Holy Days Archive
Welcome to CLAL Holy Days, the place where you will find the latest thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on upcoming Jewish holidays.
Our authors are especially interested in hearing your responses to what they have written. So after reading, you should click and go to CLAL Holy Days Talk where you can join the conversation with CLAL faculty and other readers.
To access ARCHIVED HOLY DAY COMMENTARIES, click here.
To join the conversation at CLAL Holy Days Talk, click here.
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It is Chanukah and you are VIRTUAL DREIDEL FOR BEGINNERS
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| 1. Close your eyes and spin
yourself around.
2. Open your eyes and say the name of whatever object, place or person your eyes land on first. We’ll call that your sign. Remember: the Hebrew word for miracle also means a sign.(Hint: your sign could be your phone, your pull-out couch, blue and white beeswax candles, bare birch trees outside your window, a photo of snow on the rooftops of Jerusalem, your mother’s baby grand piano, a speck of dust, the smile you love.) 3. Describe the miracle that your sign calls to mind. It should be a specific miracle, one that has happened -- or continues to happen -- to you or to the people you love. Remember: Miracles, nisim, are signs that point to the many ways, both expected and unexpected, in which you experience a holy presence in your life. Nisim, like traffic signs, are everywhere. Nisim remind you: "More is going on here than meets the eye." Nisim alert you: "When you observe deeply, you encounter ever-expanding worlds of meaning that are vivid, vital and sacred." (Hint: Say your eyes land on your pull-out couch. Your sign, this pull-out couch, might call to mind the miracle of having parents who can come visit and spend the night. But don’t stop there! Observe more deeply and you will see: the miracle of having the resources to be a host, the miracle of caring relationships, the miracle of all those caring gestures which connect us to each other, the miracle of loving and being loved.)
4. Now here comes the hard part: Continue to do this for seven more days. Each night, after players have identified their signs and their nisim, try to recall all the signs and nisim of the previous days. |
VIRTUAL DREIDEL FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS (add one or more of the following steps)
5. Announce that you are aware of the miracle that you have recalled with a bracha - a blessing that affirms, "Yes, I know how fortunate I have been again and again." (Hint: Baruch atah she’asa li nes - - I bless You for this miracle.) 6. Or create your own bracha and share it. (Hint: It could be as straightforward as "I bless You for this pull-out couch in my house in Philadelphia." Or your bracha might be the whole story of how a miracle has enriched or altered your life, led you from vulnerability to strength, opened your eyes and heart.) 7. As you bless now, call to mind all the other nisim that you and the people you love have been blessed with in the past. There was once a man who was traveling through Aravot and he experienced a miracle: a well was created and he quenched his thirst. Another time, he was traveling through Machoza when he experienced another miracle: he escaped a wild camel. From then on, whenever he came to Aravot, he would say, "I bless You for the miracles in Aravot and in Machoza," and whenever he came to Machoza, he would say, "I bless You for the miracles in Machoza and in Aravot." (Adapted from Babylonian Talmud, Brachot 54a) | |
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Modim anachnu ... We thank You for the miracles we celebrate each day. We may experience miracles privately, but we celebrate them as a holy community. Play Virtual Dreidel with people whose miracles you celebrate after you’ve lit your Chanukah candles. If you will be a guest in someone’s home,bring this card with you and share the experience of Virtual Dreidel. Feel free to make copies of this card, but be sure to give CLAL due recognition. | ||
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This is a
publication of CLAL’s National Jewish Resource Center,
To join the conversation at CLAL Holy Days Talk, click here.To access ARCHIVED HOLY DAY COMMENTARIES, click here.
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