Last week I wrote that Chanukah (let’s see how many different ways I can spell that in this column) is a fairly minor holiday in Judaism. But because of it’s proximity to another major holiday, it is perhaps the most widely celebrated by American Jews and the most widely known by non-Jews. However, recently I read this insight in Jeffrey Goldberg’s Atlantic Monthly column about Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (who is Mormon) song about Hanukkah (no, I am not making this up):
“Judah Maccabee is a hero to many Christians: If there had been no Judah, Judaism might have disappeared; no Judah and no Judaism would have meant no Jesus.”
So maybe I better re-evaluate my view of Hanukkah. I guess it’s more important than I give it credit for, at least to the almost 2 billion Christians in the world.
But in all sincerity, I have come to realize how significant Hanukah is to our family. On Wednesday I went to talk to my daughter’s preschool to talk about our celebrations. I read stories and gave the kids the obligatory chocolate gelt (coins) and a dreidel (top) to spin.
My daughter beamed as she watched me interact with her class. She was proud — proud to have her mommy in class; and most of all, proud to be Jewish. She doesn’t really know this yet, but her name — Nessa — is intricately connected to the Chanuka story. The Hebrew letters that appear on the dreidel — nun, gimel, hey, shin — are an acronym for Nes Gadol Haya Sham — in English, “A great miracle happened there.”
Nes is the Hebrew word for miracle, and her name was no accident. She truly is our miracle. And last year, we received another miracle right on Hanukkah — our daughter, Sarah. No gift will ever top that.
Tomorrow night (Friday) is the last night of Hanukkah. But we will continue to celebrate our miracles all year long.
Laura Weisskopf Bleill, a co-founder of chambanamoms.com, uses the Jewish excuse for the reason that she did not send out any holiday cards this year. She writes “Being a Jew in C-U,” a column about being a Jewish suburban girl in a cornfield, on Thursdays. You can reach her at laura@chambanamoms.com.