נר ה' נשמת אדם

Last night was the first night of Chanukah. Our daughter and son in law came to light candle with us. A friend joined us as well.

We all worked together to make dinner, cheese latkes,

sweet potato latkes, apple sauce,

If you cook the applesauce with the apple skins your sauce develops this gorgeous color. My older son and I discussed if it was worth the trouble of removing all of the apple skins from t completed sauce. The jury is still out o this one.

cranberry sauce and a giant salad. After we ate, we lit candles.

Every year, after candle lighting I take photos, usually not of the people around the menorahs but of the flames themselves. Last night, I was ready to not take photos to just be in the moment.

But in the middle of the singing, my youngest slid my camera over to me,.

I took photos of our lit menorahs. As I thought about why I do this year after year, I thought about the line from Proverbs,

נר ה' נשמת אדם

God's candle is the soul of human beings

If you look carefully at the photo above you will see seven individual Chanukiyot each one lit by someone I love. Each one is in a way a portrait of that person.

After we light candles, we sing the following.

It's a simple formula, mandated by the Rabbis that is a quick summation of why we light candles and celebrate Chanukah and the rules for candles and candle lighting.

Parenthetically, I photographed these texts from the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire Prayer book given to me by my friend Melinda. It was published in 1931. I particularly love the Hebrew font used, it's a great combination of quirky and rigid.

The text itself is a great mix of the lofty and the highly practical. Miracles and wonders are mixed with the rule that these are ceremonial lights only and you are not to use the Chanukah candles for task lighting.

Without fail, I find this text deeply moving each and every time I light Chanukah candles.

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וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

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