{"id":91176,"date":"2021-11-28T17:05:12","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=91176"},"modified":"2021-11-28T16:46:16","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T14:46:16","slug":"02-05-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=91176","title":{"rendered":"On This Night, Let Us Light"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>On This Night, Let Us Light<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

ROKHL KAFRISSEN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rokhl\u2019s Golden City: The joy of Hanukkah candles<\/strong><\/span>
\nORIGINAL PHOTO: ALAN LEVINE\/FLICKR<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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There\u2019s something magic about candles. Think about the ritual of lighting candles on a birthday cake, just to blow them out. No birthday would be complete without that moment of potential, when the birthday girl or boy makes their special wish. There\u2019s something different about a birthday, a time when one can make special pleas to whoever might be listening up there.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The\u00a0internet tells us<\/a>\u00a0that placing birthday candles on children\u2019s birthday cakes was an 18th-century German innovation, something that seems extremely plausible to me. The blow-them-out-and-make-a-wish part is of more nebulous origins, however, with\u00a0some sites claiming<\/a>\u00a0that people \u201cmay have believed that the smoke from the candles carried their wishes and prayers to gods who lived in the skies.\u201d That sounds a lot more dubious\u2014but if you know of firmer historical basis for wishing on blown-out candles, do let me know.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Of course, celebrating birthdays has very little basis in Jewish tradition. In his operetta\u00a0The Sorceress<\/em><\/a>, Avrom Goldfaden lampooned the idea of Jews celebrating birthdays, even as his newly composed\u00a0Yiddish birthday song<\/a>\u00a0(featured in the show) created a brand-new tradition for celebrating Jewish birthdays.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Jewish homes, candle-lighting offered up a moment of magic potential, not once a year, but weekly. For many who light\u00a0shabes<\/em>\u00a0candles (bentshn likht<\/em>), Friday night is a time to offer up silent personal prayers, along with the traditional blessings over the candles (sans the whole blowing-them-out thing).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kabbalistic writing finds light associated with emanations of the divine. Jewish texts abound with luminescent imagery; as we read in\u00a0Proverbs<\/a>, \u201cThe soul of man is the candle of God.\u201d So it seems strange that as much as Jewish law and practice abounds with candle-centered ritual, the duty to light them is rarely found in the Torah. \u201cThe Talmud \u2026 acknowledged that the injunction to welcome Shabbat with lights is not scripturally grounded, but a duty imposed by the Rabbis (BT\u00a0Talmud\u00a025b),\u201d\u00a0writes Ismar Schorsch<\/a>. \u201cWithout light, the Shabbat is bereft of\u00a0oneg<\/em>\u00a0(joy), which means that should our circumstances deteriorate to the point where we lack food, we must still beg for or borrow oil for light.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Candles were (and still are<\/a>) often part of traditional Jewish weddings, for similar reasons. However you feel about\u00a0Fiddler on the Roof<\/em>, it\u2019s hard not to get chills watching the candlelit procession which accompanies Motl and Tsaytl to the\u00a0khupe<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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