We've Got Service

Oxford Learning Center
Travelers World
TCBY Treats
Co 'o Cleaners
Estilei% Judaica
D'Alle-va.'s Salon
90's Nails'
Golden Phoenix
Harvard Row Meats
Nationwide Insurance
The Alteration Spot
M6-te Sushi
Paparazzi Ristorante
Nail Supply Depot
Interiors by Colony
Antwerp Jewelers
Barry K Salon
Outback Steakhouse

'

Orchard Lake Road • West Bloomfield

* Professional instructions
* Classes for all skill levels -
beginner to expert
* Special program for the younger
skiers (ages 6-10)
* Small classes
* Adult classes too!
* Charter buses Saturday & Sunday

(24s) 85 ► -1075

Teaching Kids to Ski
is Our Business

Celebrating our 26th Season!

Advertise in our Arts & Entertainment Section!

;t4

12/22

2000

66

/if
”
1//11 ffp,
vot
4 4.4,
JNArts +`
& Entertainment

Call The Sales Department

(248) 354-7123 Ext. 209

DETROIT
JEWISH MEWS

QIN

The BiG Story

many years, though today most
families prefer placing their
menorah near a front window.

day (Yom Kippur, Shabbat) or two
(Rosh Hashanah, Shavuot) or
seven (Pesach, Sukkot).

6. In Eastern Europe, Jewish chil-
dren wore beitel, small, handmade
bags made of fabric scraps. When-
ever the children visited friends and
family on the holiday, they would
receive a tiny gift of Chanukah gelt
to put inside their beitel bags.

11. The haftorah read on the
Shabbat of Chanukah ends with
these famous lines: "Not by
might, not by power, but by My
Spirit alone, said the Lord." (If a
second Shabbat falls on the holi-
day, we read about the building
of Solomon's Temple.)

7. Turkish Jews have a custom of
I weaving into Chanukah candles a
few of the fibers where once rest-
: ed the etrog (one of the four
species of Sukkot). At the end of
Chanukah, remains of the holiday
candles are then molded into
another candle, used to search
for leaven just before Pesach.

8. The Maccabi World Union,
the international Jewish sports
organization, is indeed named
after Judah Maccabee. But this
wasn't its first name. At the end o f
the 19th century, small groups
began forming whose purpose
was to train Jewish youths to
become physically fit in prepara-
tion for the establishment of a
Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Later, all the groups united to form
the Maccabi World Union..But
the first such club, opened in
Turkey in 1895, was called the
Israel Gymnastics Club.

9. Some Kurdish-Jewish children
create a doll in the . shape of the
i wicked King Antiochus, and set it
afire at the end of the,Chanukah.

10. Though Chanukah is a rela-
tively minor holiday on the Jewish
calendar, it is also the longest,
lasting eight days. There are no
other Jewish holidays that hold
such distinction; all others are one

12. That lovely shammash (ser-
vant flame) is actually included on
the menorah for a reason, and
not just to further beautify the
lights. It is there because we are
not allowed to use one Chanukah
candle to light another.

13. Halachah (Jewish law) oblig-
ates both men and women to light
Chanukah candles because all
benefited directly from the miracle.

14. In Israel, a giant menorah sit-
ting atop the offices of the Knes-
set (Israel's parliament), is lit
throughout Chanukah.

15. Chanukah menorot from
Spain or Morocco often carry this
verse: "Blessed are you at your
coming and blessed are you at
your leaving" (Deuteronomy
28:6), because of their tradition
of hanging the menorah near a
front door.

16. Because Chanukah occurred,
of course, after the Torah was
written, most of our information
about the holiday comes from the
Book of Maccabees. Josephus, a
great chronicler of Jewish history,
also wrote about the holiday, but
never referred to it as
"Chanukah." Instead, he simply
called it "Lights." E

