 I'm Marcia Joyner and we are navigating the journey and today's journey is into Hanukkah. This is December in the middle of December and everybody is about Christmas and Christmas and Christmas and we never think of looking at other people's cultures and other people's religions and in fact with Santa Claus you would think that's all that Christmas was. We don't even look at this spiritual part of Christmas but that's a different story. Today we are going to talk about the story of Hanukkah and honestly it is an amazing story and we have two great guests both of which are brilliant and they know all about the Jewish traditions. So, Pearl, hello, where are you? Thank you so much and Sam, where's Sam? Thank you so much. Sam came all the way from Maui to be with us today. So, Sam, tell us something about you and your relationship with the Jewish traditions. Well, I grew up in Jerusalem. I come from a conservative family in Jerusalem and we always observed the festival of Hanukkah. It was really a special time for us. In Jerusalem people light Hanukkah menorahs on the outsides of their houses in glass boxes and you can see them as you walk down the streets. Everybody has their Hanukkah candles on the outsides of their doors and beautiful displays and the whole town is kind of lit up with these Hanukkah menorahs all over. And for us it was also a time when our family got together and we really connected around the lighting of the candles. So, I recently moved to Maui and I've been a part of the Jewish congregation of Maui over there and we still get together and have you know Hanukkah lightings. This year will be a little bit different because of COVID but we're still going to do everything on Zoom that we would normally do. And what about the meals? Now, I've got the latkes and the jelly donuts and I had Paul order them, Safeway made them just for me for this morning for today which was wonderful but I don't eat jelly donuts. Why the jelly? I understand the potatoes. I understand cooking everything in oil. I just don't understand the jelly. Carol, do you know why the jelly? I think the jelly was added later on to make it sweet. The idea of both the latkes and the jelly donuts are the same. We eat foods fried in oil because of the miracle that took place 2200 years ago when the small band of Maccabees defeated the mighty Greek army of the mighty Greek Empire and they entered into the temple in Jerusalem and they wanted to like the menorah in the temple in Jerusalem. It didn't look exactly like this. It may have looked a little bit more like this but this is an eighth branch with an extra in the center. It was a seven branch menorah in the temple and there was a, they found one cruise of oil, one pitcher of oil that was unadulterated. All the rest the Greeks had deliberately opened and defiled so that it wasn't kosher to use for the candelabra in the temple, the menorah in the temple. So they found one jug of oil which was enough to light all the lights in the menorah for one night and the miracle was that it lasted for eight nights in order to give them time to make new oil which took them eight days to travel from wherever it was made in Israel outside Jerusalem and to bring it to Jerusalem with that whole process took eight days. In celebration of the oil that should have lasted for one night lasting eight days so we now have an eight day holiday and eat foods heavy on the oil hence the latkes and the jelly donuts. So I think the jelly is it's a later invention to make it sweeter that's it. The idea is that it's fried in oil. Well and I tell you when I showed up in a safe way and they were so wonderful about helping me with everything and everybody kept telling me happy holiday happy holiday so happy holiday. So now that okay so we we're going to begin because it really is sundown tomorrow is that correct? Correct Thursday evening before sunset yes well after sunset action. All right so let's tell us the story. Were you exactly what happened now you were talking about Maccabees Judah Maccabee who was that? Okay do you want me to answer or do you want Sam to answer? Go ahead okay Sam go ahead Sam oh Sam okay um yeah the now tell me about you yes can you hear me yes yes you were telling us about being in Israel so tell us about Judah Maccabee. Well I wanted to start a little bit with a kind of a bit of a bigger picture but okay when we when we grow up in Israel when we grow up um in our Jewish communities very often the Conica is really of the oil and the miracle of this little picture the temple is soul and the triumph of the soul and the way that the soul perseveres. What's really fascinating is that the story in the book of Maccabees was not included in the Tanakh the Jewish Bible it's not really mentioned very much in Jewish sources at all but there is a very long description of what the Jews in around about 167 years before the common era 167 BC before the common era were facing at that time and they were facing essentially the annihilation of a culture so what we're looking at is Jews were being told that they weren't allowed to celebrate being Jewish they weren't allowed to represent who they are they weren't allowed to study the Torah in public they weren't allowed to circumcise their children they had to eat foreign meats particularly swine which is against the Torah's laws and they were trying to figure out what to do at this time and the people split up because there was two groups of people among the Jews and there were some that were enamored with this Greek culture they were in love with the Greek culture and they wanted to participate in the gymnasiums they didn't want to be circumcised they often went through operations to cover up their circumcisions and then there was a group of Jews who said no we realized that this is a tradition that we have to keep alive this is something that is the dignity of our people this is something that needs to persevere this is something that we believe in and this is something that we're willing to die for necessary and the many of the Jews at that time period gave lives and small group of people led by Matathias who is a priest Matityahu Matityahu Ben Yohanan Kengadol from the family of Yoyarif lived in a place called Modi'in which is now a big city in Israel and he decided you know what we're going to take a different path we're actually going to stand up for ourselves and we're going to fight this oppression and we're going to create a rebel army and we're going to recapture this country for the Jewish community and he and his sons and Judah the Maccabee was his eldest son fought a war of rebellion of resilience in order to recapture the temple and rededicate the temple their rule was very beautiful for the Jews for many years but then the rabbis later on after the destruction of the temple wanted to emphasize something that was more inward something that was more about the soul and they realized that the Jews were now going to go in and to die to diaspora and they weren't going to have their own country so they wanted to have a way to have conica keep the people alive without this ideal of the warrior and in order to do that they emphasized a different aspect of the holiday which was more about the light and the oil and the inner process of transforming ourselves oh i love that so so for those of us that don't practice Judaism uh Pearl can can this mean the light of in ourselves can can we as of outsiders how can we share the light the candles being lit the whole idea of light because that's basically what we are well thank you for that question marcia that's an excellent question and i'll tell you why it's particularly pertinent two of all the Jewish holidays the Hanukkah holiday and to put the cart before the horse this is actually why khabad all over the world not just here in hawaii and on every island Sam where you are in Maui and in kawaii and the big island but also all over the united states and all over the world khabad makes great emphasis on displaying menorahs in public we have a display going up at alamoana shopping center a mecanica ali in west oahu in Waikiki and the reason for that is marcia is because particularly Hanukkah carries a universal message and the the message is as follows when the Greeks try to defeat the macabees as Sam just pointed out so eloquently and so very well informed that they just try to destroy the Jewish religion the Jewish people the Jewish culture and wanted to Hellenize the entire Israeli population meaning that everybody should speak Greek talk Greek act Greek have Greek names etc and wipe out Judaism Jewish study and Jewish practice and therefore with the victory of the macabees we're not just talking about military victory again as sam had mentioned we're talking a spiritual victory and to quote one of the famous prayers of the Hanukkah holiday we are commemorating the victory of right over the might over the few over the many in other words this message resonates universally that it is not might and it is not physical power that makes one victorious it is the power of doing right and doing what god wants and the light of the oil the light of the menorah king Solomon said it very beautifully much better than I he said kiner Hashem Nishmat Adam that's in Hebrew the soul of man is the candle of God every human being is created in God's image we all have a spark of God within us and it is our duty and obligation to shine that light of God that is within us to the world and share that godly light living the way God wants us to moral good kind lives respecting each other respecting our society that that kind of life is shining our godly light so the Hanukkah candles they represent freedom of religion and the freedom of our light to shine as we each want to practice it people of any faith and people of no faith at all we all are created in God's image and therefore the United States of America has a very special place in this pantheon of beliefs because the United States was the first country in the history if I'm correct in the history of the planet to say that we can all practice as we want to to give us the freedom of religion and to celebrate that the universal message of the Hanukkah lights resonates with everyone we have the freedom to practice religion that's one message of the Hanukkah lights we have a godly light that is within us that is a soul that we need to shine to the world because the world is desperately in need of spiritual light and of course to literally light our menorahs so whether you light a menorah or not you can celebrate the message of light by eating oily foods and by shining your individual unique light to the world now most of the winter the december religion all all across have candles and I guess it's because this is the dark time of the year and for most of these religions they were created long before electricity so I would think now both of you you can tell me I would think that this the candle the light of the candle across the traditions means something special about the light what it is about us as as our soul as our spirit regardless of the religion but that seems to be the one thing that is in all of those religions and you know the asians have one at the beginning of winter and then of course Hanukkah and I think the Muslims have one at this time of year and the Christians have Christmas of course but the candles seem to be the one standard thing the one in common is there a reason for that is it or am I making help something or am I well should I answer that one please oh okay so what what comes to mind in the Jewish sources is really fascinating I mean there's a lot of sources on the the idea of light in Hanukkah and certainly the lights of Hanukkah have a certain quality to them that they are meant solely for the purpose of admiring the light as opposed to the Shabbat candles which we light each Friday night the Shabbat candles have a have a purpose that they're meant to give us the type of light that we use for our purposes on Shabbat and that we actually enjoy in a kind of a personal way the Hanukkah lights are not meant to be used for any purpose they're meant to simply be looked at and contemplated and meditated upon so we can't read to the light of the Hanukkah candles and we can't use them for any other type of illumination all that we're meant to do is enjoy simply the fact that light is there and the fact that light is lighting up the darkness in this darker time of the year and actually one of the early sources for you know the one of the things that's sort of been connected in some way to the Hanukkah festival is something that actually speaks about a totally different topic but it's in the Talmud and it's in the track date that speaks about the holidays of all nations and in that track 8, it talks about the first human being in the world and the first human being, Adam, was cast out of the Garden of Eden and in our tradition that happened in the month of Tishrei which would be around September time and he was cast out of the Garden of Eden and he just started seeing that the days were becoming shorter and gradually darkness was increasing in the world and over that entire fall period this Adam who had only been born into the world towards the beginning of the winter started seeing darkness increasing in the world and he said oh woe is me all this darkness that is coming into the world it's all part of this same sin or the same casting out that happened from the Garden of Eden. I am responsible for all of this darkness and then around the time of the winter solstice the days start to change and light begins to increase and slowly slowly there's this little hope that happens and light comes back and at that time it says that the first Adam decided to make a festival of Thanksgiving for eight days and that festival of Thanksgiving was a festival of the changing and the return of light into the world. So the Hanukkah lights are in some way symbolic of this moment in time when we're at the height of darkness and light begins and that light symbolizes redemption it symbolizes the resilience of our tradition of all of what we have to share with the world the symbol that goes out and simply alludes to my hope. Well so much of the Christian traditions come from the Jewish traditions simply because I think they're all created at the same time from the same place but I call desert religions the Jews, the Christians, the Muslims all created in the desert in under same conditions and I think they're all cousins because they come from Abraham but that's a different story. However there's so many of the traditions that are seen down the same path yeah they're all different but I think at the heart of it they're the same. Or am I making a pearl? Help me. I can't say I have that much familiarity with Christian traditions but I am sure as you said they all evolved from the same source and as I mentioned before there are some things that are just universal the fact all of humanity we all share a godly light and a godly soul we all share a piece of God within us every human being yearns for love for peace for warmth for kindness these are universal values and as a matter of fact you know again to touch on what you said earlier Marcia about like what do people that are not of the Jewish religion how can they tap into Chanukah and celebrate. So while the Jewish people accepted upon themselves 613 commandments at Mount Sinai approximately 3,300 years ago there is a code of universal morality called the Noah Hyde laws which are applicable to every human being and by living by that moral code I encourage everyone to google it there are seven basic laws about you know no idol worship sexual morality courts of justice kindness to animals etc those are some of the laws I would encourage everybody to google that because by living our life by a moral code and a recognition that there is a creator above that is a commonality amongst all of us on this planet regardless of what religion we practice regardless of what faith we practice or don't practice or how much or how little we observe but there is a common moral code a shared expectation on the part of God that all of humanity recognize that there is a creator that there is a higher power a higher source and that's why I think you'll find the commonality of traditions expressing that in terms of candles in terms of light in terms of wanting to bring light into this world and expressing our own light in this world and manifesting it in a physical manner connecting the physical and the spiritual I think those are goals shared throughout humanity regardless of how it is expressed in different religions and that's why I think the universal message of the Chanukah candles resonates the light of freedom the light of godliness and the holiness that we each have within side of us and can share with the world and the light of right over might that not not not not simply having a physically powerful makes you correct and right in this world and there are times that we see that openly that God reveals that openly for all to see and that is the Chanukah message that everyone can tap into I I love that idea can you explain to tell us a bit about each of the candles and how the the order in which they are lived uh Sam you want to go for it yeah so um so the custom the custom originally was that we would only light one candle and that was that was the original custom of Chanukah that's described that it was enough to light one candle because the whole point was just to have light and then it became a custom that each person would have their own one lamp an oil lamp and then later on it became a custom that there would be eight lamps and there were two two ideas of how that would be celebrated and one one said well you should start with eight and you should take one away each night and that idea was um the opinion of the house of Bechamai and that that that opinion sort of had to do with thinking about the potential of the days to come and the the kind of the way that we're building up towards kind of a um we're we're sort of marking this time that is we have eight nights that are still before us on the first night and seven nights that are still before us on the second night and six and so on but the custom that's become accepted is to light one lamp additionally each night and that was the opinion of Bechilau which is the sense of increasing some of the increase way um and so what we do is that is the candle that is the candle that's used to light the other candles and that candle is called the Shamash because it serves as a servant candle the tall one yeah and so it's not in line with the other candle it's called the Shamash it's just used to light them and then it's placed in the middle um so you would light that first and then you would start the new candle that you had placed for that night so on the first night you would just light the first candle on the second night you would start with the second candle and the second candle so if you were placing for example um the menorah on the outside of your door which is the custom that i mentioned in Jerusalem um it's not usually most people put them in their windows but you would have a marker the mizuzah on the right side of your door and you would have the Hanukkah on the left side and you would start with the um the new candle which would be the candle that would be um added one to the left of the first one so then you would start and you would light with that candle first and then you would light the previous candle which would only have a minute or two left tell me about the dreidel i'm gonna go ahead girl yeah so the dreidel is like a little a little spinning top a little spinning toy and why we play with it today is because it commemorates when the Greeks as Sam had mentioned the Greeks forbade the Jewish people to study the Torah the Torah is our bible otherwise known in the world as the Old Testament so they refused to allow the Jews to study Torah the Jews never gave up studying Torah and what they did was they would hide the fact that they were studying Torah and when even the little children when they would come the Greek army would come and suppress the Jewish people from studying the Torah they would simply take out their spinning tops their dreidel and say oh we're just playing a little game we're not doing any studying so to commemorate the fact that notwithstanding the fact that the regime that ruled over Israel at the time which was the mighty Greek empire we forbade the study of Torah in any and all circumstances Jews have always clung to our Torah that is the light and the source of our life and that is God's words and God's teaching and even if we have to hide it by playing a spinning top that's what we'll do so till today and on each of the fourth sides there's a Hebrew letter which stands for the Hebrew phrase nes kadol hayasham a great miracle happened there and actually in Israel it says nes kadol hayasham a great miracle happened here so there's actually two versions of the dreidel and Israeli one and one for the rest of the diaspora and that just commemorates the miracle of the Jewish victory the victory of the Maccabees and the victory of the oil as Sam mentioned today many light candles but there are still some people that light oil menorahs the old-fashioned way with olive oil and cotton wicks and as Sam mentioned we increase in light every day on the first day we light one candle on the second day we light two on the third day three etc throughout the eighth day holiday until we build up showing of course that always we're meant to increase and actualize our potential and not decrease well now we've just about at the end you mentioned something about cars with with them is there a procession or something with automobiles yes thank you for reminding me so marcia we are having well first of all we're having a bunch of things covid notwithstanding we're doing zoom uh zoom events like Sam mentioned we're also doing in-person events with social distancing tomorrow night at 7 p.m we will be gathering in oahu on at the entrance to Waikiki Kohio Kornokawa we're going to be lighting our big menorahs we have for the last 33 years with social distancing five people every 12 feet apart as per government regulations but then on sunday we are going to have a car menorah parade so everybody will be distancing in their cars we have about almost 50 cars our goal is 50 cars for the 50th state we've been doing this for about 15 years now this year we're up to about I think 42 or 45 we hope to get 50 before sunday where we're going to be starting out and traveling throughout town with menorahs on our car in a display of pride and joy and unity and celebration of the holiday and everybody is welcome to honk and wave when you see our car menorahs passed by either your home or your store we'll be going through Waikiki, Kahala, Wailei and Kaimuki and back ending in Waikiki so feel free and honk when you see us thank you both this has been such a wonderful time and it went so fast I do appreciate this and again thank you both Shalom and we'll see you next time Shalom