Just in time! A Chanukah candlelighting crash course

Just in time!  A Chanukah candlelighting crash course

Two days to Chanukah, and I thought maybe folks could use a little prep class in how to light the candles. 

I hate to state the obvious… but I know that I forget these things myself, and that there was a time when I didn’t know them at all.  (No shame!) And while there are a lot of cool Jewy sites out there for the fully involved/entrenched super-Jews… not all of us are quite that super.

Besides,  Faithhacker isn’t really targeting the “self-involved and involving Jew” so much as it hopes to serve Jews looking for a way in…

So in case you’re wondering…

You need a Chanukiah (that candleholder with 9 holes) It should be made of glass or metal.  You need some candles.

When you put the little candles in the little holes, you do so from right to left.  One candle for each night.

Then you light the shamash, the ninth candle, which sits higher than the rest.  When you light the other candles, you do so from left to right.  And you light them with the Shamash.

Then you say a little prayer (actually you say a few  of them on the first night).  You can find the prayers here, along with other traditions and songs… but the basic one, the one you say each night is:

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik neir (shel) chanukah.

Which means:  Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah lights.

And then there are more rules I didn’t know at all over here.  (For instance, you’re not permitted to deliver a eulogy during Chanukah, or fast.  Rats!)  But I think this is enough for now!