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 Chanukkah 5772

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Mychal
Bee
Debbie B.
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


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PostSubject: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Dec 21, 2011 1:38 am

Chanukkah Sameach. Here is a photo of our four hanukiyot on this first night of the holiday: two oil burning and two candle burning hanukiyot.
Chanukkah 5772 Chanukkah_1st_5772

After dropping my daughter at her Talmud study class, I stopped by my local rabbinically supervised supermarket to buy some wicks for one of my oil burning hanukiyot and I saw these great "solid olive oil" cups:
solid oil cups
I had seen pre-filled glass oil cups, but they were expensive. These were on sale at the store for only $20 and they seem much safer and easier to use. The cups are plastic and unlike the pre-filled glass cups, you don't have to break any glass to use them. I had already filled our oil burning menorah that I could put these cups in, so I will try them tomorrow. My daughter sniffed that they were really just "candles" since they start out as solid. But I say that if they do liquify then they are oil burners.
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Bee

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Dec 21, 2011 1:41 am

Ok I just asked this question on another post...exactly how many menorahs is a home to have? I keep seeing pictures of multiple ones..does that mean everyone needs to have one in the home?
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Dec 21, 2011 2:00 am

In the Ashkenazi tradition, many families have a menorah for each member of the family. But that is just a custom and an enhancement of the basic requirement. The really surprising thing is that according to the Talmud, each Jewish household is required to have only one light each night of the holiday which should be put where it can be seen from the street. Of course, in those days many families could not afford to have multiple lights, since there were no inexpensive boxes of machine-made candles to buy. It is a "hiddur mitzvah" (beautification of the commandment) to have multiple lights. Rabbi Shammai lit eight lights for the first day and then decreased one per night, whereas Rabbi Hillel lit the way we do today: one for the first night and adding another light for each succeeding night.
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Bee

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Dec 21, 2011 3:02 am

Thanks Debbie, thats what my hubby said too. He read it in the Talmud that only one is required or something...I just don't remember learning that. I do remember something about that chanukah is not just about the macabee's, but that eventhough the temple is destroyed...the temple lights will never go out by generations keeping the tradition.
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Mychal

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Dec 21, 2011 1:09 pm

During times of persecution, you do not have to display the menorah in the window; instead, you put it outside the door into your living room (or in the living room). Some families have a menorah for every member, while some families only have one, but each person in the family gets the honor of lighting the candles at least one night.

Debbie, your picture answered my question, which is do you leave the shammash burning too? I left mine burning last night, and when I was in the tub, I suddenly thought, oh, no, I didn't blow it out. By then it was gone. Then it dawned on me that I had "extra" candles.

In my anal retentiveness, I bought a box of multicolored candles and had already separated them up so that each night I was burning candles of the same color. But I noticed I had a few more than I needed. But last night, when I counted the spares, I realized I had seven left--which would seem to indicate that the shammash is burned every night along with the other candles. So I was looking for confirmation.
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Debbie B.

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Dec 21, 2011 2:18 pm

Mychal wrote:
During times of persecution, you do not have to display the menorah in the window; instead, you put it outside the door into your living room (or in the living room). Some families have a menorah for every member, while some families only have one, but each person in the family gets the honor of lighting the candles at least one night.

Debbie, your picture answered my question, which is do you leave the shammash burning too? I left mine burning last night, and when I was in the tub, I suddenly thought, oh, no, I didn't blow it out. By then it was gone. Then it dawned on me that I had "extra" candles.

In my anal retentiveness, I bought a box of multicolored candles and had already separated them up so that each night I was burning candles of the same color. But I noticed I had a few more than I needed. But last night, when I counted the spares, I realized I had seven left--which would seem to indicate that the shammash is burned every night along with the other candles. So I was looking for confirmation.
Today, unless you are a Jew in one of the tiny pockets left in some Muslim countries, you aren't in a time of persecution. It is nice to see the menorahs burning in the windows of many homes in my neighborhood. Not as flashy as Christmas lights, but it warms my heart.

You certainly leave the shammash burning. And yes, that is why most boxes of Chanukkah candles have at least 44 candles (sometimes one or two more in case one breaks, I guess). In my family, my kids like to create alternating patterns of colors for the candles. It does tend to mean that the last night uses the colors they like least Laughing
Here is a good set of instructions for lighting candles:
How to light the Hanukkah menorah

Remember that on Friday night, the candles must be lit before you light Shabbat candles (since kindling fire is forbidden once Shabbat begins). Since the Chanukkah candles are supposed to be lit when it is night, technically you need long-burning candles or oil lights or they will burn all the way down from Shabbat candle-lighting time (18 min before sunset) until nightfall about an hour later. Most of the cheap boxes of small candles don't last that long.
basic Chanukkah candles
An inexpensive easy way to do this is to use nine tea lights and just prop up the "Shammash" on a small can (or overturned used empty tea light tin) . You do have to use another candle to do the lighting though (as you do for oil lights as well, where the "Shammash" oil light can't really be used to light the others).

Tea lights are also a safe and easy way to do Shabbat lights. My minyan uses tea lights when we have a Shabbat dinner at the shul that starts before the candle-lighting hour (in the winter, the expectation is that people lit candles at home before coming to shul)
and there are a lot of people who will want to light candles.
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Debbie B.

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyThu Dec 22, 2011 3:16 am

Well, the "jelled" olive oil cups were easy to use (no mess from pouring olive oil or having to clean up candle drips), but I was disappointed that the oil did not completely liquify. The Shammash melted the top layer of oil for most of the burn time, but then left some unmelted oil at the bottom. The other two cups mostly only melted the middle portion leaving quite a bit around the edges.

My husband asked our university professor guide coming on the trip to Tanzania if it would be OK for us to use the glow stick menorah since it is a Muslim country. He said that the Tanzanians are very tolerant of other religions, so he encouraged us to bring candles if we wanted. He is almost certainly Jewish himself given his last name, as are all but two of the other members of the small group tour. So I'm going to bring 9 of the solid oil cups along with the very lightweight not overly bulky holder so that we can really light up in Tanzania for the last night of Chanukah. The sixth night we will spend the whole night in a plane. The seventh night we will be in a hotel in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I hope we'll be able to use the glow sticks for those nights. I'm making my own holder from a plastic box that is lighter weight than the solid plastic "menorah" that came with the glow sticks.
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Mychal

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyThu Dec 22, 2011 2:44 pm

I don't have a way of putting my menorah in the window; we don't have any window sills and our TV is in front of the living room window (and it's too narrow to put the menorah on top). So mine's on the mantel above the fireplace; you can at least see it when you first walk in the door.
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Dena

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyThu Dec 22, 2011 5:42 pm

Uh...ignore the fact I didn't clean off the chanukiah before we lit it for the first night. I was feeling miserable so I just left it. It's clean now! I'm thinking we need another one next year so my husband can have his own. Or maybe he can buy me a new one and use mine? Wink and Smile

Chanukkah 5772 Menora10
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Samantha

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyThu Dec 22, 2011 10:32 pm

On the first night, I was at a Chanukah party with two close Jewish friends, and we had three burning - one for each of us, which was beautiful.

This was mine on the second night. :)

Chanukkah 5772 477568697
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Bee

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyThu Dec 22, 2011 11:19 pm

beautiful pics!
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BRNechama

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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyMon Jan 02, 2012 3:04 pm

Chanukkah 5772 Imagefromurl?size=medium&url=http%3A%2F%2Flockerz
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Rocky_girl




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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Jan 04, 2012 12:30 am

[img]Chanukkah 5772 2011-115[/img]
Here are the boys with our Hanukkah and Shabbat candles.
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Bee

Bee


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PostSubject: Re: Chanukkah 5772   Chanukkah 5772 EmptyWed Jan 04, 2012 10:04 am

How wonderful! Especially to think one day they too will pass this on to their children ;-)
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