innovative Surfboard Hanukkiah!

PLP Hanukkah Blessings - 1st Candle

HaNerot Hallalu - Hannukah Torah for the First Night

In certain homes - ask Israeli friends about this - a formula is recited after lighting Hanukah candles. It starts Hanerot hallalu (“These candles”) and people sing it, probably as a way to make memorization easy. The purpose of Hanerot Hallalu is twofold: first, to give a short synopsis of what Hanukah is; and second, to make a somewhat unexpected statement about the candles themselves. The second stanza goes like this:


All the eight days of Hanukah, these candles are holy

And we don’t have permission to make use of them, but only to look at them

In order to thank and praise Your holy Name

For Your miracles and Your wonders and Your salvation.

The questions raise themselves: why can’t we make use of them?* why are Hanukah candles only for viewing?

The answer, or at least my answer, speaks to the idea of value, of worth. There are really two ways in which something is of worth - the first being that worth comes by virtue of utility - how something benefits, what its function is. But there is another manner of valuable things in this world: certain ideas, parts of our soul, the rare object, that are valuable simply because of what they are. Gems are the best physical example for this kind of worth: it isn’t that stones do anything in particular, but that we prize them because they are rare and beautiful. This is intrinsic value.


Functional value is crucial - I don’t think that we ask the question of how things are of use nearly enough - but it is also extremely seductive. It is much simpler and far easier to define the worth of anything solely based on its use. This is a kind of myopia that is progressively addictive and we find ourselves wrapped up in seeing everything, including other people, in light of what purpose they serve.


But intrinsic value - because something is good, because it is beautiful, simply because we love it
- has the effect of widening the eyes, expanding perspective. It is those things that are of intrinsic value which we tend to share both with the whole of humanity and across the whole of time: the beauty of art, the power of childbirth, the sublimity of nature, the holiness of the the good.


This is the Torah of Hanukah candles. We are asked to light them and then leave them be, for they are worthwhile in and of themselves. They are light for its own sake. And because they exist beyond function, in which only those affected find worth, we are able to share them with the entirety of our community. My teacher, Reb Mimi Feigelson, reminded me of the halakha that permits those simply walking down the street to make their required blessings over our Hanukah candles, the ones they see in our window. Intrinsic value belongs to everyone.


Our work in the Jewish world often steers us towards the value of function: it’s how we tend to explain Judaism to those we try to bring close (and sometimes to ourselves). We say that Torah makes people better human beings, that Judaism enriches lives and brings families close, that belief in God allows us to be grateful. We work to allow Torah, Judaism, community, God to serve Jews better - to be of use. But we should remember that often our work is simply to allow these great loves of the Jewish people to be: to enshrine them, to protect them, to bring to people into their light, and simply to let their light shine.


Hag Urim Sameach - A joyful Holiday of Lights,

Rabbi Scott Perlo


*This requirement, that Hanukah candles not be used for any other purpose than the mitzvah itself, is the reason for the candle we call the shamash. The shamash exists so that, should someone decide to read by the light of the hannukiah or use its light to find her way in the dark, it will be as if they used the light of the shamash for her purposes.



Recordings of Hanerot Hallalu:

Crazy Portuguese Chabad version

A new version


Wacky Stuff
The year of the potato - must be seen to be believed


הנרות הללו אנו מדליקין
על התשועות ועל הניסים ועל הנפלאות
שעשית לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה
על ידי כוהניך הקדושים.

וכל שמונת ימי חנוכה, הנרות הללו קודש הם
ואין לנו רשות להשתמש בהם, אלא לראותן בלבד
כדי להודות ולהלל לשמך הגדול
על ניסיך ועל נפלאותיך ועל ישועותיך.


These candles we light
For the redemption and the miracles and the wonders
That You performed for our ancestors in those days, at that time
Through the hands of Your holy priests

All the eight days of Hanukah, these candles are holy
And we don’t have permission to make use of them, but only to look at them
In order to thank and praise Your holy Name
For Your miracles and Your wonders and Your saving.

Hanerot hallalu anu madlikin
al hatshuot, ve-al hanisim, ve-al haniflaot
sheasita la-avoteinu bayamim hahem, bazman hazeh

Vekol shmonat yamei hanukah, hanerot hallalu kodesh hem
Ve-ayn lanu reshut lehishtamesh bahem, ele lirotan bilvad
kedei lehodot ulehallel leshimkha hagadol
al nisekha ve-al niflotekha ve-al yeshuatekha