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in the year ahead.

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52

Southfield

Made-In-Israel
Candle Mystery

Harsen's Island

American Heart Association

is

WE'RE FIGHTING EOR YC)UR LIFE

itting in a trendy Tel Aviv
cafe on a Friday morning,
I am suddenly confront3d
by a patient but persistent
face framed by a scarf — the
hands which go with it thrusting
a box of Shabbat candles at me.
I don't know whether the woman
hopes to save my Yiddish soul or
is counting on my guilt or com-
passion to buy that box of can-
dles.
Pushing my shopping cart
through the grocery store, the
large wire bin filled with gaudily
printed boxes of Chanukah can-
dles are a simple reminder that
it's that time of year again (no
token Chanukah displays here
vying for attention with nativ-
ity scenes and plastic reindeer).
I look further and seek out the
longer, dripless ones I've come to
prefer; a bit ore expensive, but
they look so beautiful as, day by
day, they fill up my Chanukah
menorah.
Candles are part of Israel's life-
time landscape, marking weeks
and seasons, joy and mourning,
giving off a glow to illuminate our
awareness of the specialness of
the day. Yet, everything about
buying the candles is very casual.
After all, to paraphrase, a candle
is a candle . . . isn't it?
Apparently not in Israel,
where candle producers put a lot
of time and thought into creating
candles by verying methods with
distinctive shapes, colors and pat-
terns.
The Ministry of Industry and
Trade has no production statis-
tics. The Israel Export Institute
has no export figures. And ask
a candle producer about his com-
pany's output or export figures
and one is met with the type of
hedging usually reserved for state
secrets.
Fortunately, the Manufactur-
ers Association was able to shed
some light on the heat I was get-
ting: "They probably think the
competition has sent you as an
industrial spy."
In my new-found role as a spy,
then, I decided on a different
approach. By carefully drawing
out my "quarry," I got responses
ranging from cautious pride to
waxing eloquence. Beeswax, that
is.
Safed Candles, located in the
ancient quarter of Safed, uses
some 15 tons of beeswax annu-
ally in the creation of its hand-
dipped candles. The company
started as a one-person operation
only five years ago and today em-
ploys more than 20, most of them
Breslov Chasidim. While making
the transition from secular to re-

ligious Jewish life, founder and
manager Moshe Shachar exper-
imented with making candles. He
concluded that beeswax gives off
a softer, warmer light than paraf-
fin, with a sweet scent reminis-
cent of honey, and set about
making candles for the range of
observances.
In a bow to their beehive
source, the Chanukah candles
from Safed Candles are packaged
in hexagonal plastic containers.
There are even smaller quanti-
ties for use only as a "shamash"
(auxiliary candle for lighting
Chanukah lamps) by those who
prefer lighting oil instead of can-
dles, and natural, earth tones are
used as far as possible.
The company produces mostly
Shabbat candles, which burn
from between two and eight
hours, depending on their size.
Particular pride is taken in their

This year the
company is
introducing a line
of candles in
earth tones.

hand-braided havdalah (cere-
mony at the conclusion of Shab-
bat and festivals) candles, some
as long as two feet long with as
many as 26 wicks.
Two designers create sculp-
tures in wax on both Jewish and
whimsical themes, which are dis-
played at the company's gallery
and factory showroom. Safed
Candles are distributed by Rite
Lite in North America and by
Happy Light in England. In Is-
rael, they are sold in fine Judaica
shops and at the company's show-
room.
Gila Golan of "Ya'arat Had-
vash" (Honeycomb") candles,
grew up with the scent of honey
and beeswax. In the 1930s, her
grandfatehr concluded that there
was no future in Germany for the
Jews. Deciding to learn a new
trade which he could apply in
"Palestina," he took up beekeep-
ing. Once in Haifa, he set up a
factory for processing beeswax,
and used some of it for making
his own candles.
When Gila married, she and
her husband Ronny decided to re-
vive the family tradition by learn-
ing candle-making from her
grandfather and advanced meth-
ods of beekeeping. Today, they
pursue this business in Moshav
Alon HaGalil, a young hilltop,
community in the Galilee, rais-

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