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hkellickTonight, as some of you no doubt know, is the first night of Hannukah. Tonight's plans aren't big. When K comes home, if we can find the menorah (my job when I get home), we'll light the candles and open the gifts from Dad and Elaine.
Tomorrow will be a little more complicated since K is going to make some Latkes.
With a child being in the forefront of my thoughts, I keep wondering what holiday time in the Kellick Household will be like in.. 3 or 4 years, once the child is old enough to begin to understand.
I've never been the most religious Jew. I don't go to temple on the high holy days and don't belong to a temple, but Judaism is still a part of my heritage and I try to respect that, but I'm not sure what sort of .. expert I'd be to my children to teach them, if they want to know, what it is to be a Jew. I know traditions. I even follow some of them, because they're still important to me to feel connected to.. the memory or fantasy, maybe, of my childhood (not the actual thing, of course.)
And yet it's important enough to me that I do want them to understand the story of the miracle of the candles, to understand the importance of lighting the menorah, to understand, as well, that Hannukah is a minor holiday and not a major one like Passover.
I'm not sure how meaningful that is without the religious aspect. My child will probably not go to temple, since to do that he'd have to be Jewish, which he won't be, since I don't see us, as a family, agreeing to him being converted unless I REALLY pushed for it. And I'm not sure I'd do that since, except for right now, I've just never cared too much about my religion. It's more of a part of how I was raised than who I am now.
And to be honest, I'm only marginally more comfortable in a Jewish temple than I am a church, even K's UU church which is to say, when a religious service is going on, I'm not.
I'm not sure why this is bothering me now. Maybe it just sort of struck me. How meaningful is a tradition like lighting a menorah without the understanding of why this is supposed to be important?
I don't have an answer to that. It probably depends on how meaningful K and I make it. I think, as I said above, it mostly just sort of struck me. It maybe won't matter in 3 or 4 years, or maybe I'll find my answers by then.
Tomorrow will be a little more complicated since K is going to make some Latkes.
With a child being in the forefront of my thoughts, I keep wondering what holiday time in the Kellick Household will be like in.. 3 or 4 years, once the child is old enough to begin to understand.
I've never been the most religious Jew. I don't go to temple on the high holy days and don't belong to a temple, but Judaism is still a part of my heritage and I try to respect that, but I'm not sure what sort of .. expert I'd be to my children to teach them, if they want to know, what it is to be a Jew. I know traditions. I even follow some of them, because they're still important to me to feel connected to.. the memory or fantasy, maybe, of my childhood (not the actual thing, of course.)
And yet it's important enough to me that I do want them to understand the story of the miracle of the candles, to understand the importance of lighting the menorah, to understand, as well, that Hannukah is a minor holiday and not a major one like Passover.
I'm not sure how meaningful that is without the religious aspect. My child will probably not go to temple, since to do that he'd have to be Jewish, which he won't be, since I don't see us, as a family, agreeing to him being converted unless I REALLY pushed for it. And I'm not sure I'd do that since, except for right now, I've just never cared too much about my religion. It's more of a part of how I was raised than who I am now.
And to be honest, I'm only marginally more comfortable in a Jewish temple than I am a church, even K's UU church which is to say, when a religious service is going on, I'm not.
I'm not sure why this is bothering me now. Maybe it just sort of struck me. How meaningful is a tradition like lighting a menorah without the understanding of why this is supposed to be important?
I don't have an answer to that. It probably depends on how meaningful K and I make it. I think, as I said above, it mostly just sort of struck me. It maybe won't matter in 3 or 4 years, or maybe I'll find my answers by then.
