June 23, 2008 at 8:20 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: booth, decorating, lights, Succah, Succot
What is a Succah? In English the translation is booths. The Israelites dwelled in booths in the desert. For the festival of Succot which begins shortly after Yom Kippur we are to do the mitzvah of dwelling in our Succah. This little booth has to have at least three sides, be an impermanent structure and allow the dwellers to see the stars in the sky.
While there may be some lovely spiritual connection I could write about I am going to pass this time.
I am very excited to build my Succah this year. It is such a special occasion. Creating this structure and decorating it with lights and fall designs turns my deck into a wonderful get away. Everyone can get involved in decorating and making the Succah beautiful. The only thing I can compare it too is the fun people have finding, setting up and decorating their own Christmas tree.
I love the experience and hope many other Jews will make their own Succah. This Succot, go try. It is so much fun and filled with meaning.
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June 2, 2008 at 6:16 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Channukah, Chanukiah, lights
First of all why do we use ch or h to represent a sound that is more hk — Hkanukah?
Sorry for the tangent, on to the lights …
What is the deal with Chanukah lights? Here is an article snippet from Chabad.org.
“the Chanukah lights should be kindled after sunset and
must burn into the night.3 Furthermore, they should be placed “at the outside of
the entrance to one’s home,”4
which shows that they are primarily intended to illuminate the public domain
rather than one’s own home.” — The Message of the Chanukah Lights Adapted from Likkutei Sichos on Chabad.org
I also learned in my Meah class (100 hours of Jewish Study – Meah = 100) that there are 3 levels of lighting the candles.
- Level 1: Light 1 candle per household each night
- Level 2: Light 1 candle per person in the household each night
- Level 3: Light the Chanukiah (the menorah/ candleabra) with 9 holders – 1 for each night and the shamash candle to light them with – some customs from the Islamic world said level 3 was to light the Chanukiah for each person in the house so that the progression of levels was made consistent
On Friday night as we were getting ready for the temple’s Chanukah and Shabbat festivities, I brought my children outside with their Chanukiot. We stood up all 18 candles and each child got to light their candles. We sang the blessings and lit one Chanukiah. We sang the blessings again and lit the second. Then we ran out to the road to view the lights as others would see them.
On the darkest night of the year, on Shabbat, we lit the candles and shut off the lights. Our candles lit up the whole road. It was beautiful.
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