Chanukah Ritual for the Seventh Night
This year, the winter solstice will fall at 7:22 pm EST on Dec. 21. This is the seventh night of Chanukah, which was known among the Jewish communities of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia as Chag haBanot or Festival of the Daughters.
This holiday of Chag haBanot was celebrated with feasts and sermons in honor of heroic women and with gifts and blessings for girls. Bridegrooms would give gifts to the young women who were engaged to be married to them. It was also a time when inheritances were passed down from one generation of women to another, and when girls who were fighting would reconcile.
This juxtaposition of the winter solstice with Chanukah and Chag haBanot is interesting because in Germany the winter solstice was once known as Mother Night (modrenacht). Mothers were celebrated on that night because the Great Mother was said to be giving birth to the sun at that time. As the solstice passed, the daylight would last longer and longer. This was understood as a rebirth of the sun's light.
This image of "giving birth to the sun" is similar to the Chanukah candle ritual, in which one candle gives rise to one, then two, then more and more candles. In fact, the shamash or helper candle that lights the other candles is called "shamash" which means "sun." Legends from the Book of Maccabees suggest that after the first exile, the Temple's fire was rededicated on Chanukah. The miracle of the oil, the Talmud says, was that when the Jews repurified the Temple after the war with the Syrian Greeks, they found one small cruse of oil, enough for one day, and lit the menorah with it. Miraculously, it lasted for seven days. This cruse of oil is like the sun, whic, though it has diminished through the autumn, burns brighter after the passing of the solstice. The Temple, which is lit up by the miracle oil, is like the world that is lit by the sun.
Chag haBanot, which celebrates the link between mothers and daughters on Chanukah, seems to be similar in intention to Mother Night. It falls on the new moon, as the dark moon of winter shapes itself into a glowing crescent. As the year begins to turn back toward spring, women become the symbol of the newly strengthened light: the women of the Chanukah story, and of the Festival of the Daughters, are the mothers who give birth to the sun. (Perhaps this is why there was an Eastern European custom that women did not work while the candles were burning.)
So too, the Maccabees, whose courage we celebrate on Chanukah, are the fathers and brothers of the sun, demonstrating the inner light of faith. Their night of Chanukah is the fifth night, the night of the five sons of the high priest Mattathias. Although in history the Hasmoneans were a problematic bunch, displaying considerable religious intolerance, as mythic figures they have become powerful symbols of the people's identity. The number five also represents the four directions and the sacred center, and thus honors the Temple, with its four walls and inner shrine.
A Ritual for Chag haBanot and the Solstice
This year, as Chanukah, Chag haBanot, and the solstice come together, one way to celebrate is to hold a celebration with a candlelighting, preceded by a retelling of a Chanukah story about returning light (some ideas are below). This is a ritual celebrating women as is customary on Chag haBanot, but if you wish to honor both men and women, all you need to do is change the gender references. (Also see the ritual for the fifth night, below.)
Before you light the shamash, recite the following kavvanah:
Just as we light this flame which will give rise to other flames, so too you, Divine Mother, give birth to the spirit which lights up all spirits everywhere. As the sun is reborn, may we rejoice in its radiance and echo its light in our own lives.
Then say the blessing over the solstice:
Baruch ata (beruchah at) Adonai eloheinu ruach haolam, oseh (osah) vereishit.
Blessed are You, Holy Divine, who makes creation.
Recite the Chanukah blessings:
Baruch ata adonai eloheinu ruach ha'olam, asher kidshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu lehadlik ner shel Chanukah.
Blessed are You, Adonai, who commanded us to light the lights of Chanukah.
Beruchah at shekhinah eloheinu ruach ha'olam, she'asta nisim lehoreinu bayamim haheim bazman hazeh.
Blessed are You, Shekhina, who did miracles for our ancestors at this season, and who continues to restore the miracle year by year.
As each of the seven lights of the menorah are lit, mention one of the following:
seven ancestresses of your family;
seven heroines you admire;
the seven sefirot or Divine realms:
chesed (love)
gevurah (strength)
tiferet (compassion)
netzach (perseverance)
hod (humility)
yesod (intimacy)
malkhut (groundedness)
(You can also mention women you associate with each of these qualities.)
the matriarch Leah's seven names:
Leah
HaGedolah (the great one or the elder, an appelation Leah receives in the Bible)
Binah (understanding, the name of a Divine realm connected to Leah)
Immah (the mother,
Ilaah (the exalted one, a name of the divine womb, associated with Leah)
Hodaya (praise, one of Leah's gifts according to the midrash)
Elah (terebinth or goddess, a permutation of Leah's name)
(Again, you can mention women who represent these names.)
(The letters in Leah's name have the same numerical value as 36, the number of Chanukah candles lit over the course of the holiday. She herself, mother of seven children, is a symbol of the fertile mothering creativity of the Divine.)
You can choose whom you will mention in advance or allow participants to come up with them spontaneously.
After lighting, sing Chanukah songs and eat cookies shaped like crescents, for the new moon, or date-cocunut balls to represent the full moon. Exchange spiritual gifts to continue the custom of passing down inheritances on Chag haBanot.
A Ritual for the Fifth Night of Chanukah:
The fifth night of Chanukah is the dark of the moon. In this darkness, we celebrate the light of the moon and sun. This ritual can be used to celebrate men (just as Chag habanot celebrates women) or to celebrate all members of the community.
Before you light the shamash, recite the following kavvanah:
Just as we light this flame of the soul, so you, Adonai, have lit the souls of many to give them strength and faith. Tonight, we honor those soul-flames, who are the keepers of your world, watching from north, south, east and west and from the sacred center to care for the earth. Just as the Maccabees were five, we turn to the five levels of our own soul to rekindle them at this time of fiery renewal.
Recite the Chanukah blessings:
Baruch ata adonai eloheinu ruach ha'olam, asher kidshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu lehadlik ner shel Chanukah.
Blessed are You, Adonai, who commanded us to light the lights of Chanukah.
Beruchah at shekhinah eloheinu ruach ha'olam, she'asta nisim lehoreinu bayamim haheim bazman hazeh.
Blessed are You, Shekhina, who did miracles for our ancestors at this season, and who continues to restore the miracle year by year.
As each of the five lights of the menorah are lit, mention one of the following:
five ancestors;
five heroes you admire;
the five directions east (representing light), west (representing the weathering of storms), north (representing mystery), south (representing blessing), and center (representing holiness), and people who represent them for you.
the five levels of the soul: body (nefesh), emotion (ruach), mind (neshamah), soul (chaya), and Divine spark (yechidah);
the five names of the sons of Mattathias: Judah, Jonathan, Jochanan, Eliezer, and Simon.
Once you have lit the menorah, take a lulav or other branch and wave it in the five directions to indicate cleansing or rededicating the Temple. Sing a song about peace, holiness, or light while doing this. You can have all people present do this to spiritually cleanse themselves.
This can be a time to invite each person present to mention a personal intention or goal for the coming year. Invite them to consider how they can dedicate themselves to this goal at every level of the soul.
After lighting, sing Chanukah songs and eat latkes or doughnuts fried in oil to represent the menorah in the Temple. Give gifts representing the four elements, or maybe the five books of the Torah (a picture of the patriarchs and matriarchs for Genesis, haggadot or seder plates for Exodus, challah board for Leviticus where the challah offering is mentioned, water bottles or tarveling gear for the wandering of Numbers, a tape recorder for Moses' long speech in Deuteronomy). Be funny and creative!
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