By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
After the kindling of Chanuka candles we sing the song called ‘Haneirot Halalu’. Below are links to some renditions of the elaborate Chabad melody sung to this prayer that I grew up with.
Haneiros Halalu with childrens choir. Haneiros Halalu adult choir.
This prayer that we joyously sing, spells out the reason that we kindle the lights of Chanuka. We kindle the lights of the Menorah to commemorate the miracles, wonders and saving-acts that G-d did for us during the Chanukah time period some twenty-one hundred plus years ago.
At the end of the five-minute melody there is an addendum that rolls off my tongue without me even thinking.
CHANUKAH GELT!!!!
(Gelt means money in Yiddish. In Hebrew it would be called ‘Dmei Chanuka’).
G-d blessed me to be born to wonderful and devoutly observant parents. My earliest memories of life are intertwined with the gamut of Jewish celebrations and rituals. One of the most prominent of them must be the family kindling of the menorah. Lighting our own menorahs following our fathers lighting of the family menorah was special. But definitely a central highlight of the menorah lighting ceremony was the Chanuka Gelt that seamlessly followed the singing of the Haneirot Halalu.
My children will attest to the fact that Chanuka Gelt has continued to be a pivotal aspect of the Chanuka observance in our family.
It’s not just in my family.
The custom to give Chanuka Gelt is well entrenched within Jewish life.
There are various reasons given for this minhag.
The reasons for giving Chanuka Gelt are beautifully explained here. In this article I would like to share the beauty of this custom through my personal experience.
I got the opportunity to really think about the custom this year because of the reaction of one of our grandchildren when she was given Chanuka Gelt by her parents. The child was not very happy with receiving money.
She cried ‘WANNA OPEN IT’. She wanted something she could open.
Now, her request for a gift rather than money was quite simple. This is a girl who is being raised in a very religious home. She has not been influenced by any outside ‘winds’ i.e. by the ‘other seasonal holidays’ that are taking place in the USA during December where gifts are given. She was expressing a very valid point for a child her age. She genuinely didn’t see the point in receiving bills or coins that ‘cannot be opened’. They seem valueless to her.
Perhaps, I thought to myself, she is truly in a utopian world. She does not care about money. Why would we want to uproot that paradise-like attitude to money and replace it with a desire for accumulating money?
Let me ask a question that requires a level of vulnerability. I mean in know that I grew up with the custom of Chanuka gelt. But couldn’t it be argued that giving Chanukah Gelt give a certain prominence to money that kids should still be protected from?
I took a stroll down memory lane to my own childhood. My father gave us Chanuka Gelt every single night. The BIG night was the fifth night. It was on that night that he gave us a full handful of coins. He would tell us to put our hands into his cloth bag that he got from the bank. Into our hands he would deposit a stack of one penny coins. We would count them afterwards and couldn’t figure out how he knew when we hadn’t counted accurately. Only later did we understand that the reason he had a ‘bank sack’ is because he had gone to the bank to get newly minted coins. For the night of the ‘BIG’ distribution, he simply broke open a one-hundred-coin roll in out cupped hands, so that we had each received exactly one dollar in one cent coins.
After Chanukah the fun began. We went to the store to shop for things we wanted to buy with our Chanuka Gelt. We usually didn’t have very much gelt but it was hugely exciting nonetheless. Our ‘budgets’ allowed modestly priced things like crayons, coloring books, and things like that. The poor shopkeeper had to bear with us as we counted out coins of various sizes (including those one hundred one cent coins…).
We didn’t spend our money till we carefully separated at least a tithe – ten or twenty percent – to Tzedakah for the needy.
(The Rebbe would remind us often what Halacha teaches, that ten percent is obligatory for a Jew to separate from his income. But the even better way to give Tzedakah is to separate twenty percent to the needy).
This was my introduction to money.
To both aspects of money. To the Tzedakah, giving to others that one can achieve with money. And to the value of money in terms of what I could buy with it for my own enjoyment.
Money was now not something worthless in my eyes. It was a very tangible commodity that could buy me things that I wanted.
My grandchild’s protest upon receiving gelt vs a gift, granted me a deeper understanding on the exquisite beauty of the traditional Jewish way of raising children.
Let me ask you. How do you view money?
Chances are that you view is as a necessary evil.
It shouldn’t be viewed that way at all.
Money should be seen as a powerful commodity that can be either a ‘snake’ that causes you to slither down, or a ladder that allows you to climb closer to G-d?
(If you appreciate gematria/numerology, consider that ממן money, and סלם ladder, both have the numerical value of 130. This conveys the message that money is like a ladder. It can be a form of elevation, or G-d forbid a descent into negativity).
Giving Chanuka ‘Gelt’ as a holy ‘minhag’ custom at the inspirational moments of kindling the menorah, gives money a higher purpose and meaning. It shows that we view money as a tool to serve G-d. This perspective on money will G-d willing accompany the child through adulthood and through the duration of his or her life.
I had lunch this week with a man in his eighties. He said ‘Rabbi, I admire you, its not easy to be a rabbi’. He leaned toward me and whispered confidentially, ‘you have to ask people for money, which must be so hard’.
A few weeks ago, I was on the phone with a leader in the jewelry industry. I blessed him with success in all matters of his life. He asked me an honest question. ‘Rabbi, isn’t money a non-blessing? I have seen money cause so much strife and marital disunity in my community’.
Let me explain how the Torah looks at money and then let’s revisit those two above statements.
The Tanya explains why Tzedakah is the most powerful mitzvah of all.
Because it involves money.
Why is money so powerful?
Because with money you can buy life sustaining staples. You can use money to pay for a level of medical care that could be literally life-saving. Money can buy you enjoyment such as indulgent treats and toys.
With money you can buy things for YOURSELF.
Tzedakah means giving YOUR money to SOMEONE ELSE.
By giving Tzedakah you are GIVING AWAY YOUR (commodity that could buy you) LIFE. You give it to someone in need because Hashem said that this is the correct moral thing to do.
As well, any other mitzvah is involving one aspect of your physical energy. Lighting Shabbat candles and putting on Tefilin for example, use the energy of your arm and hands.
Tzedakah, involves every aspect of your life. For to make money you need to use every single facet of your faculties and body. When you give that ‘hard earned’ money you are giving of the sum total of all of your bodily energies.
Even if you haven’t worked hard for your money (like getting it as Chanuka Gelt), when you choose not to buy something for yourself but give it to another, you are giving to someone else, what could have bought YOU life. Or enhancements to your life.
Giving money to Tzedaka is the way that we take all our worldly achievements and efforts and direct them to G-d.
This mitzvah thus has the ‘most bang for the buck’ (pun intended).
Money, when viewed this way is a vehicle for doing holy things.
Shouldn’t a child be trained in this holy and uplifting approach to money?
Or should we wait till the child enters the world and is exposed to the other side of money. The ‘snakelike’ and negative dark side of money. Greed, corruption, selfishness, and the various other ills that money can breed when used without guidance.
I think it’s a no brainer. Let us not avoid the topic of money with kids. Rather let us teach it to them the way G-d intended it to be. So that they develop a healthy relationship with it. So that they see it as a medium for living a moral and G-dly life.
How does Chanukah Gelt teach this?
Let me try to analyze what would have happened if I would have received Chanuka gifts instead of Gelt?
Two things.
First of all I wouldn’t have given tzedakah from the gift. How do you give a needy person part of the Lego set that you were gifted? Can you give a part of the doll that you got as a gift? By receiving money, you are able to separate a portion of that money to give to Tzedakah.
But it is not just about the part you give away. It’s easy to give away what seems worthless to you. However, when one receives money, rather than a gift, there is a learning experience regarding the purchasing power of money. It is critical that the child learn the value of money.
When a child goes to the store with his Chanukah gelt he starts to experience what money is. Money now translates in the child’s mind to the ability to buy things. To purchase toys or sweets.
NOW when the child gives Tzedakah the effect of what he is doing is tangible. It is no longer just like putting marbles in the ‘box’. Rather it is giving away another potential chocolate bar that they could have bought for themselves. Now they will be giving money to the needy so that the poor people can also buy themselves what THEY need.
Don’t you agree that this Jewish custom is just so subliminally powerful and attitude forming in molding a positive and holy relationship with money?
The Jewish approach to money is that it is a blessing. G-d blessed our forefathers with wealth. Moshe was wealthy. Wealth comes solely from G-d. No amount of wheeling and dealing can make someone financially successful if G-d doesn’t will it.
As a rabbi I am privileged to be able to serve as a ‘matchmaker’ and a facilitator between those who have money and those who need money.
I am entrusted with the holy mission of granting people the ability to give life, joy and sustenance to others who need it.
That is not the hard part of my work. It is the inspiring part of my work. I never cease to be inspired by the fact that every person I have ever met is a giver or Tzedakah.
Granted, not everyone has the same ‘tastes’ in Tzedakah. Some like providing food for the needy. Some are really into providing Jewish education for Jewish continuity.
Some are not able to give money, but they give time. They give good energy.
I find that when presented properly, every Jew is prepared to give. It’s a ‘soul’ thing. Part of our spiritual DNA.
To wrap it up.
The Greeks of the Chanukah story would love us to think that money is unholy.
To quote Chabad.org
There is also a deeper reason for this age-old custom. In his record of the Chanukah events, Maimonides writes: “The Greeks laid their hands upon the possessions of Israel.” The Greeks invaded the possessions of Israel in the same spirit in which they defiled the oil in the Holy Temple. They did not destroy the oil; they defiled it. They did not rob the Jewish people; they attempted to infuse their possessions with Greek ideals, so that they be used for egotistical and ungodly purposes, rather than for holy pursuits. Chanukah gelt celebrates the freedom and mandate to channel material wealth toward spiritual ends. This includes donating part (10%) of the gelt to charity and using the remainder for kosher, wholesome purposes. Gelt giving is a great opportunity to teach your kids about this important Jewish value’.
To my dear grandchildren thanks for being a source of inspiration. (With praises and thanksgiving to G-d, we were blessed with a new grandchild during Chanuka. Our daughter Mushka and her husband Rabbi Gabi, had a baby boy in Melbourne Australia earlier this week thank G-d) .
Oh, my advice to my kids on how to change their three year old daughters adverse reaction to Chanukah Gelt? Take her to the store to spend her Chanukah Gelt RIGHT AWAY. Don’t wait. If she sees what money can buy, she may have a very different reaction 😊 .
My dear friends, there is an actionable item here. It’s not too late.
While we don’t give Chanukah gelt on Friday afternoon as we light the menorah just before lighting Shabbat candles. But there is still Saturday night and Sunday night in case you haven’t yet given Chanukah gelt.
Chanukah Gelt can be given to children, to grandchildren, to employees, colleagues, friends.
It’s a Jewish custom. Keeping to our customs ensures a Jewish tomorrow.
It creates joy.
It stimulates Tzedaka.
Tzedakah hastens the Redemption of Mashiach’s coming!
Shabbat Shalom,
Chodesh Tov,
Chanukah Sameach
Rabbi Yosef Kantor
PS if you need some help with distributing your Chanukah tzedakah, I will be happy to share the opportunity with you to help others with life-sustaining needs, literally. Click here