Happy Hanukkah!

Since Hanukkah started (on the first) my group has been busy with fun Hanukkah activities, including lighting candles and giving gifts.


On Wednesday night we were all invited to the kibbutz wide Hanukkah party, and were also asked to sing a song for the celebration. A few of the more talented singers in my group performed "Light One Candle," which I must say, was a hit. During the night we saw a series of performances, including teenage girls who danced and a singing group from the kibbutz. During the festivities, a woman asked the crowd to light their candles (which people had brought and were at the tables) and hold them up high while singing together. Hundreds of candles swayed in unison to the voices of Ein Dor. The moment was intense and touching, and for the first time I understood why people wanted to live on a kibbutz. With the loss of ideology (in the form of privatization) I've come to see kibbutzim as just a gated community and nothing more. But I understood during that Hanukkah party that the kibbutz is something more; everybody still knows one another and looks out for each other. People really care about others on the kibbutz, and that is something invaluable.

kids surrounding fireworks

Last night we lit candles and had singing for the holiday. Everybody started up their favorite songs and we all united in joyous celebration.


Tonight we gave gifts. They weren't gifts that we bought, but instead everybody submitted a wish and someone else was responsible for granting that wish. Some of them were reasonable, but most of them were just ridiculous, so a bit of creativity was required to fulfill people's desires. Someone asked for "my name in pancakes" so "my name" was written out on cardboard using drawn pancakes. Someone else asked for a miracle, which resulted in a boy pretending to give birth to a baby. My favorite wish was the request of snow, which was fulfilled by someone dressing up like it was freezing out and covering all the windows with white sheets so it looked like there was snow outside. The whole thing was extremely fun and silly.


While this Hanukkah we (on Ein Dor) are having fun and enjoying ourselves, many people in Israel are not. So perhaps we should focus our hopes for a miracle on the people suffering from the forest fire here and pray that no more harm will be caused from that disaster.