I love this video. When it first came out as a parody I fell in love with it. The boys were each so cute and very modern orthodox yeshiva boy look. I grew up with many dudes that looked just like these guys and connected with them immediately. OK the dude that sings "I throw my Latka in the air" is my favorite.
The song is catchy and the story is told by the end of the fun and fast moving song. It satisfies the qualifications of being Jewish content and reminds me of some of the dudes back in old Toronto.
So I grew up in a suburb of Toronto that had a lot of Jews and Italian along with a bunch of everything else. I went to several schools from a Jewish day school to the area public schools. I had friends from all walks of life and never even dated a Jewish guy till I went to Israel in my early 20's. My longest relationship was with an guy of Italian and Irish decent.
I had a group of friends through my BFF who were more on the modern orthodox side. There was a one dude's place where everyone hung out. They were great group of dudes, funny, giving and usually centered around a TV set watching hockey. Most, spent some time studying in Israel and some even made the leap and moved there. One special friend is no longer with us and we all missed him so.
The Dreidel is a symbol of Hanukkah. Why you may ask? Well, back in the day when the Jews were not allowed to practice Judaism or gather for learning, they would gather anyway. When someone would come around they would pull out their dreidels and pretend to be gambling. The Romans preferred gambling to Jewish learning or community.
The dreidel has four letters on it and the letters represent the words that mean Big Miracle Happened There. This is true for all dreidels outside of Israel. In Israel the dreidels say Big Miracle Happened Here. The differents, is to represent the location of the temple that was destroyed, in Jerusalem.
For me Chanukah, among other things, is about the right to learn and the struggle for knowledge. The spark of knowledge can grow bringing understanding and launching dreams. I believe that the miracle of knowledge can and must be encouraged to happen everywhere. Thus, when I next go to Israel I will get a gross of dreidels that say Big Miracle Happened Here and use them from then on. It does not matter if you are on the Cardo in the old City of Jerusalem, or sitting by the Sea of the Galilee, or you are having a coffee in the Starbucks in Barns and Noble in your local mall. The freedom to learning, central to Jewish tradition, should be a persons obligation, privilege and right.
So for this post I would like to salute all those that continue to seek out knowledge and learn throughout life.
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