Making book on Chanukah gifts - The Jewish Standard

Chanukah began two nights ago. In some ways, it resembled the day on which it fell this year — Christmas. The two are intertwined even when they are a month apart, however, because Chanukah usually comes at the start of the Christmas shopping season. Some people even refer to this period as Chrismukkah. It has everything to do with emulating the “Other,” and nothing to do with Chanukah or why we celebrate it.

That includes the exchanging of gifts, often quite expensive ones, almost none of which relate to Chanukah in any way. Because gift-giving is here to stay, however, is there such a thing as an appropriate Chanukah gift, one that does not suggest that the Festival of Lights is the “Jewish Christmas”? And how, when, and why did this gift-giving tradition get started, considering that there is no evidence that anyone even thought of giving Chanukah gifts of any kind before the mid-1600s?

The tradition most likely grew out of the giving of “Chanukah gelt” by Jews in 17th-century Poland that soon spread to other Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. That “gelt” — the Yiddish word for money — however, was totally Chanukah-related. It had nothing to do with emulating the “Other.”

To explain: After capturing Jerusalem in 167 B.C.E., the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes (“God Manifest,” as he arrogantly called himself) sought to impose Greek culture and religion on Judea by desecrating the Temple, outlawing Torah study of all kinds, and banning all manner of Jewish practice. In 164 B.C.E., the Hasmoneans overthrew the Seleucids, cleansed the Temple of the pagan trappings Antiochus had put there, restored the altar, lifted the bans on Torah study and Jewish observances, and — most significantly — gave us and the world a most precious gift: freedom of religion.

Because those who taught Jewish children Torah in Eastern Europe were poorly paid, the custom began for parents to give their children a few coins — Chanukah gelt — to give to their teachers on Chanukah as a way of saying thank you. Eventually, parents also gave Chanukah gelt to their children to encourage them to take their Jewish studies seriously.

Because many Jews, in the United States especially, did not want to feel left out of the seasonal celebration going on all around them, those few coins morphed over time into expensive gifts — for children and for everyone else — that have nothing to do with studying Torah or anything else Chanukah-related.

As a month-long “observance” that ended this year on December 24 underscores, however, there is such a thing as an appropriate Chanukah gift, one that aligns perfectly with the meaning of Chanukah and even with the original purposes of Chanukah gelt. Known as Jewish Book Month, it always ends two days before Chanukah begins. Giving books of Jewish content as gifts is arguably the most appropriate Chanukah gift.

There are so many Jewish-themed books published each year that fit the worthiness bill. My choice to top this year’s list for anyone from middle school children to adults is “The Science Behind the Mishnah,” by Rabbis Joel Padowitz and Jonathan Sassen, published in 2024 by Mosaica Press.

This is not a commentary on the Mishnah, despite its title. Rather, it is a science primer of a unique and valuable kind, because it explores a wide variety of scientific concepts in many fields — from astronomy to biology to physics to earth sciences and so on — in clear, easily understandable terms. The Mishnaic texts cited — they come from the very first talmudic tractate, Mishnah Berachot (“Blessings”) — are the entry points for these discussions. (A second volume, using texts from Mishnah Shabbat, reportedly is in the works.)

The simplicity of the authors’ accessible approach to scientific concepts is evident throughout this book. For example, Mishnah Berachot (4.1) discusses the proper time for our various daily prayer services. This leads the authors to offer a rather thorough yet easily understood discussion of the movement of the Sun and the Earth’s rotation around it.

Another mishnah, Berachot 9.2, discusses the blessing to be made when seeing certain celestial phenomena. It leads to a comprehensive introduction to astronomy in one chapter and a discussion of lightning and electricity in another.

Although the book takes no notice of this, in reading it, one becomes aware of the fact that some of our Sages of Blessed Memory — not all, of course — must have had a greater understanding of scientific concepts than was common in their day.

For example, a discussion in Mishnah Berachot 6.8 only makes sense if the late 1st century-early 2nd century sage Rabbi Tarfon, who is featured there, understood as we do today the unique role water plays in sustaining life. That was not an understanding common in his day.

Hippocrates, in the 5th-century B.C.E., advocated the health benefits of drinking pure, unadulterated water in a book attributed to him, On Airs, Waters, and Places, because of the dangers of drinking adulterated water. He never specifically referred to hydration, which is a scientific principle that was not fully understood in his time if it was understood at all.

We moderns have a much deeper understanding of hydration, thanks to advancements beginning early in the 19th century in such fields as physiology, biochemistry, and medicine. Modern science has taught us that pure unadulterated water is unique. It is in a class by itself.

Water is the primary component of blood because the plasma that carries our blood cells throughout our bodies is 90 percent water. In a very real sense, water also is the lifeblood of metabolism, because virtually every metabolic process depends on it, including nutrient transport, waste removal, and temperature regulation. Water enables our bodies to break down large molecules like carbohydrates and proteins into smaller units our bodies can use. Pure water is absorbed quickly by the body, and nothing in it can negatively affect hydration.

Not even Hippocrates understood water’s uniqueness as we do, yet Rabbi Tarfon apparently did, as evidenced in Mishnah Berachot 6.8.

That mishnah discusses the appropriate blessings to be made both before and after we drink any liquid other than grape juice or wine. The blessing before drinking ends with “through whose word everything came to be.” The blessing after we drink includes the words “who creates many souls and provides for their needs with all that You have created to sustain the life of every living being.”

Rabbi Tarfon disagreed when it came to the blessing over water. It only required one blessing, to be said before drinking. That blessing is the one everyone else ruled should be recited after drinking, namely “Who creates many souls.”

There can only be one reason why he chose that blessing: It not only praises God for creating life, but also for creating everything that life needs to sustain itself — and nothing is more life-sustaining than water.

The authors used this mishnah to explore why water is critical to life.

They began their exploration by noting that cells are the “basic building blocks of all living organisms…, [and] all of them, without exception, depend on water.” They then cite two examples of “the vital cellular processes” that only “water’s special properties” can provide: its chemical structure, which enables it to dissolve the many different chemicals in our cells so that they can react with each other, and the molecules in water that are essential in “building proteins, and for supplying the energy every cell needs to power its activities.”

Water, the authors write and as Rabbi Tarfon’s choice attests, is “an essential ingredient all organisms need to survive.”

Colored photographs, illustrations, and charts are found throughout this book to aid in understanding the science being discussed. The book itself is so beautifully packaged that it could double as a coffee table book — emphasis on “double as,” because this book is meant to enrich our understanding of what makes us and our world tick.

Amazon sells “The Science Behind the Mishnah” for a remarkably inexpensive $29.99. It is also available online at mosaicapress.com and sciencebehindthemishnah.com.

A book published in 1992 that continues to be a favorite family gift for children from 4 to 8 is “Something From Nothing,” written by Phoebe Gilman and published by Scholastic Canada. Amazon sells it for $17.99.

The story is adapted from an old Yiddish folk tale. It follows a young boy named Joseph. His grandfather, an expert tailor, made him a wonderful blanket as a baby gift. Over time, the blanket becomes tattered and worn (a family of mice living beneath the floorboards uses that material for their own clothing), so Joseph’s grandfather constantly transforms it — from a jacket, to a vest, to a tie Joseph wears on Shabbat, to a handkerchief, and finally into a beautiful button, which Joseph eventually loses. Joseph learns a valuable lesson about creativity and resourcefulness when he makes something from nothing in school the next day. He turns it into a wonderful story.

Jewish Book Month precedes Chanukah each year precisely because books such as these are the most appropriate gifts on Chanukah and every other day of the year. We may not be able to plug them into an Xbox or a Playstation, but we can plug what they have to say into our minds, which is far more rewarding and far more appropriate than covering Chanukah in Christmas wrapping.

Happy Chanukah to all.

Shammai Engelmayer is a rabbi-emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel of the Palisades and an adult education teacher in Bergen County. He is the author of eight books and the winner of 10 awards for his commentaries. His website is www.shammai.org.

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