Hanukkah Efforts

First candle tomorrow night.  All gifts purchase, half wrapped, half still need to be wrapped then brought downstairs for my wife to open one after each candle.  Food undecided.  There will be latkes for shabbos.  I don't know yet what will serve as the shabbos entrée.  Our menorah, for which I retain the traditional word as much of the Hebrew world shifts to the more accurate Hanukkiah,  sits on the living room table year round.  Candles on sale.  I bought a box and put it on the living room table.  That table also has some dreidels which stay there year round.  And we got another box of candles as a promotion from a yeshiva, no strings attached, though with a request for a donation.  I don't know if these candles are identical to the no frills brand that I purchased but  I will at least open the box.

Rabbi's Talmud class this week devoted to passages about Hanukkah.  What it is.  Even that was not obvious to the sages.  Consensus that we light candles, though several opinions on the optimal way to do this.  Consensus that we do not fast, though unlike Purim, no mandate to feast.  We recite Hallel and read Torah, which can make the services lengthy, both weekdays and shabbos.  We insert a special prayer in the Amidah and add a psalm.  Those who die miss getting a eulogy.  That's the legal basis of the festival.  And it's enough to keep it pretty separate from Christmas, which dominates the American calendar.

That's enough to keep the time special.  I have a few activities, a mixture of challenge and pleasure.  Our Gabbai invited me to lead shacharit on shabbos.  I've not done Hallel in years but should be able to learn it in the three days allotted.  Only remember doing the special insertion of Al Hanissim one time in the past.  Can probably brush up on that as well.  Arranged to visit a new water park not very far away.  An indoor respite.  And a reception at a restaurant around the corner, really within walking distance but a minimal drive, which is better in mid-December.

And need to donate platelets.  I'm overdue.  Final day of OLLI classes overlaps with first day of Hanukkah.  Should make a better effort to activate my snow blower.  And pay attention to whether outdoor herb pots outside the front door need to warm up inside some of the time.  And while my next Torah portion comes after the Festival, I still need to maintain daily practice during the Festival

So Hanukkah plays out part celebratory, part seasonal.  Some of its elements are unique, others blended with more ordinary activities.  Some restful, some challenging.  Some social, some solitary.  But eight days of personal immersion and transition.