Stuff You Should Know - How Hanukkah Works

Episode Date: December 9, 2010

Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish holiday, but what's it all about? And why do some people think of it as "Jewish Christmas"? In this episode, Josh and Chuck share Stuff You Should Know about Hanukkah. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is Charles W. Chuckers Bryant, Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty. And that makes this Stuff You Should Know, huh,

Chuck? It's a nice dated reference. Dated from like last week. Where's the beef? No. Oh, you mean in that email? Yeah. How you doing? I'm great. Are you psyched? You know what today is? Yeah. What? Today's the last day of Hanukkah. It is. It's a big day. It is. In the U.S. Uh-huh. Yeah. The lighting of the, we won't spoil it. No, no. There's a lighting of something. That's some nice foreshadowing. Chuck and I, by request, are doing a How Hanukkah Works episode. I think last year we did have Christmas Works, right? Yeah. And I think we promised to cover other holidays of other religions and peoples. We were originally going to release this right

before Christmas, like two days before Christmas. And we figured out pretty quick through our research and by we, I mean Chuck, that Hanukkah would have been over for about three or so weeks had we done that. Yeah. And that kind of reveals a certain mentality in the U.S. Yeah. Among Christians, the Christian majority, that Hanukkah is Jewish Christmas. Yeah. But Chuck, have you ever heard of Hanukkah Harry? I think so. You always say this and I always say no and I always go, oh yeah. I know. It's our thing. Hanukkah Harry. Hanukkah Harry is John Lovitz. It's a Saturday Night Live sketch. You remember? So Santa is vomiting. He has a horrible stomach bug, much like you get every once in a while. And I remember one of the elves is at his bedside and he like throws up on

the elf, right? He's got it pretty bad. And Christmas is about to be ruined because it's Christmas Eve that he's fallen ill. So the only person who can save it is Hanukkah Harry. They call Hanukkah Harry who is John Lovitz and he's got a nice beard and he, instead of a sleigh with reindeer, he rides a cart led by Flying Donkey's named Moishe Hoishel and Shlomo. On Hoishel on Shlomo. I remember that. Yeah. It's good. And Hanukkah Harry, finally, you know, he makes the rounds but rather than the really great presents that, you know, Christian children expect at Christmas, they get socks, eight paya, can you believe it? And slacks and that kind of thing. Right. And they're very disappointed. And since, fortunately, Santa recovers, comes down and saves

the day with really great presents, right? That's funny. That is Hanukkah in the United States. That's right. That's the, that's the conception of it, which is to say that I'm glad we did this because I really didn't understand Hanukkah. Yeah. And you know what? I'm glad you brought that up because for our Jewish friends out there, and by the way, if I could choose to be a real, you know, Jewish, I probably would be. You can, buddy, you convert. Whoopi Goldberg, Sammy Davis Jr. It's not the same. Not born Jewish. Yeah, it's just not the same. Okay. Because I studied in college with my comparative religion class and I was, I remember the time thinking, now this is a religion I can get into. Really? Yeah, I liked it. But for those of you, our Jewish

friends that are worried that, you know, we're just a couple of boys and you probably think we're a gornish teff. Why do you keep looking down at that piece of paper? But I want to say don't plot, honestly, because we are a couple of boys, but we are menches as well. So no need to worry. We will do right by you. Is that what you were saying? I just like Yiddish words. Okay. Yeah. And by the way, since I printed these out, did you know a shlamil is a clumsy person and that person and a shlamazel is someone with constant bad luck? Does that sound familiar? Shlamil, shlamazel. Never knew. That's awesome. So like two hours ago. That's Laverne and Shirley, right? Yeah, one's a shlamil, one's a shlamazel. That's awesome. So my dad told me that before they showed

that show in Iran, and he said Iran specifically, and he told me this in like 1983. That's awesome. They had to show a disclaimer that these women were in a psychiatric hospital and that these episodes were filmed before they'd been committed. Really? And I was like, wow, that's really, the Iranians really don't have a very good sense of humor. Now, I understand that my dad's just insane. Well, that sounds like an urban legend. Although who knows, that might have been true. Yeah. What do we know? We're just a couple of boys. So Chuck, let's talk about Hanukkah. One of the things that I figured out from researching this is that it's not really a very important holiday, as far as the Jewish religion goes. Jewish culture, sure. Yeah. It's no Yom Kippur. No,

it's no Rosh Hashanah. Now, Hanukkah means dedication. It is basically the, well, it's the Festival of Light, and it commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem that fell and was recaptured by the Jews. Let's talk about Jerusalem circa 167 BC, Chuck. Josh, Syrian king Antiochus IV, who was no slouch. Well, he's our bad guy in this story. He's the bad guy. He, you know, at the time, there was a lot of Jewish persecution, and he was one of the big dudes involved in that. Well, he showed up in Jerusalem, and he said, I'm running this place now. You can't practice your religion like you want to. You will be killed. Here's some Greek idols, and you should worship them, and that's what

you're going to do now. Right. Some Jews went along with this. They're like, that's fine. This just makes us less cut off and isolated and makes us more worldly. So we'll do this. I don't know about fine with it, but. Well, there was a fraction, apparently, in the Jewish community at the time, because some went along. It's very much like the American Revolution. There were some who sympathized with the king who were loyal to the crown still, and there were others who were like, well, we'll tart and feather you for that. This hank is about the group that would have tart and feathered the loyalists. Yes. Okay. Specifically, that started with a family, just one family, the

the, uh, Hasmonians led by Matthew Yahoo. Also known as Matthew and his five sons who must have been some pretty bad dudes because they took a stand and sort of, uh, one, like right off the bat. Right. Well, there was apparently a, uh, an incident where Matthew was told to go ahead and start praying to Zeus. There's a statue right there. It's a nice marble statue. Go ahead. And he said, no, and not only that, I'm going to attack you, Greek soldiers. And he did. And, uh, that started the Jewish rebellion of 167 BC. In a good way. They were pretty successful early on, right? The family, the Hasmonians. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I think they, they, this guy and his five sons who led the rebellion became, yeah, I think they were successful.

But the most successful among them was Judah, who by this time they had changed their names to Maccabee, which means strong as hammers, men who are strong as hammers. That's, that's what I would pick. His son changed his name to Judah the hammer. Yeah. And he was the head of the Jewish rebellion. So the whole thing kicks off in 167 BC by 165 BC. Uh, apparently they had been successful enough because over the two years, remember we're talking BC. So it goes backwards. It counts down to zero. You remember? I do remember. Um, they had recaptured the temple in Jerusalem, right? Yep. On the 25th of the Hebrew month, uh, Kislev, which is Kislev 25. Yeah. And that's, they chased the crazy bald heads out of town. It's a very important date

because that's the start of Hanukkah now. Yeah. Kislev 25. Uh, I think the 25th of Kislev. Yeah. Yeah. That's the 25th day of that count of that month of the Hebrew calendar. I think we can think of even one more way to say that. Let's hear it. The day after the 24th of Kislev and before the 26th. Kislev 25. Yes. So Chuck, uh, what did they do on the 25th of Kislev? Well, they, they took the temple back and they said, you know, we need to rededicate the temple because it's dirty from all these, uh, Greek worshiping, uh, pagans, well, probably not pagans, peoples. And, uh, so let's rededicate it and let's light a lamp with the oil. But holy cow, we don't have enough oil. We only have enough for one night. Yeah. What are we gonna

do? Well, lo and behold, you've heard of Christmas miracles. This is the first Hanukkah miracle. So what? Because that one night of oil lasted for eight nights. It did. And that is indeed a miracle. It gave the, uh, Jewish rebellion chance to make more oil. So they didn't actually ever run out, right? Yeah. So that's what this is. This is the commemoration of that miracle of the rededication of the temple. And it lasts eight nights, the eight nights of Hanukkah, eight crazy nights. Yeah. So it's not, uh, Jewish Christmas. No, but it has become that. And we'll see. Cinco de Mayo is in Mexican, uh, 4th of July. I look at the American purviews through everything. I like recall you referring to Canada as America's hat recently on our Facebook page. The only reason

I did that is because a Canadian introduced me to that term and I really found it very funny. It is funny. I guess what would that make Mexico our shirt? I would say it's our foot or shoe, our, well, if the hat is Canada, that would make Mexico our neck. So no, it's not necessarily true. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute, uh, 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our

government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil asset for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, host of the Happiness Lab podcast, the show that presents the latest science-based strategies to help us live happier, more joyful lives. In a special new year season of the Happiness Lab, I look at the pressures we all feel to change for the better

in 2023 and how if we're not careful, those pressures can make us feel worse. If I'm honest, it's just hard, man. It's really, it's really, it's really hard to be present. With the help of my favorite scientists and experts, we'll look at overwork and explore whether striving for career success is really the route to happiness. Too many of us bring the best of ourselves to work and then bring the leftovers home. And we'll see why latching on to fad New Year's diets and exercise plans may not be the best way to give our bodies what they're really craving. When I look back now, I think how unrealistic of me to think that an issue as complex as an eating disorder or a disordered eating or body image could just be fixed because it's a date on

the calendar. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. So Chuck, as you said, it's not Jewish Christmas. It's the Festival of Lights. It commemorates Jewish culture, right? And let's talk about the practical applications of this. How do you celebrate Hanukkah or Hanukkah? Well, as most people know, Josh, even a couple of goys like us know that there is a menorah, holds nine candles, eight that represent the eight nights, and then there's the shamash, which is the candle you use to light the other candles. You would make a good converted Jew, man. You get the pronunciation down, the enthusiasm, everything. I'm trying. So what you do is you inserts very specific. You insert the candles from right to left, one for each day, for each

miracle. You insert them from right to left to right, but you light them from left to right. So the leftmost candle represents the most recent day that the oil kept burning. Yes. And by lighting the leftmost candle first, they're saying we're very pleased with this most recent day of miracle. Yeah, perfect. They need to burn for it. You need to light them after it gets dark. They need to burn for at least a half hour after it gets dark, which presents a problem on Shabbat because lighting a candle is work. You're not allowed to work after the sun goes down on Shabbat. What do they do? Shabbat. They light it before the sun goes down, but it still has to burn 30 minutes after. So they got to time it out just right.

Is blowing out a candle work? Yeah, I think anything. But not necessarily because you're going to exhale anyway, right? You weren't going to light a candle anyway. Just exhaling near the candle. Well, they do blow them out. So yeah, I guess it's not work. Yeah, a heavy sigh. Yeah. And then there are some blessings. And on the first night, you recite all three of these blessings. Are you going to try your hand at this? And on each subsequent night, you only do the first two. There's a blessing for the candles, for the Hanukkah, and for the Shehech Yanu. So Chuck, since you are so good at Hebrew and or Yiddish pronunciation, I think you should try these and then I will translate after you've made it through each one.

So go ahead, please. This is the blessing for the candles as presented by Charles W. Chuck Bryant, but you're this barukhata adonai ilohenu melecha olam asher kidasha new be mitz votaf besivanu ledhad likner shell Hanukkah. Very nice. Beautiful. What Chuck just said to those of you who didn't get it is, blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to light the candles of Hanukkah. All right. Once you do this one, and I'll read the English version. You're doing so well at it. Let's do it again. This is the blessing for Hanukkah. So you say the first one, then you say the second one on each night. And then on the first night,

you say this third one that you're going to do as well. So do the second one, Chuck, the blessing for Hanukkah. Barukhata adonai ilohenu melecha olam shiasa nisem lavotai new baiyamim chachayim bazeiman chaze. Very nice, Chuck. Blessed are you, Lord. Sorry. You're in trouble with the English version. Are you kidding me? Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe, who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time? Pretty straightforward stuff. Yeah. And then the last one, this is said the first night only. It's the shahakianu. Yeah. Shahakianu. And yeah. Okay. And this is the first night blessing. So go ahead, Chuck. Barukhata adonai ilohenu melecha olam

shiasa nisem lavotai nisem lavotai nisem lavotai nisem lavotai nisem lavotai nisem lavotai. Okay. So Chuck, just finished the full blessings. All three of those of what he just said would be said on the first night. And then the first two would be said on each night after that. And what he just said is, blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season. And that's Hanukkah. Every night you light a candle. Yep. You say the blessing and you spin the dreidel, don't you? Yeah. You also sing songs, traditional songs. You recite Psalms. You want to talk about the dreidel? And then there are games like the dreidel. So the dreidel is that top that you've always seen.

And dreidel actually is German for to spin, right? Is it? I believe so. On each side is a Jewish character. There are four characters, nun, dimel, hei, and shin, right? And they're actually the abbreviations for a phrase, nesgadolhayashem, or a great miracle took place here. Yeah. Right. They're also German Yiddish for nickt, gut, hob, and schlecht, which is no good, half, and bad. And they refer to the possible outcomes for playing the dreidel. Yes. You spin the dreidel, and you get good, you win all. Everything's in the pot. What do you mean by everything? Well, guilt is usually what's in the pot. So the reason they spin, you know, there's some history here. The dreidel was what they used to fool people into thinking they weren't practicing

the religion. Right. So they're sitting around reading the Torah, some dudes come up and like, what are you doing? They're like, we're just spinning the dreidel, dude. And then the Greek soldier was like, those Jewish people in their dreidel say love those things. They take their guilt. That's it. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government

uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, host of the Happiness Lab podcast, the show that presents the latest science based strategies to help us live happier, more joyful lives. In a special New Year season of

the Happiness Lab, I look at the pressures we all feel to change for the better in 2023, and how if we're not careful, those pressures can make us feel worse. If I'm honest, it's just hard, man. It's really, it's really, it's really hard to be present. With the help of my favorite scientists and experts, we look at overwork and explore whether striving for career success is really the route to happiness. Too many of us bring the best of ourselves to work and then bring the leftovers home. And we'll see why latching onto FAD New Year's diets and exercise plans may not be the best way to give our bodies what they're really craving.

When I look back now, I think how unrealistic of me to think that an issue as complex as an eating disorder or a disordered eating or body image could just be fixed because it's a date on the calendar. Listen to the Happiness Lab on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. So that's the dreidel. It is. It's a gambling game. It is. Sort of. For kids. You're not really gambling because gambling implies that you're putting money down for it to come up on a certain thing. And you're just, from what I know, you spin it and depending on what it comes up as, you get money or nothing. That's gambling. No, it's not. It's putting money on chances gambling. No, no, no. But what they're not, they're not saying, I'm putting 20 on Gimmel.

No, but you're still putting money on a possible outcome. It's gambling. All right. So we've got the guilt. I bet you we're going to hear from people that say it is never gambling. That's gambling. Okay. It is a guilt. We've got guilt. We've got the dreidel. Yeah. And we can't forget the food, Chuck, because the oil factors in so heavily into the celebration, the festival of lights. The food is generally cooked in oil, and it's also generally delicious. Lot kids. Yeah, sure. Potato pancakes. It's basically shredded potatoes held together with eggs and milk and deep fried. This is like the greatest holiday ever. I love it. Deep fried food. Yeah. As part of the holidays. Awesome. We know what they say, Josh. What?

Besser and front mitge keks at a hundred mikakeks. It's a better one friend with a dish of food than a hundred with a sigh. Yeah, true. Words have never been spoken. And Chuck, there's also, what is, where do the jelly donuts called? Sufganayat. Those sound delicious as well. They're just fried jelly donuts fried in oil. Yeah. And then with powdered sugar all over them. Well, yeah, they say they fry a lot of the stuff in oil because oil was such a big deal for the miracle. Right. I think they do it because it just tastes better. It's delicious. Nutritious. Well, there you have it. There we have it. There's Hanukkah. It's a lot more simple than I thought. Very simple. Not to say that's a bad

thing. Christmas is pretty simple too. There's jelly donuts and latkes. I'll take it. So what's next year? Kwanzaa. I was thinking Kwanzaa. What else is there? Ramadan. It's not Christmas, but it's pretty holy holiday, isn't it? Yeah. We'll cover all the holidays. They don't have to be December end of December. Okay. I think that's a good idea. Well, then for next year we'll do, I don't know, maybe we'll do center clause. Did we talk about, we talked about him a lot in the Christmas one, didn't we? Yeah, we'll figure it out. Yeah. We have a year. We're planning this thing out like years in advance now. That's dangerous. Well, until next year, we hope that you keep listening. We hope that you have a fantastic, that you've had a fantastic Hanukkah to our Jewish

friends and listeners for our Christian friends and listeners and our Jewish friends and listeners who practice Christmas. Happy holidays. Happy holidays. And if you want to learn more about Hanukkah, you can type that word in. We spell it on HowStuffWorks as H-A-N-U-K-K-A-H. Type that into the handy search bar at HowStuffWorks.com. And that means now it's time for listener mail. Josh, I'm going to call this one medieval times email. I got permission to read this to you. This is from Gerald in Boston, although I believe he said he was from Texas. Gerald says this, interestingly guys, my first job after college was the master of ceremonies, also known as the king's chancellor at medieval times. That was the role Andy Dick played in

the cable guy. I wrote a very large and delusion horse, wore a velvet and sequined cape and introduced all the knights and narrated much of the action of the show. Supposedly our show was set in Spain in the 11th century. One of the more embarrassing aspects of the job was the occasional educational matinee that we put on for large groups of students. The show was not researched at all and was written by someone who didn't have a background in the entertainment industry, let alone any knowledge of history whatsoever. Among the ridiculous facts, quote unquote, we were required to present was that the knight's sword weighed 50 pounds, their armor weighed 300 pounds. Despite such misinformation, we couldn't do much about our show being written

by someone who just made things up, the perils of a working stiff. Anyway, you might want to mention not to pay too much attention to the information presented by a caped man on horseback and what is basically a rodeo arena with a medieval decor scheme and fancy lights. It was interesting work, although it was one of the worst jobs I've ever had in terms of hours pay and lack of benefits. Oh, how knighthood has fallen. Killer show dudes, Gerald. I hear the chicken's good. I don't know. I've never been there. I haven't either. We should totally go sometime just for laughs. Okay. And history. Okay. And 50 pound swords and 300 pounds of armor. Thanks, Gerald. How about your worst job? Let's hear about that. Yeah. I've had good jobs.

I can't talk about my worst job on air. Well, that means that we need to hear from all of you listeners to fill in for Chuck. Fill in the blanks. See if you can guess what Chuck's worst job was. He'll probably never actually say, but let's see what you got. Wrap it up, send it in, and email to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the Reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you?

The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Langston Kermit. Sometimes I'm on TV. I'm David Boreen. I'm probably on TV right now. David and I are going to take a deep dive every week into the most exciting ground breaking and sometimes problematic black conspiracy theories. We've had amazing past

notable guests like Brandon Kyle Goodman, Sam J. Quinta Brunson, and so many more. New episodes around every Tuesday. Many episodes out on Thursdays where we answer you, the listeners conspiracy theories. Listen to my mama told me on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.