Today I am so excited
because I'm inviting you to join us and see what really happens on a Hanukkah night in
our Orthodox Sephardic Jewish Home including the lighting of the menorah how and why we play
with dreidels what we eat as well as a little Hanukkah home tour and if you're new here hi
my name is Sara Malka and on my channel I share all facets of my Orthodox Sephardic Jewish Life
as a full-time working mom with small kiddos so don't forget to leave this video a big Thumbs
Up And subscribe to our Channel let me put on a pretty tichel (headscarf) and let's jump into it
before we bring you to light the menorah with us we have to prepare
the house usually when you come in our house this is what you would see
but for Chanukkah we take out our Hanukkah decorations and decorate our home with items
to commemorate this amazing season filled with the Miracles of Hanukkah while the girls and
I decorate the house let me answer a question you might have why or what do we celebrate on
Hanukkah we celebrate Hanukkah to commemorate that a small group of faithful Jews led by the
Kohen or Jewish priest Matitiyahu and later his son Yehuda or Judah the Maccabee they defeated the
Greek army one of the mightiest armies on Earth (at that time) drove the Greeks from the land
reclaimed the Holy Temple ( Beth HaMikdash) and rededicated it to the surface of G.od you would
think that that would be a good enough reason to celebrate Hanukkah but it goes further when
The Maccabees wanted to light the menorah of the temple they miraculously found a single jar of
olive oil that still had the Seal of Purity from the Kohanim or Priests the jar had only enough
oil to light the menorah and sustain it for one day so when they lit the menorah using that oil
the one day supply of oil it lasted for eight days enough time for the new oil to be prepared under
the conditions of ritual Purity which takes eight days to commemorate and publicize these Miracles
the sages instituted the Festival of Hanukkah ( also known as the Festival of Lights) in a
nutshell the essence of the story of Hanukkah is: 1- whatever the situation stand up for what is
right 2- never give in and change what you truly believe in to fit in 3- never give up and 4- never
forget that with the help of G.od everything is possible even miracles I don't know about you but
for me these words are words to live by what do you think once we are done decorating the house
with the decorations the children's Menorah and the menorah we collected over the years we take
out the menorah we will use for a Hanukkah the menorah or some will call it the Chanukiah can
be made of any material but it is recommended in general that it should be made of a noble material
The Chanukah Menorah has eight main branches representing the eight nights of the miracle
of Hanukkah and the ninth Branch a bit separated from the others and it is called the shamash or
helper candle the reason for this extra light is that we are not permitted to derive mundane
benefit from the eight chanukkah lights like using them for illuminating a room to be able
to read for example therefore it is the job of the shamash to be the helper and provide us with light
if we need it for some mundane purpose in our Sephardic family we only light one Menorah for
the family but our Ashkenazi brothers would light one Menorah per family member on a side note the
shamash can be put in front or in the back of the menorah depending on the Family's tradition
the girls help me prepare the menorah because we all want to participate in the Mitzvah
or commandment of lighting the menorah Leah and Naomi add a piece of silly putty to the
glass cup to make it hold better and if you're wondering this is silly putty and we buy it at
the dollar store the girls Place their roll of silly putty on the glass cup to make it
hold better we use this same trick to make our Shabbat light hold better on our candle holders
once the glass cups are secured Leah prepares the floating Wicks you can find these types of
Wicks online or in any Jewish grocery stores some like these one come assembled but we prefer the
flower one to make our Menorah even prettier to make sure the Hanukkah light has the potential
to burn for at least 30 minutes which is the minimum time a Hanukkah light should
burn to fulfill the Mitzvah or commandment of lighting the menorah Leah separates the
strands of the wick which will create a bright and beautiful flame that will consume the oil fully
some people will use to light their Menorah regular wax candles but it is
not our custom we use kosher cold pressed pure virgin olive oil the same kind of oil
that was used in the Beth HaMikdash or Holy Temple at the time of the miracle
we also add some water at the bottom of the glass for it not to overheat and crack
we are going to add the floaters to the oil just before lighting the menorah on a side note
we place our Menorah in our main window facing the street to publicize the miracle of Hanukkah
the girls set up the table and make it as festive as possible using a tablecloth
with Magen David or Star of David as well as placing the napkins in a Magen David
shape reminding us of the Star of David that could be found on the shields of The
Maccabees while fighting the Greek army who took over the Beth HaMikdash (Holy Temple)
Here is how our house looks like now that the girls have decorated it
I don't know about you but when a space is decorated in a certain theme it really helps
me feel even more the celebration at hand and I really think that our children did a wonderful
job and I'm so proud of them what do you think let them know in the comments below [Music]
our children and I also created this hot cocoa bar in our foyer as a way to greet our friends
and visitors in our own way telling them with a hot drink and a snack welcome home [Music]
we light our Menorah at nightfall or at Tzeit HaKoravim when the stars appear
we do not use a match or the shamash itself to light our Hanukkah lights our tradition is to
use a beeswax candle to light our Hanukkah light including the chamash we are now all gathered
around the Menorah and ready to light the menorah my husband will recite the first blessing [Music]
Blessing of Hanukkah with Hebrew pronunciation
[Music]
my husband lights the first light placed to the far right of the menorah every night we add lights
to the left of the first light when we light the menorah on subsequent nights we will always
light left to right starting by the latest light we added to the menorah for that night
after my husband lights the menorah I will light a subsequent light and during my lighting I pray to
G.od that the light and the Miracles of Hanukkah will surround my family and all the people that
I love all year long to make sure that everyone can participate to the lighting of the menorah
every night one of the children will light one of the light of the menorah sometimes it's a light
of the menorah especially for our son that is older and otherwise it's going to be the shamash
once the appropriate number of light are lit on our Menorah we
will praise G.od in different manners the first one is with Hanechot HaLaLu
[Music] we then recite the Psalms 30 and 91 to continue praising G.od and finally we sing Maoz
Tzur it is the highlight of the night for the kids and us as it commemorates out the Exiles Jewish
people survived from and how we are blessed with the Miracle of Life love and closeness to G.od
now it is time for me to bask in the light of the menorah and usually I will sit in the sofa
and look at the light of the menorah and at my family and thank G.od for all He has given us
during that time the children will change in their Hanukkah PJs since they were babies my
husband always takes all the children and read them a few pages of the story of chanukkah even
if they know the book Inside Out by heart they never say no to that moment as it is a time of
love and closeness between them and their loving daddy after about an hour or so of
being so close together and looking at the menorah we will go and eat it is customary
during Hanukkah to eat food with a lot of oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil
that happened during Hanukkah this is why we eat not only latkes pizza but we also eat
fried chicken fried potatoes fried veggies too and on this night we had fries with our sushis
after our meal if we ate bread we will add in our birkat HaMazon or Grace after meal
a special passage called al-Hanissim the same passage will also be added in our daily prayers
the passage of al-Hanissim whether in the birkat Hamazon or in our prayer book or
siddur commemorates briefly the story of Hanukkah and in it we praise G.od for all
the Miracles He made for us during that period of time it is our family's tradition to have as
a dessert after every single meal on Hanukkah a sufganiyot or special stuffed donut and if you
want my recipes I have left the link in the description box below and in the card above
after the meal is usually the time my husband and our son Michael study together
during that time the girls will relax reading a good book and eating some candies they are so
kind they offer some to me too it is also the time they can choose a "sock donut" we prepare
them for our guests and for our kiddos as a small gift for Hanukkah and we have already
made a beautiful video on how we made DIY decorations for Hanukkah including These "sock
donuts" and I will leave the video link above and in the description box below [Music] while
everyone is busy studying or reading I will do a quick cleanup of the kitchen [Music]
once everybody's ready we'll play endless rounds of dreidel or sevivon with our
children and if you do not know how to play it is very easy we use a dreidel or Sevivon
in Hebrew which is a four-sided spinning top with the Hebrew letters nun gimmel hey and
shin these four letters are an acronym for "Nes Gadol Haya Sham" A great miracle happened there
in our family the currency we use when playing with dreidels are candies or these chocolate
covered coins some also call them chocolate gelt which means in Yiddish money we have them in dairy
or non-dairy depending if we ate milk or meat during the meal finally we're ready to play we
make a circle everyone has a pile of candy and everyone puts one candy in the middle everyone
takes a turn at spinning the dreidel if the person lands on a NUN they get nothing if they end up on
a GIMMEL they get the whole pot HEY takes half the pot and as you can guess the letter that is left
is SHIN and this is the kind of reaction you get when you get a shin [Music] because you have to
put one candy in the pot the reason why we play on Hanukkah with dreidels is because the Greek armies
of King Antiochus controlled the Holy land and passed a series of laws forbidding the study of
Torah and many of the Mitzvot or Commandments the Jews were compelled to take their Torah learning
underground therefore the Jewish children resorted to learning Torah in outlying areas and forests it
is said that if a Greek Patrol passed by they would quickly put away their books of Torah and
pull out their dreidels to play to explain to the guards why they were gathered so Hanukkah
dreidel games are a salute to these young Jewish Heroes after a wonderful night being together by
the menorah talking laughing studying and connecting amongst ourselves and with G.od
thanking Him for all the Miracles He gives us in our life as the last chanukkah Light is slowly
bowing down it is time for all of us to go to bed so we can dream about tomorrow's magical night
thank you for being here it means the world to me know that in my
book you are part of the one I pray for when I light my Hanukkah lights
and if you're here until the end please write in the comments I LOVE MAGICAL NIGHTS so I know
I was not alone and if nobody told you today know that YOU ARE LOVED and YOU ARE ENOUGH
JUST THE WAY YOUARE until next time stay safe stay blessed and don't forget to FRUM IT UP