Hanukkah Archives - Behind the Music

Why isn’t the miracle of the oil mentioned in the Hanukkah prayer “Al Hanissim”?

November 28, 2024November 11, 2024 by debisimons

From the website MyJewishLearning. The hard-to-read text at the bottom of the image says “Illustration in an 1880 newspaper of a Hanukkah celebration at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at the Academy of Music in New York City. (U.S. Library of Congress)” Isn’t that, like, totally cool?

Whew. I had no idea that the story of Hanukkah was so complicated. My previous posts about this Jewish holiday have for the most part focused on the eight days that the menorah in the Temple at Jerusalem burned from a flask of oil that should have lasted only one day, with the ensuing symbolism of lights and candles, feasting and celebration. (Latkes, anyone?) But the actual Hebrew prayers, including “Al Hanissim”¹ recited as part of the celebrations, say nothing about the miracle of the long-lasting oil. Why is that, and when did the oil miracle become part of the story? I will say up front that there are no completely definitive answers to be found here. It’s been fascinating, though, to dig through quite a few sources and see how the subject is handled. Here’s an overview about the holiday as a whole and also what I’ve found out about this particular prayer.²

A Hanukkah Song with Universal Appeal–“We Are Lights”

October 31, 2025October 29, 2023 by debisimons

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I started out this post with what I assumed would be an easy-to-answer question: Why did Stephen Schwartz end up collaborating with someone named Steve Young for this song, writing the music but having Young write the lyrics? Schwartz is somewhat of a Broadway legend, having had at one point three hit Broadway shows running at once (Pippin, Godspell, and The Magic Show). In 2003 Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Wicked, which just celebrated its 20th year on Broadway. Yes, 20. So there was no shortage of material about Schwartz, but I couldn’t find anything about his writing this specific song. And I became somewhat obsessed with finding out who this Steve Young was. While I don’t typically share my research process, such as it is, about these posts, this one seemed interesting enough to include here. First I googled “Steve Young” and came up with a Wikipedia entry about someone of that name who was very famous for something called the “outlaw movement” in country music. Hmmm. That didn’t sound too promising. After a delightful e-mail exchange with Young’s son, Jubal Lee* (Young died in 2016), we concluded that I had the wrong Steve Young. Jubal said that he was sure his dad wouldn’t have been able to keep quiet about working with the creator of Wicked and therefore miss out on a chance to impress his granddaughter.

Dreidels and Other Hanukkah Traditions–What’s What?

October 30, 2024November 13, 2021 by debisimons

I’ve written quite a bit about Hanukkah in previous posts, specifically about the significance of latkes as traditional food during this holiday and about the meaning of the menorah as it relates to the eight days of miraculous oil, but I haven’t written anything about dreidels, so here goes:

As with anything to do with folk traditions, the origins of this item and the game you play with it are very murky, with several strands of meaning attached to them, and with some later interpretations being projected back onto the past. It is clear that games of chance such as this one, in which you win or lose depending on how an object lands after you spin it or throw it, are very ancient. Spinning tops specifically date all the way back to the ancient Babylonians, who played with clay versions as early as 3500 BC. And—get this—there was a wooden spinning top in King Tut’s tomb! Very, very cool.

Menorah Mysteries

October 11, 2023November 1, 2021 by debisimons

First question: Why is the pictured lamp stand more authentic and correct as a part of the Hanukkah celebration than the usual candelabra?

Answer: Because the whole story of Hanukkah is about oil, not candles.

Second question: Should there be seven or nine branches on a menorah?

Answer: It depends. . . .

Is There Any Serious History Behind Our Selection “Ocho Kandelikas”?

October 11, 2023November 20, 2019 by debisimons

Talk about a leading question! The answer is a resounding “yes.” There’s so much to be said about this supposedly simple song that I just don’t know where to begin.

Let me start with a brief summary of the meaning of Hanukkah, or Chanukah (both spellings are simply transliterations from the Hebrew word meaning “dedication”– חֲנֻכָּה ḥanuka), a holiday referring to an event first recorded in the first and second Books of Maccabees, part of the intertestamental books collectively known as the Apocrypha. (These books are not part of the canonized Tanakh [Hebrew Bible] used by modern Jews, though the Catholic and Orthodox Churches consider them part of the Bible.) While the re-dedication of the Temple and the lighting of the menorah are recorded in these books, there is nothing in that original story about the miracle of the long-lasting oil. That story didn’t come until about 600 years later, in the Talmud, a set of commentaries that is at least partly made up of oral traditions. The Talmud says there was only one small flask of properly dedicated oil available, enough to last one day, after the Maccabees had driven out the Roman army and re-dedicated the Temple. But the oil lasted eight days, thus allowing time for new oil to be properly prepared.

What is distinctive about Ron Jeffers, composer of “Hanukkah Blessings”?

October 31, 2024October 24, 2014 by debisimons

What’s distinctive about Ron Jeffers is that he’s a living composer who has produced a significant amount of original music and arrangements, all for sale as sheet music from various outlets including his own company, Earthsongs, and whose music is performed quite frequently if YouTube is anything to go by, and yet . . . he has no online presence whatsoever. No personal website. No blog, No (worst of all) Wikipedia entry! How is this possible? In fact, if I hadn’t looked under “Ronald Jeffers” instead of either “Ron Jeffers” or “Ronald Harrison Jeffers,” I wouldn’t have gotten much information beyond his date and place of birth and a list of his publications.

Why Are Latkes–Fried Potato Pancakes–Especially Tied to Hanukkah?

November 3, 2022December 1, 2013 by debisimons

Answer: It’s all about the oil. You may think that candles and their light are the quintessential symbols of this holiday, but the origin story of this Jewish holiday centers on an oil-fueled lamp with multiple branches, not a candle holder. And the number of lights on the Temple menorah vs. the number on a Hannukah one don’t match. You may want to read my post about the menorah vs. the Hanukkah lampstand to find out more on this subject.

It’s not surprising that the oil in the Hanukkah lamp led to the use of oil in other ways to celebrate the holiday. While latkes are a very popular Hanukkah food, in reality it’s fried foods in general that carry out one of the themes of this holiday. (There are several varieties of doughnuts that are also popular during Hanukkah, the most common being jelly-filled doughnuts called sufganiyot. As we know, doughnuts—real doughnuts, not those baked things—require a whole lotta oil.) Let me give you a brief overview of the historical roots of this holiday and then tell you more than you ever wanted to know about the origins of the humble latke.