Chanukah in Israel...

Chanukah here has been exciting in a very casual, understated way. Last weekend, chanukiot started appearing in random places - at the courtyard of the student apartment complex, on the roof of a security booth, and dangling like Christmas decorations from the streets of downtown jerusalem. There was no build up, little chatter, just suddenly the appearance of the holiday and a shelf of candles for sale at the supermarket.

Like so much of Judaism here in Israel, Chanukah is built into the culture and seemingly separate from morality, ethics or religion. Basically, among the secular Israelis, the holiday is marked with the lighting of a hanukiah (at whatever time is most convenient and if they remember) and an innudation of jelly donuts that are everywhere! Really, everywhere. It's as though sufganiyot as they are called, have come out of hibernation and crawled from across the globe to a full-force take over of the land of Israel. Chabad guys were giving them out in the bar last night, at our work party, they were on the table, at school the students selling tickets for the school play are giving them out with purchase of tickets. And the truth (sort of like fruit cake, and everyone knows this...) is that they are not that good. Maybe fresh they are, maybe homemade, but the mass-produced balls of not quite stale dough and shiny pink jelly are not worth even half their caloric content or the frenzy around them.

But I digress... because the truth is that Chanukah here has been amazing and very special. The first night, I lit candles with friends, then at a small work party where we all lit the candles, sang the prayers, did a shot of whiskey and left. I lit them a third time at my friend Maor's apartment while his roommate made incredible hommemade dough balls. (sugary but much tastier than the store-bought donuts, and without the nasty jelly!)
Israelis all know "Amen" and the first line of "Maotzur" but beyond that I seemed to know more of the words to the prayers than they did.

Last night, at the student pub where I work, I arrived early and my boss was watching television. On TV was a live broadcasting of some very important looking army officials. They were signing the prayers and lighting the candles as well, in full uniform. You could see the board room where they were meeting, a room full of 50-something, heavy, balding, tough-looking guys, enjoying jelly donuts and singing prayers. On national television.

During the course of the night, we lit the candles twice. These were special moments - Israel only ones - the DJ turned off the music, the bartenders stopped to cover their heads and the karaoke ceased for a moment while the room full of boisterous students stopped to pray. The DJ even put on a recording of "S'vivon," a well-known Hanukkah song about dreidels.

In school, my ulpan teacher did a short lesson about Chanukah. I was excited that she had a dreidel that said "Nes gadol haya PO = a great miracle happened HERE, instead of THERE (SHAM) as they do in the states. You can only buy these in Israel. At the end of class, she slipped it into my hand and said, "Chag Sameach."

During my two months here so far, Judiasm has not been a huge part of my life, nor have I felt an overwhelming sense of spirituality. In these small moments, though, I feel connected... it's the tiny cultural moments that unites the people here - knowing that orthodox and secular, askenazi, mizrachi, russians, ethiopians - they're all eating sufganiyot, lighting candles and singing amen in their homes and with their friends, celebrating a holiday that I have always celebrated...

Oh, and one more thing.....

there are no christmas decorations