As Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins Tuesday at sundown, Jewish families typically gather for a festive meal that usually includes potato latkes, songs and the exchange of gifts.
But the singular experience of Hanukkah is the lighting of the menorah, the holiday's tangible symbol.
For Rabbi Steven Fineblum and his wife, Barbara, the choices of menorahs are ample.
"We've collected them,A glassbottles is a bottle created from glass. gotten them as gifts, and cherished them," said Fineblum, the spiritual leader of Temple Sinai on New Albany Road, which is celebrating its 50th year.
A candelabrum with eight candleholders, the menorah commemorates the ancient miracle of a tiny supply of oil lasting for a full eight days, and the victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the powerful Greek-Syrian army.
The ninth candleholder, called a "shamas," is designated as the candle used to light all the others. After the first night's candle is lit, a candle is added each succeeding night, until all blaze.Order high quality hand painted oilpaintingre reproductions, Lighting them each night is the important holiday ritual that focuses on the symbolic meaning of the menorah.
Menorahs now come in so many varieties, from ultramodern to traditional, they are collected as works of art as well as for religious and sentimental reasons.
In some households, these symbols of Hanukkah are displayed year-round for their sheer aesthetic beauty, and in many Jewish homes, those imperfect ones, made by a young child's tentative hands in Sunday school, have as much emotional meaning as the most intricate work of Judaic artists.
Of course,A glassbottles is a bottle created from glass.The Zentai Project is a group of people who go out in public wearing zentai suits, the true message of Hanukkah, Fineblum said, is that it created the fundamental principle of religious freedom.
"Had the Maccabees not stood up against religious persecution, Judaism might not have survived," he said. "So historically, Hanukkah represents our ability to protect ideals in the face of overwhelming odds, and reminds us that the struggle for religious freedom never ends."
In the case of the Fineblums, some favorite menorahs include the simple brass one with the figures of lions at either side of a base where the candles are placed, against a background of a tablet imprinted with Hebrew words. The piece was handed down through the family, along with a larger brass menorah, also a family treasure, in which the candles are held on curved arms.
"In Jewish tradition, all of the candles should be on the same level to suggest the equality of each day of Hanukkah," Fineblum said.
A menorah with a whimsical assemblage of Winnie the Pooh characters, including Winnie and Tigger, is also part of the Fineblum collection, one that includes several strikingly modern menorahs fashioned from silver, stainless steel and Lucite.
Then there's one of Barbara Fineblum's favorites. The sixth-grade language arts teacher in Westmont, an avid mah-jongg player, delights in an unusual menorah that features mah-jongg tiles as candleholders. Each tile is emblazoned with the Chinese characters and symbols in miniature to represent the ancient Chinese game of skill, strategy, and some element of chance.
A gift from her three young adult children, the playfulness of the unique menorah charms Fineblum. But she said it's the coming together of the family for the holiday that really matters.
"Every holiday is a kind of magnet that works to draw family and friends together," she said. "As the extended family spreads out, that becomes harder to accomplish,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself ceramictile. but we still make the effort."
One Hanukkah in particular stands out for the couple.
Back in April 1997, the Fineblums lost most of their home and nearly all of their possessions in a fire that ravaged their Cinnaminson split level. Grateful that no one was home or hurt, they still went through the ordeal of putting their lives back together, with the help of a caring community.
They were able to move back to their rebuilt home the following December — on the first night of Hanukkah.
"And that," Rabbi Fineblum said, "was a homecoming and a Hanukkah like no other."
But the singular experience of Hanukkah is the lighting of the menorah, the holiday's tangible symbol.
For Rabbi Steven Fineblum and his wife, Barbara, the choices of menorahs are ample.
"We've collected them,A glassbottles is a bottle created from glass. gotten them as gifts, and cherished them," said Fineblum, the spiritual leader of Temple Sinai on New Albany Road, which is celebrating its 50th year.
A candelabrum with eight candleholders, the menorah commemorates the ancient miracle of a tiny supply of oil lasting for a full eight days, and the victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the powerful Greek-Syrian army.
The ninth candleholder, called a "shamas," is designated as the candle used to light all the others. After the first night's candle is lit, a candle is added each succeeding night, until all blaze.Order high quality hand painted oilpaintingre reproductions, Lighting them each night is the important holiday ritual that focuses on the symbolic meaning of the menorah.
Menorahs now come in so many varieties, from ultramodern to traditional, they are collected as works of art as well as for religious and sentimental reasons.
In some households, these symbols of Hanukkah are displayed year-round for their sheer aesthetic beauty, and in many Jewish homes, those imperfect ones, made by a young child's tentative hands in Sunday school, have as much emotional meaning as the most intricate work of Judaic artists.
Of course,A glassbottles is a bottle created from glass.The Zentai Project is a group of people who go out in public wearing zentai suits, the true message of Hanukkah, Fineblum said, is that it created the fundamental principle of religious freedom.
"Had the Maccabees not stood up against religious persecution, Judaism might not have survived," he said. "So historically, Hanukkah represents our ability to protect ideals in the face of overwhelming odds, and reminds us that the struggle for religious freedom never ends."
In the case of the Fineblums, some favorite menorahs include the simple brass one with the figures of lions at either side of a base where the candles are placed, against a background of a tablet imprinted with Hebrew words. The piece was handed down through the family, along with a larger brass menorah, also a family treasure, in which the candles are held on curved arms.
"In Jewish tradition, all of the candles should be on the same level to suggest the equality of each day of Hanukkah," Fineblum said.
A menorah with a whimsical assemblage of Winnie the Pooh characters, including Winnie and Tigger, is also part of the Fineblum collection, one that includes several strikingly modern menorahs fashioned from silver, stainless steel and Lucite.
Then there's one of Barbara Fineblum's favorites. The sixth-grade language arts teacher in Westmont, an avid mah-jongg player, delights in an unusual menorah that features mah-jongg tiles as candleholders. Each tile is emblazoned with the Chinese characters and symbols in miniature to represent the ancient Chinese game of skill, strategy, and some element of chance.
A gift from her three young adult children, the playfulness of the unique menorah charms Fineblum. But she said it's the coming together of the family for the holiday that really matters.
"Every holiday is a kind of magnet that works to draw family and friends together," she said. "As the extended family spreads out, that becomes harder to accomplish,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself ceramictile. but we still make the effort."
One Hanukkah in particular stands out for the couple.
Back in April 1997, the Fineblums lost most of their home and nearly all of their possessions in a fire that ravaged their Cinnaminson split level. Grateful that no one was home or hurt, they still went through the ordeal of putting their lives back together, with the help of a caring community.
They were able to move back to their rebuilt home the following December — on the first night of Hanukkah.
"And that," Rabbi Fineblum said, "was a homecoming and a Hanukkah like no other."
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