A Great Miracle Happened HERE

Chanukkah is such a simple holiday. In Israel, it doesn't come with the baggage of Christian consumerism, it's a celebration of light.

Here in Jerusalem, i've been inspired to create and admire light in it's physical and non-physical forms.

On Hanukkah Day 1, our apartment hosted a Chanukkah party. We attempted to make latkes without a set recipe, which proved to be a disaster (plus we made enough of our bad batter to feed a troop of maccabees (damn. bad chanukkah jokes, sorry)). But it's impossible to make deep fried potatoes and onions taste bad, so, our horrible hash was eaten by all.

We sang songs. We ate sufganiot, a troop of religious men armed with menorahs knocked on every apartment door to make sure we had all lit. Overall, it was a very warm night.

The Chanukiah I made out of clay. (lit with real israeli olive oil!)

me holding a handful of latke hash

Latkes (they stunk up the whole dorm complex)

All the city busses have LED "Chanukah Sameach" flashing after the destination. Every time I see one, I imagine I'm going to a place called Happy Hanukkah.

This weekend, Hannah visited from Kibbutz. It was great to host her in my cleaner, more presentable Jerusalem apartment. She, Olivia, and I cooked up a salad feast from the veggies we bought at the shuk. We made homemade hummus, eggplant salad, tossed salad, israeli salad, and had fresh strawberries for dessert. We went to Shira Hadasha, a shul on Emek Refaim. It was filled with beautiful singing, and we recited a psalm for those affected by the forest fire near Haifa. It was beautiful to light Hanukkah and Shabbat candles with my best friend.

Today I needed to skip theology in order to work on my ceramics homework. I was really tired, and in no mood to volunteer at the hospital.

I arrived in Pediatrics alone, and the room was closed (annoying dude wasn't there!). There were only infants outside (who are incapable of painting or doing crafts). Finally, when my partner, Ruth, showed up a little orthodox boy came into the room and we sat him down with something to do. Eventually, all of his siblings (I counted six) sat down at our craft table. We made totem poles and cut out menorahs for them to decorate. They were curious and cute.

Our Religious Brady Bunch

Ruth and I cleaned up and visited the Rehabilitation center, the hardest ward because its difficult to motivate adults to do arts and crafts, and it's so depressing to see everyone with IV bags and dressing gowns. We sat next to an old Israeli-Italian woman named Gina. In the beginning, she had difficulty holding a paintbrush or pencil because of her severe arthritis. Her hands were knotted like driftwood. After coaching her and soothing her frustration, she began to write words...her name in Italian.

A man in a wheelchair inched up to the table behind me and set up a Chanukiah. He cleared his throat and the whole floor went quiet. He blessed the candles, and after our debilitated congregation said "Amen" we all burst into song and clapping. We sang every Chanukkah tune in the book.

In hebrew, hospital translates to "house of the sick". But it felt like a house of healing.