Hanukkah began tonight!! In this nice article, Sarah Gershman encourages us to make each night of Hanukkah special. She offers some great family celebration ideas. For example, she suggests that families can go on an early evening walk to see and feel the darkness that’s unique to this time of year. She also suggests that you can give each night a special celebration theme. You can have a party theme night, a gift-giving night, a sing-along night, a tzedakah (charity) night, etc.
So get creative, have fun, and bring some light into the world! We all need it.
Chag ha-urim sameach–Happy Chanukkah!!
Tags: Celebration, Chanukkah, Families, Hanukkah, holidays, Judaism
December 22, 2008 at 12:45 pm |
tzedakah is a great part of chanukah and every day, week, month, etc….
check out: http://www.mitzvahheroesfund.org
arnie draiman
http://www.draimanconsulting.com
January 21, 2009 at 10:09 pm |
Thanks for the comment, Arnie.
December 24, 2008 at 10:33 pm |
When they say that the death rate is lower for people who attend religious services, I assume that they mean that for a given year, those who attend religious services are less likely to die (holding everything else equal, including age and health) than those who don’t. We should probably look at the methodology of the study to see exactly what it means.
We live in a scary world; even for those who are middle-class, life seems precarious these days. For me personally, faith (whatever I mean by that) gives me a sense of optimism. The feeling (which prayer reinforces) that there is Someone or Something powerful that cares for me decreases my stress level, and we all know that stress kills. Communal prayer further reinforces this feeling that Someone or Something is protective.
Further, to the extent that communal religion encourages me to do what I really think is right, decreases the burden on my soul of rationalization of wrong ideas. This decreases stress too. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the mechanism by which religion could increase longevity, but it might.
Apologies if this is a repeat message. I’ve submitted it before, but it didn’t look like it went through.
January 21, 2009 at 10:12 pm |
Good points, Emily.
December 26, 2008 at 11:51 pm |
Greetings!
My cousin Bruce Burger aka Rebbe Soul had an XM / Sirius Chanukash show yesterday. They did a variety of music including blues – my fav! So I sent him this song I wrote while at U Tel Aviv for a semester in ‘74 – I was performing some nights for drinks and tips at Benny’s Piano Bar on Rechov Ibn Gvirol in Tel Aviv and living in “student quarters” at the Tel Aviv Youth Hostel on Rechov B-nai Dan by the HaYarkon river. I’d written this elementary Hebrew blues song which got lots of applause:
BLUES B’IVRIT
BLUES IN HEBREW – IT’S SO VERY HARD TO DO
BLUES IN HEBREW – IT’S SO VERY HARD TO DO
BECAUSE I CANT FULLY COMMUNICATE
MY THOUGHTS MY FEELINGS MY EMOTIONS TO YOU
.. BUT I’LL GIVE IT A TRY
BLUES B’IVRIT – ANI LO YACHOL L’SHIR
BLUES B’IVRIT – ANI LO YACHOL L’SHIR
KI IM KOL HA MILIM ANI OD LO MAKIR
BLUES B’IVRIT – ANI LO YACHOL L’SHIR
BLUES B’IVRIT – ANI LO YACHOL L’SHIR
KI IM KOL HA MILIM ANI OD LO MAKIR
HYA LI CHAVERA B’NEW YORK
ACHSHAV ANI CHOSHEV S’HE LO OHEVET OTI
HYA LI CHAVERA B’NEW YORK
ACHSHAV ANI CHOSHEV S’HE LO OHEVET OTI
OMRIM B’ANGLIT, ANASHIM,
I’M IN SADNESS AND BITTER MISERY
(preface line with bu bu bu bu BUM – a la Muddy Waters!)
RATZITI LICHTOV BLUES
(bu bum bum bu BUM ) LO HYA LI IPARON
(bu bum bum bu BUM ) AS MAH, ANI AYEF
OU LAI TZARIK LALECHET LISHON!
…OMAR TI…
BLUES B’IVRIT – ANI LO YACHOL L’SHIR
BLUES B’IVRIT – ANI LO YACHOL L’SHIR
KI IM KOL HA MILIM ANI OD LO MAKIR
…AND I SAY…
BLUES IN HEBREW – IT’S SO VERY HARD TO DO
BLUES IN HEBREW – IT’S SO VERY HARD TO DO
BECAUSE I CANT FULLY COMMUNICATE
MY THOUGHTS MY FEELINGS MY EMOTIONS TO YOU !!
January 21, 2009 at 10:13 pm |
Thanks for the post, Rich.