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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.
It is Chanukah and you are about to
play Virtual Dreidel, The Game of Miracles.
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
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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) |
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, dedicated to
increasing awareness of sacred practices that change American Jewish
life.
To join the conversation at CLAL Holy Days Talk, click here.
To access ARCHIVED HOLY DAY COMMENTARIES, click here.
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