How Hanukkah Works

what today is? Ah? Yeah, pill it Today's the last day of Hanka it is. It's a big day. It is in the US. Yeah. The lighting of the we won't spoil it. No, no, don't. There's a lighting of something. That's some nice foreshadowing each other. Yeah. Um, Chuck and I I request are doing a how Hanukkah Works episode.

I think last year we did How Christmas Works? Right, Yeah, and I think we promised to cover other holidays of other religions and people's Um, we were originally going to release this right before Christmas, like two days before Christmas, and um we figured out pretty quick through a research, and by we, I mean Chuck that um, Haneka would have been over for about three or so weeks had we done that, And that kind of reveals a certain

mentality in the US among Christians, the Christian majority that Hanika is Jewish Christmas. But Chuck, have you ever heard of Hanakah Harry? I think so. You always say this and I always say no, and they always go, oh, yeah, I know, Harry. Haneka Harry is John Lovett's. It's a Saturday. Remember, so Santa Is is vomiting. He has a horrible stomach bug much like you. It every once in a while. And um, I remember one of the elves is at his bedside and he like throws up on the elf right.

He's got a pretty bad uh. And Christmas is about to be ruined because this is Christmas Eve that he's he's falling ill. So the only person who can save it is Hanakah Harry. They call Honeka Harry who was John Lovitts. And he's gott a nice beard and uh he instead of a sleigh with reindeer, he rides a cart led by flying donkeys name Moisha, Hoischel and Shlomo. Remember that, Yeah, good h and Haneka Harry finally, you know,

he makes the rounds. But rather than the really great presence that that you know, Christian children expect that Christmas, they get socks eight pay can you believe it? And um slacks and and that kind of thing, and they're very disappointed. And sincefortunately Santa recovers comes down and saves the day with really great presents. Right, that's funny. That is Haneka in the United States. That's the that's the conception of it um, which is to say that I'm

glad we did this because I really didn't understand hanakah. Yeah, and you know what, I'm glad you brought that up because, uh, for our Jewish friends out there. And by the way, if I could choose to be a real you know, Jewish, I probably would be. You can't, buddy, you convert the goldberg Samy Davis, Jews are not the same, not born Jewish. Yeah,

it's just not the same. Because I studied in college and with my comparative religion class, and I was I remember at the time thinking that this is a religion I can get into. Really yeah, I liked it. But for those of you are Jewish friends, that are worried that you know, we're just a couple of boys, and uh, you probably think we're cornished. Heaf Why do you keep looking town at the piece of paper. But I want to say, don't plots honestly because we are a couple

of gys. But we were mentions as well, so no need to worry. We will do right by you. Is that what you were saying? I just like Yiddish words. Yeah. And by the way, since I print these out, did you know a schlemiel is a clumsy person and that person and a schlamazel is someone with constant bad luck. That sounds familiar. Schlamil schlamaz. That's aweso like two hours spress that it's la Vernon Churley, right, Yeah, ones are Schlamila,

ones are Lamazel. That's awesome. So my dad told me that before UM they showed that that show in Iran and he said Iran specifically, and he told me this in UM that they had to show a disclaimer that these women were, you know, in a psychiatric hospital, and that these these episodes were filmed before they've been committed. And I was like, wow, that's really The Iranians really don't have a very good sense of humor. Now I

understand that my dad is just insane. Well that sounds like an urban legend, although who knows it might have been true. What do we know. We're just a couple of boys. So, Chuck, let's talk about Hanukah. One of the things that I figured out, um, from researching this is that it's not really a very important holiday as far as the Jewish religion goes Jewish culture. Sure, no, it's no rash hashana. Now, Hanakah means a dedication. Um. It is basically the well, it's the festival of lights

and uh. It commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem that was that fell and was recaptured by the Jews. Let's talk about Jerusalem circa one sixties seven b c. Chuck, Josh Syrian King Antiochus the Fourth, who was no slouch. Well, he's our bad guy in this story. He's a bad guy. He uh. You know, at the time there was a lot of Jewish persecution and he was one of the

big dudes involved in that. Well, he showed up in Jerusalem and he said it was like, I can't practice your religion like you want to you will be killed, and here's some Greek idols and you should worship them, and that's what you're gonna do now, right, um, some Jews went along with us. They're like, that's fine. This just makes us less cut off and isolated and world.

It makes us more worldly, so we'll do this. I don't know about fine with it, but there well, there was a fraction apparently in the Jewish community at the time, because some went along. It's very much like the the American Revolution. There were some who sympathized with the king, who were loyal to the crown still, and there were others who were like, well, we'll tar and feather you for that. This Hanuka is about the group that would

have tart and feathered the loyalists. Yes, specifically that started with a family, just one family, the Hasimonians, led by Mattayahu also known as Matthew and his five sons, who must have been some pretty bad dudes because they took a stand and sort of one like right off the bat right well, there was apparently a an incident where Matthew was told to go ahead and start praying to Zeus. There's a statue right there it's a nice marble statue. Go ahead, And he said no, and not only that,

I'm going to attack you Greek soldiers. And he did, and uh that started the Jewish Rebellion of one sixty seven b C in a good way. It well if they were pretty successful early on, right the family the hasmoneans yeah, yeah, oh, I think they they this guy and his five sons who led the rebellion became Yeah, I think they were successful. But the most successful among them was Judah, who by this time they had changed their names to mccabee, which means uh as strong as hammers,

men who are as strong as hammers. That's that's basically. His son changed his name to Judah the Hammer, and he was the head of the Jewish rebellion. So the whole thing kicks off in one sixty seven BC. By one sixty five b C, apparently they have been successful enough because over the two years, remember we're talking BC,

so it goes backwards, it counts down to zero. You remember, I do remember um they had recaptured the temple in Jerusalem right on the twenty five of the Hebrew month Kiss left, which is Kiss left five, and that's they chased the crazy bald heads out of town. It's very important date because that's the start of hank Yeah, kids love, I think the kids love. Yeah. Yeah, that's the twenty day of that count of that month of the Hebrew calendar. I think we can think of even one more way

to say that. Let's hear the day after kids live, before kids live. So, chuck, what did they do on the kids live? Well, they took the temple back and they said, you know, we need to rededicate the temple because it's dirty from all these uh Greek worshiping pagans, well private pagans, people's, and so let's redicate it and let's light a lamp with the oil. But holy cow, we don't have enough oil. We only have enough for one night. Yeah, what are we gonna do? Well? Lo,

and behold, you've heard of Christmas miracles. This is the first Hanaka miracle, as it was because that one night of oil lasted for eight nights. It did, and that is indeed a miracle. It gave the Jewish rebellion chance to make more oil, so they didn't actually ever run out, right. So that's what this says. This is the commemoration of that miracle of the rededication of the temple. And it lasts eight nights, the eight nights of Hanukkah, eight crazy nights.

So it's not Jewish Christmas. But it has become that demo isn't Mexican. Fourth of July. I love that the American purviews through everything. I like. Recall you referring to Canada as America's hat recently on our Facebook page. The only reason I did that, it's because the Canadian introduced me to that term, and I really found it very funny. It is funny. I guess what would that make Mexico our shirt? I would say it's our foot or shoe. Are well, if the hat is Canada, that would make

mexicorn neck. So no, that's not necessarily true. So chuck um, as you said, it's it's not Jewish Christmas, it's the festival of Lights. It's commend m rates Jewish culture, right, um. And let's talk about the practical applications of this. How do you celebrate Hanukkah or Hanuka? Well, as most people know, Josh, even a couple of boys like us know that there's a menora holds nine candles, eight that represent the eight nights. And then there's the shamash, which is the candle you

used to light the other candles. You would make a good converted jew man. You got the you get the pronunciation down, the enthusiasm, everything I'm trying. So what you do is you inserts very specific You insert the candles from right to left, one for each day for which miracle. You insert them from right to left, right, but you light them from left to right. Yeah, so the leftmost candle represents the most recent day that the oil kept burning.

And by by lighting the leftmost candle first, they're saying, we're very pleased with this most recent day of miracle. Yeah. Perfect. Uh, they need to burn for it. You need to light them after it gets dark. They need to burn for at least a half hour after it gets dark, which presents a problem on shop it, because lighting a candle is work and you're not allowed to work after the sun goes down. And shop it. What do they do

shop it? They light it before the sun goes down, but it sells to burn thirty minutes after, so they got a time in out just right? The candle work? Well, yeah, I think anything, but not necessarily because you're gonna exhale anyway, right, you weren't going to light a candle and exhaling near the candle. Well, they do blow them out, so yeah, well I guess it's not work. Yeah, a heavy sigh uh. And then there are some blessings. And then on the

first night you recite all three of these blessings. You're gonna try your hand at this, and on each subsequent night you only do the first two. This is a blessing for the candles, for the Hanukah, and for thee So, Chuck, since you are so good at Hebrew and or Yiddish pronunciation, I think you should try these and then I will translate after you've made it through each one. So go ahead, please. This is the blessing for the candles, as presented by

Charles W. Chuck Bryant Butcher. This melam a cherki dashah new themts votaf the svanu led had licknair shell very nice, beautiful. What Chuck just said to those of you, um who didn't get it is blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to light the candles of Hanukah, or once you do this one, and already you're just doing so well at it, let's do it again. This

is the blessing for Hanukah. So you say the first one, you say the second one on each night, and then on the first night you say this third one that you're going to do as well. So do the second one, Chuck, the blessing for hanaka bar don't i olam shiasa, nissam labatai new ba yah mimima jase very nice, blessed are you? I'm sorry you're trouble the English version? Are you kidding me? Blessed?

Are you Lord, our God, king of the universe, who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time? Pretty straightforward stuff. Uh. And then the last one, this said the first night only it's the shek Yahnu. Yeah, okay, and uh, this is the first night blessing. So go ahead, Chuck, Bara, I don't ila newam new viki, I'm a new vernew

lasman Jose. Okay. So Chuck just finished the full blessings, all three of those of what he just said would be said on the first night, and then the first two would be said on each night after that. And what he just said is, blessed are you Lord, our god, king of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season. And that's that's hanka. Every night you light a candle, you say the blessing, and you spin the draidal, don't you. Yeah? You also

u sing songs, traditional songs, you recite psalms. You want to talk about the dredel. And then there are games like the draid So the draidl is that top that you've always seen and dradell actually is German for to spin, right, is it? I believe? So on each side is a Jewish character. There are four characters, none, Gimmel, hey, and shin right, And they're actually the abbreviations for or a phrase nest guttal hya sham or a great miracle took

place here right um. They're also German Yiddish for uh, nick, goot, hobb and schlecht, which is um, no good, half and bad, And they refer to the possible outcomes for playing the draidl. Yes, you spend the draidal and you get good, you win all everything's in the pot. What do you mean by everything, Well, guilt is usually what's in the pot. Uh, So that the reason they spend. You know, there's some history here. The draidl was what they used to fool people into

thinking they weren't practicing the religion. Right, So they shooting around reading the Torah. Some dudes come up and like what are you doing. They're like, we're just spending the draydle, dude. And then the Greek soldiers, like those Jewish people in their dradels, they love this. They take their guilt it. So that's the dreidl. It is. It's a gambling game. It is sort of four kids. No, you're not really gambling.

This gambling implies that you're putting money down for it to come up on a certain thing, and you're just from what I know, you spend it and depending on what it comes up as you get money or nothing. That's gambling. It's gamle. Putting money on on chance is gambling? No, no, no, But what they're not. They're not saying I'm putting twenty on gimmel. No, but you're just putting money on a possible outcome. It's gambling. All right, so we've got the guilt.

I bet you were going to hear from people to say it is never gambling, that's gambling. Okay, uh is guilt. We've got gelt, we've got the dradell, and we can't forget the food, chuck um. Because the oil factors in so heavily into the celebration, the Festival of lights Um. The food is generally cooked in oil, and it's also generally delicious. Potato pancakes. It's basically shredded potatoes held together with eggs and milk and deep fried. This is like

the greatest Holly Day ever. Deep deep fried food. Yeah, as part of the holiday is awesome. Well you know what they say, Josh, best are in frient mitt gets at a un crix. It's a better one friend with a dish of food than a hundred with a sigh. Yeah. Truer words have never been spoken and checked. There's also what is where do the jelly donuts called uh self kanyat does sound delicious as well? They're just fried jelly donuts fried in oil and then with powdered sugar all

over them. Well, yeah, they say they fry a lot of this stuff in oil because oil was such a big deal for the miracle. I think they do it because it just tastes better. It's delicious, nutritious. Well, there you have it. There we have it. It's it's a lot more simple than I thought. Very simple. Not to say that's a bad thing. Christmas is pretty simple too. There's jelly donuts and lacus. I'll take it. So what's next year? I was thinking Kwanza? What else is there? Um? Ramadan?

It's not Christmas, but it's pretty holy holiday, isn't it. It's cover all the holidays. They don't have to be December December. I think that's a good idea. Well, then for next year we'll do I don't know, maybe we'll do center clause. Did we talk about We talked about him a lot in the Christmas one D Yeah, we'll figure it out. Yeah, we have a year. Who we're planning this thing out like years in advance. Now that's that's dangerous. Well, until next year, we hope that you

keep listening. We hope that you have a fantastic that you've had a fantastic Hanka to our Jewish friends and listeners, um for our Christian friends and listeners and are Jewish friends and listeners who practice Christmas Um. Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays. Uh. And if you want to learn more about Hanukkah, you can type that word in We spell it on How Stuff Works as H A and U K k A H. Type thing into the handy search bar how Stuff Works dot com UH, and that means now it's time for

listener mail. Josh, I'm gonna call this one Medieval Times email. I got permission to read this to UH. This is from Gerald in Boston, although I believe he said he was from Texas. Gerald says this interestingly, Guys, my first job after college was the Master of Ceremonies, also known as the King's Chancellor at Minipal times. That was the role Andy Dick played in the cable guy Us The

Master's Ceremonies. I wrote A Very Large and Delusion Horse or a Velvet and sequen Cape, and introduced all the nights and narrated much of the action of the show. Supposedly, our show was set in Spain in the eleventh century. One of the more embarrassing aspects of the job was the occasional educational matinee that we put on for large

groups of students. The show was not researched at all and was written by someone who didn't have a background in the entertainment industry, let alone any knowledge of history whatsoever. Among this is like a restaurant employee writing this. Basically, among the ridiculous facts quote unquote we were required to present was that the night sword weighed fifty pounds, their

armor weighed three hundred pounds. Despite such misinformation, we couldn't do much about our show being written by someone who just made things up. The perils of a working stiff anyway, you might want to mention not to pay too much attention to the information presented by a caped man on horseback and what is basically a rodeo arena with a medieval decor scheme and fancy lights. It was interesting work, although it was one of the worst jobs I've ever

had in terms of hours, pay and lack of benefits. Oh, how Knighthood has fallen? Killer show dudes, Gerald, I hear the chickens good. I don't know. I've never been there. I haven't either. We should totally go some time just for laughs. Okay, in history, okay, and yeah, fifty pound swords and three und sits of our Thanks Gerald, how about your worst job? Let's hear about that. Yeah, I've had good jobs. I can't talk about my horse, John

don't air well. That means that we need to hear from all of you listeners to fill in for Chuck. Fill in the blanks to see if you can guess what Chuck's works job was. He'll probably never actually say, but let's see what you got. Wrap it up sending in an email to Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the

upper right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes, Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, are you