? Ask Rabbi the Dear Rabbi,
Chanukah is coming and with it comes the “minhag” of Chanukah presents. On the one hand, gifts are a beautiful opportunity to make Chanukah enjoyable for our children. On the other hand, my neighbor tells me that there actually is no legitimate minhag for Chanukah gifts and that it was just an American custom that families started doing so their kids shouldn’t feel bad that their non-Jewish friends were getting presents in De- cember and not them. Is this accurate? (My neighbor also shared that her children are asking her for expensive Chanukah presents that she can’t really afford!) My question is, how should we be meaningfully gifting, and is Chanukah a time that we should be gifting at all? ... Presently Confused Dear Presently Confused, Great question! This is a fantastic example of
First and foremost, Chanukah is the yom tov where we celebrate and are makir tov to Hashem for the miracles He performed for klal Yisrael in the military victory of the Chashmonaim and the pach shemen, the flask of oil, for the menorah. 2 We do this when we sing Hallel and light the menorah. However, many other important lessons are part of Chanukah as well. By way of analogy, if the inspira- tion from Chanukah were like a gift-wrapped pres- ent, it would be a tragedy for us to spend eight
how, as we develop and grow, as children and even as adults, we should not just do things by rote, but rather constantly try to infuse a deeper meaning and sophistication into our avodas Hashem . 1 In my experience, whether, how, and to whom we should be giving Chanukah presents is some- thing that people have diametrically opposed opin- ions about. With that disclaimer, I will share my personal view.
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