Peeling a Pomegranate

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Hanukkah Seder
Food Notes
Bibliography

Introduction

Basics:

• Elements:  Water (have) Fire (need)
• Themes: Re/Dedication, Heroes/Heroines, Light in the Darkness, Power of the Individual, Things that are Hidden
• What’s Hidden:  Things under the water, Jews in the Greek Empire and Pure Vial of Oil, The laws of nature and the sun, Judith’s motives in camp of Holfernes
• Four Stories:  Leviathan, Maccabees, Adam at Solstice, Judith
• Four Courses: Soup/Fish, Olives, Root Vegetables, Cheese

This seder is intended for the eighth night of Hanukkah, as all eigth candles are light during the seder (but I think you could also do it on the first night). Unlike Passover, there is no break for a meal in this seder.  After each section, a dish is served which corresponds directly to what has just happened.  There are also food blessings before most courses.  If you are traditionally observant, please feel free to modify the food blessings to follow your own practice.  Wine is not called out here specifically, but it would be perfectly appropriate to include wine with each course.

Another change from the format of a Passover seder is that there is no specification as to who should read what parts.  I leave that to you to decide.  You can designate certain parts for a leader or just go around the table having each person read a section.

I hope you enjoy this Hanukkah seder.  Please feel free to leave comments and share your experience with it.  If you make a pretty formatted version that you’d be willing to share, please let me know.

You are welcome to make as many personal copies of this seder as you like, but please do not redistribute or republish it.

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Hanukkah Seder

In The Beginning…

Begin by Washing Hands

(Hold up Dreidle) Nes Gadol Hayah Sham — A Great Miracle Happened There (Diaspora).  Nes Gadol Hayah Poh — A Great Miracle Happened Here (Israel).  These are what the letters on the dreidel mean.  Nun, Gimel, Hey, Shin (Peh) — each stands for an idea.  Once a year Jews are encouraged to put down the Torah and cease their studies because a great miracle happened here or there.  We celebrate.  We feast.  We light lights that are only meant for beauty.  Tradition tells us that the chanukiyah is not to be studied by, but just to be enjoyed for its beauty.  Normally we are a frugal people.  But here, at the darkest time of year we allow ourselves to relax and just enjoy the light.

Nes Gadol Chai Poh!  A great miracle is alive here!  “Recalling the generations we weave our lives into the tradition” Source: Marcia Falk, Book of Blessings, p 180 Channukah is the celebration of a miracle long gone, but like Passover it must always be as though we lived the moment.  So we say a great miracle lives here and now.

Tonight we will join together to bring light from the darkness.  We will eat, we will drink, we will laugh and play.  Let us start by lighting the sun candle, for while many may call it a “shamash” or servant candle — our shamash is symbol of the shemesh (sun)!  Through our actions tonight we bring back the light.  We re-kindle the light in our hearts as we pray for the light of the sun to return to our world.  In this time of winter, fire is also the element of which we are in need.  Water, whether in snow or rain form is in abundance, but fire is needed to keep us warm.  The return of the sun is needed for the Spring to begin, and our crops to grow.  We have crossed from the time of darkness to beginning of the rebirth of light.  As hard as it may be to remember as the winter months grow long — the sun is growing brighter and the darkest day has passed.

Lighting the Shemesh Candle:

Part I - The Great Leviathan

This is the season of water, but not necessarily gentle soothing water.  This is the time of rains and heavy snow.  This is the season when the world freezes over and ponds freeze solid and icicles hang from our homes.  At the same time, we need this time of harsh, cold water to ensure our crops will grow.  The melted snow feeds the rivers.  The hard freeze kills many of the bugs that would eat our crops.  The Earth rests, but life in the sea continues.

“On the fifth day of creation, God took fire and water, and out of these two elements He made the fishes of the sea. The animals in the water are much more numerous than those on land.” Source: Allen Ginsberg, Legends of the Jews, http://www.jhom.com/topics/fish/leviathan.html

Water and fire are the elements of this season.  So we turn now to the sea — to the Leviathan, the mythical sea monster.   Tradition tells us that the Leviathan, a great (gadol) sea dragon was created as a playmate for the Elohim.

“The ruler over the sea-animals is leviathan. With all the other fishes he was made on the fifth day…

So enormous is leviathan that to quench his thirst he needs all the water that flows from the Jordan into the sea. His food consists of the fish which go between his jaws of their own accord. When he is hungry, a hot breath blows from his nostrils, and it makes the waters of the great sea seething hot….

But leviathan is more than merely large and strong; he is wonderfully made besides. His fins radiate brilliant light, the very sun is obscured by it, and also his eyes shed such splendor that this marvelous beast is the plaything of God, in whom He takes His pastime.” Source: Allen Ginsberg, Legends of the Jews, http://www.jhom.com/topics/fish/leviathan.html

On the dreidel is the letter gimmel which stands for the word gadol (great).  When we play the dreidel game, we get what’s in the pot if on our turn it lands on gimmel.

“God created the Leviathan. On every winter solstice, Leviathan would rear his head and make himself great and snort in the water and stir it up, and the fear of him would fall on all the fishes in the sea. If this were not so, the small could not stand before the great.”
Otzar haMidrashim, Hashem Bechachmah Yasad Aretz 6 Source: http://telshemesh.org/tevet/jewish_winter_solstice_tales.html

And as the Leviathan stirs things up, we play on and let others have the chance to be great.

Together: Let us bless the source of life who let nothing lack from this world and created in it beautiful creatures both great and small.

Lighting the first two candles:

Serve the first course of soup or fish.

Blessing over the food:

Tell big stories — especially big fish stories!

Part II - The Maccabee Miracle

In the winter the days grow shorter and we rely on fire more and more for its light and warmth.  People light the outsides of their homes and place candles in the windows to ward of the darkness of the season.  This season is also one where we need to work harder to keep our internal fires burning.   This is where the story of the Maccabees comes in.  In the darkest days, when the people forgot who they were, stopped fighting and began acting more like Greeks than Hebrews — a band of brothers stepped forward and fought back.  As we all know, they won the war and re-dedicated the temple. That re-dedication alone is miraculous, but that was a very human-facing miracle.  So, we have a second miracle to consider this time of year — the miracle of the oil.

In a discussion of what kinds of candles may be used for Shabbat, one rabbi asks, rather casually, whether the rules for Hanukkah candles are different; in this context, another asks — as if he had barely heard of the festival — “What is this Hanukkah?

And this is the answer he receives:
Our rabbis taught: On the 25th day of Kislev [begin] the eight days of Hanukkah, on which lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden. For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils in it, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed over them and defeated them, they searched and found only one bottle of oil sealed by the High Priest. It contained only enough for one day’s lighting. Yet a miracle was brought about with it, and they lit [with that oil] for eight days. The following year they were established as a festival, with Hallel (prayers of praise) and Thanksgiving [Shabbat 21b].

After this brief explanation, the rabbis go back to discussing the candles. They have no more to say about the internal divisions of the Jews, the revolt against Antiochus, the victory of the Maccabees, the rededication of the Temple. How can we explain this?  Seasons of Our Joy, Waskow

Let us focus on the idea of re-dedication, because it fits all the faces of the story of the Maccabees.  This time of year, in America many people make New Years resolutions.  Many resolutions just disappear into the ether.  When the Maccabees re-dedicated the temple they did it through hard work and ritual.  Let us now focus on what we need to re-dedicate ourselves to in our own lives, knowing that just speaking the words is not enough.  Take a moment to think about what you need to do to live more truly to who you are.

A Psalm of Mattathias
There is no need for fear
of men dressed in threats of power
all their successes are masks

that will fade like words in a gust of wind
and though one walks as if he wears a crown
in a show of pride — the whole performance collapses

in an instant: one last breath
and his body crowns the dunghill
and his words have turned to worms

today he shines on everyone’s tongue
tomorrow no one has heard of him
he’s vanished quickly as a winter sunset
gone — turned back into dust
all his schemes turned back
into nothing.

but you, my children, take hold of your lives
by a stronger hand,
by the deep strength in Torah

your hearts unsinkable vessels
bearing its words: sustenance
for a day beyond mere dreams of success

it will bring you into the future
it will bring you courage
worn as surely as a crown.

Blazing Fountain (Rosenberg)

As we light the next two candles, let us re-dedicate the temples of our own body and souls.  Know as surely as the candles bring new light to this room, and as surely as you know the days will grow longer that this flame can grow brighter within yourself, with a little work and dedication.

Lighting the next two candles:

“When Adam saw the day gradually diminishing, he said, “Woe is me! Perhaps because I offensively, the world around me is growing darker and darker, and is about to return to chaos and confusion, and this is the death heaven has decreed for me.” He then sat eight days in fast and prayer.

But when the winter solstice arrived, and he saw the days getting gradually longer, he said, “Such is the way of the world,” and proceeded to observe eight days of festivity.

The following years he observed both the eight days preceding and the eight days following the solstice as days of festivity.”
(Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 8a)

Sefer Ha-Aggadah 23:100

Part IV - Judith

We end our journey tonight with the story of Yehudit (Judith).  The story of one woman who saw and acted.  She acted when no one else would to save her people. Judith is a true Hanukkah and solstice story, because it is the story of seeing the light in the darkness and personal dedication to action. As Rabbi Jill Hammer says, “The Book of Judith is, after all, a story of the triumph of one small person over an army— a little light illuminating the darkness.”