Another Miracle For Hanukkah!

Well, I’ve not been silent here about not wanting to celebrate Hanukkah while still living with my friend. And, I’ve certainly not been silent about my disgust with her 10 year old daughter who seems determined to be the worst person she can be! Well, last night I sat witness to a true Hanukkah miracle!

On the first night of Hanukkah the kid noticed for the first time the Menorah I’d put up as the laptop’s background. She asked “Why do you have Hanukkah lights on your computer?”, and I replied “We’re celebrating Hanukkah......well, sort of. I haven’t been able to get a Menorah yet, so I put that up for Donnella”. She just said “Oh” and that was it.

So, last night she came in the room just as I was about the get the bed straightened and light the 3rd night’s candle. She noticed the small Menorah and said “Oh! You got one! Can I see it?”. I told her it was ok and she gingerly picked it up and examined it like it was a science experiment. “It’s really pretty” she said. And, after a few moments of further examination she asked “Can you tell me when you light the candles so I can watch?”. I told her that we were going to begin after I straightened up the bed, so she decided to just wait.

As I got things ready she asked questions; “Why is the blue candle in the middle burned more than the other two?” “Which color are you going to use tonight?” “Why don’t you just put all the candles in at once?”. When I had it all set and placed the Menorah on the make shift table on the bed she followed it up with a joke “Uh, please don’t burn the house down”.

She sat silently while I recited the Shamash candle blessing ~ butchering the Hebrew ~ and Donnella repeating it ~ doing much better than I! She reached over and held the Menorah base while I lit the three candles and then recited the next blessing. When they were all lit, I opened Nella-bean’s Hanukkah book and read aloud to her the story of Hanukkah and the kid stayed to listen. She then hung around long enough to watch Nella open her gift. Before she left the room she asked “Would you like me to get a new Shamash candle out for you?”. I just smiled and said “No thank you, we’ll get out a new one tomorrow night”. Just before she walked out the door she looked at Nella-bean and smiled “Happy Hanukkah Donnella!”. She also seemed tickled beyond belief when the princess of darkness said thank you and wished her a happy Hanukkah right back! She didn’t correct her that she doesn’t celebrate it, she only smiled a genuine smile and said thank you.

In the later evening (really, when she should have been in bed!) she poked her head in twice to say “I have a.......uh, Jewish duck at school........”. I said laughingly “A what?”. She seemed to be searching for the right words and then said “One of those rubber ducks.......it’s got one of those........uh, it has the candles”. “Oh, oh, a Menorah”. She perked up a bit “Ya! ya! And it’s wearing one of those hats”. I just smiled again and said “A yamicha”. She said “I’ll bring it to you tomorrow”. And, the second time was to say “You know, this Hanukkah thing is pretty popular! Even the Governor has a Menorah at the Capital!”. I just said, “Yep, it’s the 2nd oldest religion in the world. And, just wait til you see the Menorah outside the White House! It’s huge!”. I tell ya, she seemed really impressed!

I played the whole thing very cool, but was so immensely proud of her! I had explained to her briefly that first day how the celebration was not about presents, but was about the restoration of the Temple and the miracle of the oil. In essence, that the celebration was about giving our thanks to God, having pride in our religion and being close with family. She asked if we’d be celebrating Christmas, too, but didn’t seem the least bit upset when I told her no. Actually, if you want to know the truth, I really think she would have been disheartened if I’d said yes.

But, the down side was the distinct feeling I got that her mother was actually trying to keep her from learning about Judaism. She kept telling her to “leave us alone” when all the kid was doing was asking non-obnoxious questions! (for once!) I mean, she was brimming with them when I think about it! She wanted to know “Would Nella have a Bat Mitzvah?”, “are you not aloud to eat pork?”, “What is a Temple?”, to go along with all the others. I mean, she was showing genuine interest in something she’d previously been happy to call stupid and make jokes about.

Wow, who would have thought that our first Hanukkah would yield it’s own miracle!