In honor of this year’s unusual coincidence of Nativity and Hanukkah, I thought I would share a few lines on some of my favorite videos by the Maccabeats. Here’s the full list, with the one I watched with my kids the most tonight on top:
My kids have been watching Maccabeats at Hanukkah since their first video went viral in 2010. (The youngest pressed “repeat” at least 13 times in a row tonight.)
Partly, this was tonight’s video because tonight I attempted latkes for the first time (they’re good!). But also, it weaves together the meaning of food, family, and faith in a way that I find beautiful and admirable.
Two thousand years
Of joyous celebration;
A single jar
That burned for eight days.
The food we eat
As part of our tradition:
It keeps that flame alive!
In the spirit of holy envy, I’m thankful for the reminder that food, music, and playfulness part of the life of a solemn tradition; they reveal how a story becomes more than a story and becomes the ground from which we live.
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