Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The Girl Who Played With The Menorah (Fire is Involved)

Yeah, I know.  I'm not supposed to post my review until Friday - but I'm not posting my review yet.

Today is the first day of Hanukkah or, "The Festival of Lights" and in honour of my late step father (a.k.a. "Satan"), I dusted off the ol' Menorah to light the first candle of this holiday season.  Neither me or my mother is Jewish, nor are we otherwise religious, but we do and honour the rights of those who have passed.

Now, they make candles specifically for this holiday.  In fact, I think, they are also "kosher" (I'm not completely sure on this - I'll have to check the box).  The only problem is that the makers of these candles never thought to consult with the manufacturers of Menorahs - or vice versa, for that matter.   We've never had a Menorah that could properly accommodate these candles.  So on the eighth day, our Menorah generally ends up looking like this (except mine are usually broken somewhere in the middle):


I've seen many other magnificent candelabras for this holiday, but none that actually shows the use of these cursed fire sticks. The more 'perfect' sticks are usually of the tapered type (dinner candles), or even electric.  Maybe we should enlist the skills of ...

(Oh, look!  He's even wearing a yamekah!)

Seriously, it isn't about the malformed fancy Menorahs, nor the badly designed perfect candles.  It's about the human need, nay, the instinct, to persevere.  To say that I can (and probably will) burn my fingers for the next seven days should be celebration enough.  I'm sure I won't be the only one.

I respect all life.  I respect all religions.

Happy Hanukkah!



18 comments:

  1. Happy Hanukkah indeed!

    Merry Hanukkah Boxing Day!

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  2. Happy Hanukkah! Don't burn yourself too badly.

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  3. The meaning of Hanukkah? I think you've put your finger on it.

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  4. Happy ChrisKwanUkah! Aloe! A plant's best, but the tubed stuff works just fine.

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  5. Stopping by to say hello and wish you a great weekend ........

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  6. Reffie: Same to you!(?) With all these upcoming holidays, it does get quite confusing, but then I am easily confused.

    ;-)

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  7. Ziva: I'm usually pretty good with fire - it's the knives I have to watch out for!

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  8. dufus: It is a truly en-lightening holiday.
    ;-)

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  9. Cheryl: Ha, ha, "ChrisKwanUkah"! Good one! And I have two aloe plants, you know, in case I happen to get very clumsy.

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  10. Helen: Thanks, and have a great weekend, too!

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  11. Now Double O- be careful! I don't want to have to write a Swedish book called "The girl who played with Hanukkah candles". I respect all life and all religions too. I just don't belong to any of them.

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  12. Linda: I survived tonight's "lighting" unscathed (or otherwise). I didn't know that you spoke Swedish, or that there were that many Spanish-American Swedish speaking Jews! If need be, we can always count on Ziva for translations!
    ;-)

    Hell, like I said, I have no 'religion' either, but if there's a party involved, I'm all for it!

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  13. Well, I'm glad somebody finally outed all those candle makers whose candles don't fit the freakin' menorahs. I always end up, like you, with candles that are broken or caddywampus. But it's way cool to watch them flaming! Makes it all worthwhile. (I'm not Jewish but I am Unitarian and we steal all the best holiday traditions!)
    Now... where did I put my menorah? I gotta catch up here.

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  14. Boom Boom: Frankly, with all that heat down here this summer, I'm surprised what candles we did have left didn't 'mind-meld' with each other and that they were relatively straight! But, even if you trim those suckers with a knife to fit the holes, there is always one candle that will still end up leaning over like a drunk Rabbi!
    ;-)

    Mazel tov!

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  15. What a lovely sentiment. Love the cartoon. Why aren't they doing a big action film on Menorah Man? It would seem such a natural.

    Happy Holidays, my friend.

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  16. Jayne: Thank you, and Happy Holidays to you too!

    Well, we ran out of the 'prescribed' candles and when I went looking for some today, people looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head (it's a prominently Christian society here). So I had to ad lib with birthday candles last night and, guess what, even those suckers won't stand in the holes. Oy is me.
    ;-)

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  17. My God---or should I say Jehovah?---that's a nice post, Double-O. Especially in light (pardon the pun) of how you apparently felt about Satan. I mean your father. Interesting.

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  18. BonyMike: Thank you! "Satan" was a button pusher, but we miss him - he could actually be quite funny at times.

    We never really did celebrate the holidays, but it's nice to do something. Our only Christmas decorations consists of a one-foot, table-top, artificial tree with optic fibre lighting. It's rather cute, but I've lost the plug for it.

    The Menorah is a tradition and, although I am not Jewish, I try to recite the first few words of the prayer for lighting candles:

    Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ..., but since I don't know the entire prayer, I end it with:

    ...oy, bless our brisket.

    It's the thought that counts.
    ;-)

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