Chanukah is About to End

And so here we are at the tail end of another chag. Chanukah is about to end. It makes me a little bit sad, always does. The end of summer does the same thing to me.

It is not the idea that there are no more presents. That doesn’t really make much of an impact upon me. Sure, I love to see the look on the faces of my kids as they unwrap their gifts, but this is different.

One of the things that I love best about this holiday is watching the kids as we light candles. There is this indescribable look on their faces. I love watching the reflections of the candlelight dance in their eyes. I love to hear my baby girl say the blessings. She stomps her little feet and marches in circles with this huge smile on her face.

And then just as we are about to finish she grabs my hand and raises her arms so that I can pick her up. For a moment we stare at the lights while she absentmindedly strokes my face. It is moments like this that make me want to stop time.

My son stands up so very straight. He knows the blessings inside and out. He likes to correct my Hebrew. The way that I pronounce the words doesn’t sound as authentic as the manner of his Israeli Hebrew teachers, nor does it sound like his own pronunciation. The advantage of learning at such a young age is that he doesn’t speak with such a thick American accent.

Every now and then I intentionally use Ashkenazic pronunciations like she’asah nisim la’avoseinu it throws him off a bit. He is not used to it. It is how the older generation of the family speaks and it helps me remember family that has passed on and past chagim.