Began the day with finding my new book YOM KILLER for sale on Amazon (http://tinyurl.com/jmd44oh.Ending) it with finding a new 5-star review of my 2nd book in the series, UNLEAVENED DEAD, also on Amazon. I hope it’s a good omen for 2017, not just for me and mine, but for you and yours.
For those of you who have yet to check out my other website WHY NINE CANDLES FOR CHANUKAH: QUESTIONS YOU NEVER THOUGHT TO ASK (www.whyninecandles.com), here is Chapter 10. It is particularly relevant for this year when we light the first candle of Chanukah on Christmas Eve.
74. Is there a connection between Chanukah and Christmas?
A: The only connection between the two holidays is in the mind of Americans. The holidays could not be more different: Chanukah is minor; Christmas is major. Chanukah commemorates an historical battle, Christmas the birth of the Christian messiah. The only things they have in common are that they both are celebrated on the twenty-fifth day of their respective months, both include the exchange of gifts, and both use lights as a symbol.
75. Why is the twenty-fifth day of the winter month important?
A. Several traditional Jewish sources, both historical and religious, including the Book of Maccabees I and II, Josephus, the Midrash, the Mishna, and the Talmud, cite the 25th of Kislev as the date of the rededication and repurifiction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The decision to place the birth of Jesus on the 25th of December, however, is not based on contemporaneous sources, nor is it universally accepted by all Christian sects. The Eastern Churches (Greek and Russian) did not adopt the Gregorian calendar and celebrate Christmas on January 6 or 7, which corresponds to December 25 on the earlier Julian calendar.
The first instance known of Christmas being celebrated on December 25 was in 336 CE, when the first Christian Roman Emperor Constantine declared the holiday. The date was codified a few years later by Pope Julius I. The reason had to do with the tradition that the Annunciation, when Mary was informed she was carrying the child of God, occurred nine months earlier, on March 25.
The Romans believed the Winter Solstice, the day with the fewest hours of sunlight, occurred on December 25. The first few weeks in December were an important time for pagans throughout Northern Europe and Scandanavia, where it was called Yule. In Southern Europe, December 17-23 marked the Roman Festival of Saturnalia, which honored Saturn. In Mthraism, a cultic religion originating in Persia and practiced in the Roman Empire from circa 1st to 4th centuries, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the “birthday of the unconquered sun,” celebrating the birth of the Sun God Mithra, took place on on December 25.
People were already celebrating during this time of the year, so it is reasonable to think that the religious authorities would reinterpret the pagan rituals to become Christian ones.
76. Why are lights important to both holidays?
A. In Judaism, the candles are lit to commemorate the relighting of the eternal light on the menorah in the Temple, and to celebrate the miracle of the one-day supply of oil that lasted eight days.
Lights as a symbol for Christmas did not begin until the 17th century in Germany when trees were decorated with candles. Because of the fire hazard, it wasn’t until electric lights became generally available that the custom of decorating with colored lights became more widespread.
But the symbolism of lights in the midst of the shortest days of the year goes back to pagan times. The hours of daylight dwindled. How to bring back the sun? With the use of sympathetic magic. Light fires and the sun will be rekindled. And it worked. Every year, the sun’s power was restored after fires were lit.
77. Why are gifts given on Chanukah?
A. Gift giving on Chanukah was never part of the tradition of the holiday, except for small presents of candies or nuts or coins to children. It was, however, traditional in many Jewish societies to give money to the poor. As discussed above (question #16), the emphasis on the exchange of presents on Chanukah has been in response to the influence of Christmas and its prevalence and importance among many Christians. The tradition of giving presents on Christmas originated with the Christian belief that the Three Wise Men brought gifts to the infant Jesus.
78. Are there ways to avoid the gift-giving frenzy?
A. With peer pressure, constant bombardment of toy ads in public spaces and on TV and the internet, and the desire by many American Jews to assimilate and not be seen as “other” by the majority of Americans, it is very difficult to avoid the competition to give bigger and better gifts. But gift giving can be minimized. Children can become involved with tzadakah, charity, giving away one old toy for every new one received, volunteering on Christmas day at food banks or hospitals or other places so Christian workers can be home with their families. Gifts do not have to be big, nor numerous. There is no reason for a child to receive, for example, one gift every night from all the relatives. Even if children receive one present from each set of grandparents and from the parents on every day of the holiday, they will have gotten a total of 24 gifts. And that does not include gifts from aunts, uncles, cousins, friends …. Limit the number and extravagance of the gifts, and teach selflessness. Unfortunately, such value are easier to eludidate than to implement.
79. Are there any other gift giving holidays in Judaism?
A. Yes. On Purim, it is traditional to engage in shalach manot, the sending of gifts, usually small gift boxes or bags of hamentaschen (triangular nut or jelly filled pastries said to resemble Haman’s three-cornered hat, nuts, raisins, candies.
80. What kinds of Chanukah decorations are there?
A. The only decoration needed is the chanukiah. But that has not stopped American Jews from adorning their homes with blue-and-white lights (the colors of the Israeli flag and symbolic colors of the Jewish people) or hanging cutouts of Jewish stars, chanukiot, dreidels, and other Jewish symbols in their windows.
A more recent personal decoration, in a nod to our Christian neighbors’ ability to make fun of themselves, is the ugly Chanukah sweater.
There are also hybrid symbols, combining Chanukah and Christmas symbols into one, as in chanukiot depicting Santa and the reindeer.
81. What is a Chanukah bush?
The tradition of decorating with boughs of evergreen trees has existed since pagan times, when they would adorn their homes with branches as reminders of the coming spring. In some pre-Christian cultures, these plants that did not lose their leaves even in the depths of a cold winter were good luck symbols.
There is no such tradition in Judaism, although there is a late winter-early spring minor holiday, Tu B’shvat (question #14), called the “New Year of the Trees.”
A disturbing trend is the idea that the chanukiah should be displayed in places that have a Christmas tree. The chanukiah is a ritual object; the Christmas tree is a secular symbol. It would be far more appropriate to use the dreidel. Or even more appropriate would be not to try to make an equivalency between Christmas and Chanukah. They are not parallel holidays.
Thank you writer and blogger Amy Reade for featuring me today on her blog Reade and Write. I answered questions for readers, and have been invited to do the same in the future for writers. (I’m waiting for YOM KILLER to go live so I can append a buy link and photo of the cover to the blog! 😀)
You can read my ponderings at: http://wp.me/p3YJIY-os.
FYI to fans of TALK DIRTY YIDDISH: I have had the rights to the book returned to me. It will still be available online until the inventory is sold out. (And, of course, in stores that carry it and haven’t sold out, but those stores won’t be able to order additional copies.) At the moment, the major site that still has copies for sale is Barnes and Noble (http://tinyurl.com/zygmobv).
I plan to edit the book (and delete a repeated paragraph that snuck into the original, despite professional editing), and add an index of words and phrases at the back. (The publisher didn’t allow one because it didn’t fit with the formatting of the other books in the series.)
It will eventually be reissued in a 2nd edition with a different cover (I couldn’t get the rights to the original), probably as a self-published book and e-book.
I’ll let everyone know when the new edition is “live.”
Have you heard there’s a new cruise line, the Ess Ess Mein Kind? (Very old bi-lingual pun: Yiddish for “Eat, eat, my child.”) Here’s a chance to eat well without risking seasickness.
RECIPES BY THE BOOK: OAK TREE AUTHORS COOK is now available from Amazon in a full-color version. Order at: http://tinyurl.com/zrmhvdr
Or you can purchase a less expensive black-and-white version (interior illustrations in b/w; cover still full color) at: http://tinyurl.com/pcejv9d
Great for gift giving and for personal use – and a way to find out more about your favorite OTP authors.
And, no, the recipes aren’t Kosher. Except mine. And the vegetarian and vegan ones.
I just posted an invitation on Facebook for writer friends to join in a game I made up. Or maybe I read about it somewhere and plagiarized it. If so, apologies, and let me know so I can give proper attribution.
Describe your book(s) in a haiku.
I’ll start with CHANUKAH GUILT:
Rabbi finds herself
Enmeshed in suicide case.
Or was it murder?
And I’ll continue with UNLEAVENED DEAD:
Why did couple die?
Who killed man with hidden past?
Rabbi uncovers all.
And my new (yet to be released) book YOM KILLER:
Mom found unconscious.
Accident or planned attack?
Family finds truth.
… for mentioning me alongside Diane Mott Davidson, Nancy Cohen, and Janet Evanovich. I hope I’m one whose humor works!
“What’s funny to me may not tickle your funny bone, so it’s always chancy inserting humor into a murder mystery, yet I do it as do other cozy writers such as Diane Mott Davidson, Nancy Cohen, Rabbi Ilene Schneider and Janet Evanovich. Some of the humor works, other does not.
Read her thoughts on “What’s the Problem with Cozy Mysteries” on Judy Mehl’s blog at http://wp.me/p3yeUA-1nc.
Now that the fate of YOM KILLER, the 3rd Rabbi Aviva Cohen Mystery, is in the hands of my publisher, it’s time to think about book #4. I’m undecided about the title: High Holy Daze? Purim Plotz? Simchat Terror? Shabbat Whine? Plenty of holidays, but I’m running short of puns.
Being a pantser (one who writes by the seat of her pants), I have no idea how I’m going to get from point A (below) to point Z (figured out in my head). If you’re interested in Point A, read on.
I love mysteries. I always enjoy trying to solve an enigma, whether it’s a word puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle, a whodunit, or a real life dilemma.
I often try to figure out what motivates people to act the way they do. I read history and wonder how such cruelty could have existed. Then I read the news and wonder how such cruelty could still exist. Some people go out and do terrible things, with no signs of remorse or conscience or even realization that what they’re doing is wrong. And then, when I despair about the human condition, others go out and put themselves in danger to help strangers.
I marvel at the human mind. What inspired someone to take an unappetizing creature like a lobster, throw it into a pot of boiling water, crack the shell, remove the “meat,” and dredge it through melted butter? What motivated someone to look at a prickly pineapple and think, “Gee, I bet there’s something juicy and sweet under the rind”? Who decided to chew the bark of a willow tree to cure a headache?
And the workings of the minds of geniuses – the Descartes and Galileos and Newtons and Lovelaces and Einsteins and Marconis and Edisons and Hoppers, and all the others who thought up math and technology and science – are completely baffing to me.
They’re all grist for the mill. Or maybe I should say they’re all impulses to get the synapses in my brain to fire and keep me young. If it’s true that solving puzzles helps delay the aging process, I should live forever.
The past few years, I succeeded in solving a couple of real life mysteries. Why did a young woman commit suicide? What happened to the carbon monoxide detector that should have saved a couple’s life? Why did my mother have a contusion on the back of her head when she accidentally fell forward? What was I going to do about my first ex-husband? But my newest “case” proved to be the most baffling of all: how did human bones wind up under a pile of discarded Judaica books being stored in a trunk in the attic of a condemned synagogue building?
And what quirk of quantum randomness caused me to be the one to find them?
rabbi.author 