You Mean Chanuka Really IS Eight Days

        I was born on December 21^st. And then there is Chanuka. And the Goyish holiday with lights and a tree. And songs they call caroling. In other words, I grew up in the Galut of the States.

         Most of the individuals I had contact with knew that on Chanuka we light a chanukiya that was called a menorah with the famous little blue box of candles. However, not many people realized that those candles barely last the proper amount of time.

        Of course I’m writing about the time period of the 1980’s as I was becoming religious, in Atlanta, at the age of fourteen. I was then learning in Yeshiva High School yet at home, my family was not observant of the mitzvot. Nevertheless, Chanuka was a holiday that we celebrated.

        Growing up in the States in a partially assimilated life-style amongst goyim, one is all too aware of the festivities surrounding the winter holiday in the month of December. The TV and newspapers (back in the 1980’s) were full of constant advertisements of toys and games, are truly overwhelming for a young child and even for an adolescent.

        Fantasies of birthday presents intermingled with the desires of everything splashed at me from the media. When I was ten years old, my parents decided to give me a “gift” for each night of Chanuka. I was overjoyed. As my father worked two jobs, all I really wanted was for him to spend more time with me. Their “gift” idea was great because some of these gifts were not just wrapped. Sometimes it was a promise (which was later kept) of attending a baseball game together with my father or some other such outing. Although I must admit that to this day, I still have a game given to me by my parents when I was a youth. It is a magnetic board game called Shogun.       

        Through my learning in Yeshiva High School, I learned about the reasons for what we do in Yiddishkeit and how to perform many mitzvot. This included the concept of a two-day Yom Tov outside of Eretz Yisroel and that Chanuka is celebrated for eight days as the olive oil in The Temple lasted for eight days and not the one that was expected.

        I also found out that each of us has a Jewish birthday based on the lunar calendar in addition to the birthday based on the Gregorian calendar. My Jewish birth date (and the one I celebrate) is the 24^th of Kislev – the night before Chanuka.

         I have since grown up from those adolescent years of my youth in Atlanta. I made Aliya in 1979 and for many years now I have been living in Tzfat. I celebrate my birthday only on the 24^th of Kislev – usually several of my friends get together with me for a special cake. And then there is Chanuka. My first year in Israel I naively thought that Chanuka was only seven days, until I realized that Chanuka does not fall in the same category as the Yomim Tovim. I also light my own candles; in my case, I choose to light the teeny metal cups known as tea lights. A package of fifty more than suffices for the entire eight nights and certainly lasts long enough to fulfill the Halachic requirements.

         So anyone on a visit up to the northern part of Israel to the Holy city of Tzfat (Safed) is welcome to join me as I light my candles on my porch and sing the beautiful Zemirot of this holiday.