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There is nothing like going to the beach on a beautiful sunny afternoon in the middle of the winter, even better when its low tide. This is defiantly the reason why we moved to California, You just can’t beat that. When we went last week there was a great display of stones piled up waiting for us to enjoy, the rest of the time we found ourselves looking for flat small stones for our menorah from the sea.
Growing up we never had a ‘traditional’ menorah at home. We used to improvise every Chanukah, it usually ended up being the brown Duralex glass plate as the base for the candles (Kind of like a birthday cake with no cake, if one can imagine…).
I kept up with this tradition till Zoe brought a menorah form her preschool 2 years ago. Than I became greedy…of course I liked the one that Zoe made…how could I not…but now I wanted a real menorah that will last for many years to come and ,just like magic, every time we light it we will ignite loads of family memories. After searching for a while I found the one I really liked,
of course it was too expensive for me to buy. It will have to wait another year. (Maybe that was what my mother had been saying all along while using the glass plate as our menorah).
Mean while I thought this menorah had a great concept and it was really inexpensive. i will use it as a place holder for now...
Here are some others I thought were not your average Shloimalech:
The 'not Schlock's Man-orah Menorah by Josh Korwin and Alyssa Zukas create the Man-orah menorahs by hand using plumbing parts! Josh and Alyssa created Not Schlock as, "a proactive response to the overall lack of tasteful, hip, un-schlocky Judaica available to the general public."
'not Schlock's Man-orah Menorah
Shlomi Shillinger's (an Israeli designer) Cube Menorah is a reconfigurable sculpture that can
be enjoyed all year long. Its modular ceramic pieces can be used as
multiple candleholders anytime. Genius!
and this one I thought was just too funny, a really great design for what seems to be the ultimate combination of a menorah and a Christmas tree.
Happy Holidays Chanukah Menorah Tree - Green
We are also making a menorah this year, I promise to share when it's in the making.
I always thought that the dreidel game is all about “WHO SPINS THE LONGEST”. Apparently there are some other legal (approved by the rabbi) gambling games going on in Chanukah, here is one.
There are four Hebrew letters, one on each side of the dreidel
Each letter stands for a word: Nun–Nes
Gimmel-Gadol
Hay–Hayah
Shin-Sham
This means “A GREAT MIRACLE HAPPENED THERE”.
It seems though these letters have a double meaning. They also stand for words in Yiddish that set the rules for the game. In the game these Yiddish words correspond to the outcome of each spin of the dreidel.
How to play: (2 players and more)
1. Each player is given an equal amount of tokens (chocolate gelt, pennies, buttons, etc.)
2. Before each spin of the dreidel, each player puts a set amount of gelt in the pot (kupah)
3. Each player gets a turn spinning the dreidel
4. When the dreidel falls, the letter displayed on top determines the outcome of the player: Nun – NICHT (nothing) move on to the next player
Gimmel – GUT(good) takes all the gelt in the kupah
Hay – HALB (half) take half from the gelt in the kupah
Shin – SCHLECT (bad) add one to the kupah
5. The player looses all his gelt is out of the game, the player with the most gelt wins.
Package the game:
A great gift idea is to package the game in a canvas sack with the rules of the game printed on it. This is how:
1. Make a fabric sack or buy one. I used 5”x6” sacks that I got online at Paper Mart.
2. Print the lovely graphic i did (i was playing graphic designer for a bit) on an iron transfer paper following package directions. (you may also write it on the sack using fabric paint or permanent markers). Open graphic template
3. Fill the bag with Approximately 20 pieces of gelt such as buttons, chocolate gelt, beans, pebbles etc. And one dreidel
4. Give away as many as you can to keep this tradition going.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Some history:
The game began when Antiochus forbade the Jews to study Torah. Groups of boys who had memorized the entire Torah would secretly study together until they heard the footsteps of the Syrian soldiers. Then they would quickly pull out spinning tops (dreidels) and pretended to be playing games.
The dreidel is such a fun and simple game yet so much culture and history is embedded in it.
While standing in line at the grocery store, my eyes caught a glimpse of something that looked very familiar. I picked it up, it was the December issue of the national geographic featuring King Herod (Hordus) as the Holy Land’s Visionary Builder, with a beautiful spectacular image of the Herodium, Masada . Of course I bought the issue. The author describes King Herod as “one of the most imaginative and energetic builders of the ancient world”, a king that is remembered for his cruelty as much as his ingenuity. The author is doing a great job mixing historical facts and artifacts together with some contemporary Israeli smells and flavors of his own experience.
As a bonus, the issue includes a folded poster with an exploded view of the old city of Jerusalem form the days of King Salomon till today, with section drawings of the Temple, Dome of the Rock and more.
follow this link to the article
make sure you look through Michael Melford's photographs
btw, the following article about ‘The Stolen Past’ is worth reading as well.
tali
