At sundown today, we start Hanukkah. For the next eight days, many Jews will light candles, cook fancy hash browns, and teach children to gamble.
Here on Substack, I’m going to deliver you a full eight days of gifts.
That is, whereas I usually send an email once or twice a month, for the next days I’m going to send one per day.
In these emails I will share eight stories from my real life, as well as a few made up stories mixed in. You’ll have to unwrap them to see which ones they are.
In truth, I believe a good story is a mix of fact and fiction. Truth does not catch our attention. Symbols do.
Like the Hanukkah story, for example. You’re going to read a lot this year about how the Hanukkah story relates to our current times. That Jews continue to fight battles against oppressive regimes. That the temple is still burning. That we need light over darkness.
Does any of this ring true? I dunno, man. I’m not the news. I have very complicated opinions about what’s happening in Gaza, some of which I might try to explore over the next few days in these posts.
But only if I feel like it. It’s hard not to speak about current events in terms of absolutes, and when I write these emails I try not to share absolutes. I’d rather share my endless curiosity, the same kind rabbis of the Talmud share when they argue over how many potatoes you need for a party of eight.
“You can’t make latkes the main course,” Rabbi Eliazor says. “We should also make tzimmes.”1
Absolutes can be obscured by symbols.
During this time last year, my girlfriend texted me a photo from her visit to D.C. It showed the National Menorah next to the Washington Monument.
I texted her back, "How funny placing a symbol of Jewish liberation next to a symbol of Egyptian dominance."
I was exaggerating for effect, trying to be cute, and typical of the many jokes I text my girlfriend, she never responded.
Maybe I was getting lost in symbols. I certainly was exaggerating, but not by much. The monument for our first president is an obelisk, an Egyptian symbol used to memorialize great kings. To me, that's interesting, especially considering our first president fought a war against the idea of kings.
One exaggeration I’ll cop to, the menorah isn’t universally acknowledged as a symbol of Jewish liberation. In and of itself, it isn't a significant object. Menorahs were used to light candles for any sacrament. At one point, you might have been just as likely to light a menorah for a wedding or a shabbat service. For sure someone has tried to stick a menorah in a birthday cake.
But now the menorah (the one with nine stems) has become the universal symbol for a holiday about ... well, what is Hanukkah about?
For the next seven days, on this very substack, I’m going to explore that question.
This is the first “gift” in an 8-email series.
My own translation.
very much here for this series especially if it involves more guest appearances from your gf, specifically her not responding to your joke texts (cuz i relate)
That's a very "here" thing, giving gifts on Hannukah(which I'm sure you know).
All the "here" celebration thing is slightly irritating-like what, I'd get offended if I won't see a giant dreidel next to Christmas Tree?
In our city here we have a smallish square, on winter holidays there are four symbols-tree, dreidel(or menora?or both), something else (muslim) and something else (bahai), И никто не уйдет обиженным(ц).
It's touching and all, but feels a bit patronizing, to me.
I am totally fine with other people's holidays and I love holiday mood and I don't have the need for specific nods, I can just be happy for others, you know? No need to inflate the holiday like it'd be some baloon.
Of course seeing as my kids spent most of their childhood here-I did give them gifts. For Hannukah and "Novigod" too, Because I'm kind and all. Now it's only "Novigod" because come on. I do give gifts when I feel like it though, and I feel like it a lot(when I'm myself), and many people get tired, because try to make good guesses for decades, with all the gifts, but not my kids though, they're happy with my gifts all the time, they're kind too.
PS Hi I'm Chen alias April, Happy Hannukah to you and yours