Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
Speaker 1: from housetof works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark with me as always as Charles W.
Speaker 1: Chucker's Bryant MS Jackson. If you're nasty and that makes
Speaker 1: this stuff you should know, hunt, Chuck. It's a nice
Speaker 1: dated reference dated from like last week that was where's
Speaker 1: the beef? No? Oh, you mean in the email? How
Speaker 1: are you doing? I'm great? Are you psyched? You know
Speaker 1: what today is? Ah? Yeah, pill it Today's the last
Speaker 1: day of Hanka it is. It's a big day. It
Speaker 1: is in the US. Yeah. The lighting of the we
Speaker 1: won't spoil it. No, no, don't. There's a lighting of something.
Speaker 1: That's some nice foreshadowing each other. Yeah. Um, Chuck and
Speaker 1: I I request are doing a how Hanukkah Works episode.
Speaker 1: I think last year we did How Christmas Works? Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think we promised to cover other holidays of
Speaker 1: other religions and people's Um, we were originally going to
Speaker 1: release this right before Christmas, like two days before Christmas,
Speaker 1: and um we figured out pretty quick through a research,
Speaker 1: and by we, I mean Chuck that um, Haneka would
Speaker 1: have been over for about three or so weeks had
Speaker 1: we done that, And that kind of reveals a certain
Speaker 1: mentality in the US among Christians, the Christian majority that
Speaker 1: Hanika is Jewish Christmas. But Chuck, have you ever heard
Speaker 1: of Hanakah Harry? I think so. You always say this
Speaker 1: and I always say no, and they always go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, Harry. Haneka Harry is John Lovett's. It's a Saturday. Remember,
Speaker 1: so Santa Is is vomiting. He has a horrible stomach
Speaker 1: bug much like you. It every once in a while.
Speaker 1: And um, I remember one of the elves is at
Speaker 1: his bedside and he like throws up on the elf right.
Speaker 1: He's got a pretty bad uh. And Christmas is about
Speaker 1: to be ruined because this is Christmas Eve that he's
Speaker 1: he's falling ill. So the only person who can save
Speaker 1: it is Hanakah Harry. They call Honeka Harry who was
Speaker 1: John Lovitts. And he's gott a nice beard and uh
Speaker 1: he instead of a sleigh with reindeer, he rides a
Speaker 1: cart led by flying donkeys name Moisha, Hoischel and Shlomo.
Speaker 1: Remember that, Yeah, good h and Haneka Harry finally, you know,
Speaker 1: he makes the rounds. But rather than the really great
Speaker 1: presence that that you know, Christian children expect that Christmas,
Speaker 1: they get socks eight pay can you believe it? And
Speaker 1: um slacks and and that kind of thing, and they're
Speaker 1: very disappointed. And sincefortunately Santa recovers comes down and saves
Speaker 1: the day with really great presents. Right, that's funny. That
Speaker 1: is Haneka in the United States. That's the that's the
Speaker 1: conception of it um, which is to say that I'm
Speaker 1: glad we did this because I really didn't understand hanakah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know what, I'm glad you brought that up because, uh,
Speaker 1: for our Jewish friends out there. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if I could choose to be a real you know, Jewish,
Speaker 1: I probably would be. You can't, buddy, you convert the
Speaker 1: goldberg Samy Davis, Jews are not the same, not born Jewish. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just not the same. Because I studied in college
Speaker 1: and with my comparative religion class, and I was I
Speaker 1: remember at the time thinking that this is a religion
Speaker 1: I can get into. Really yeah, I liked it. But
Speaker 1: for those of you are Jewish friends, that are worried
Speaker 1: that you know, we're just a couple of boys, and uh,
Speaker 1: you probably think we're cornished. Heaf Why do you keep
Speaker 1: looking town at the piece of paper. But I want
Speaker 1: to say, don't plots honestly because we are a couple
Speaker 1: of gys. But we were mentions as well, so no
Speaker 1: need to worry. We will do right by you. Is
Speaker 1: that what you were saying? I just like Yiddish words. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And by the way, since I print these out, did
Speaker 1: you know a schlemiel is a clumsy person and that
Speaker 1: person and a schlamazel is someone with constant bad luck.
Speaker 1: That sounds familiar. Schlamil schlamaz. That's aweso like two hours
Speaker 1: spress that it's la Vernon Churley, right, Yeah, ones are Schlamila,
Speaker 1: ones are Lamazel. That's awesome. So my dad told me
Speaker 1: that before UM they showed that that show in Iran
Speaker 1: and he said Iran specifically, and he told me this
Speaker 1: in UM that they had to show a disclaimer that
Speaker 1: these women were, you know, in a psychiatric hospital, and
Speaker 1: that these these episodes were filmed before they've been committed.
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, that's really The Iranians really
Speaker 1: don't have a very good sense of humor. Now I
Speaker 1: understand that my dad is just insane. Well that sounds
Speaker 1: like an urban legend, although who knows it might have
Speaker 1: been true. What do we know. We're just a couple
Speaker 1: of boys. So, Chuck, let's talk about Hanukah. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I figured out, um, from researching this
Speaker 1: is that it's not really a very important holiday as
Speaker 1: far as the Jewish religion goes Jewish culture. Sure, no,
Speaker 1: it's no rash hashana. Now, Hanakah means a dedication. Um.
Speaker 1: It is basically the well, it's the festival of lights
Speaker 1: and uh. It commemorates the rededication of the temple in
Speaker 1: Jerusalem that was that fell and was recaptured by the Jews.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Jerusalem circa one sixties seven b c. Chuck,
Speaker 1: Josh Syrian King Antiochus the Fourth, who was no slouch. Well,
Speaker 1: he's our bad guy in this story. He's a bad guy.
Speaker 1: He uh. You know, at the time there was a
Speaker 1: lot of Jewish persecution and he was one of the
Speaker 1: big dudes involved in that. Well, he showed up in
Speaker 1: Jerusalem and he said it was like, I can't practice
Speaker 1: your religion like you want to you will be killed,
Speaker 1: and here's some Greek idols and you should worship them,
Speaker 1: and that's what you're gonna do now, right, um, some
Speaker 1: Jews went along with us. They're like, that's fine. This
Speaker 1: just makes us less cut off and isolated and world.
Speaker 1: It makes us more worldly, so we'll do this. I
Speaker 1: don't know about fine with it, but there well, there
Speaker 1: was a fraction apparently in the Jewish community at the time,
Speaker 1: because some went along. It's very much like the the
Speaker 1: American Revolution. There were some who sympathized with the king,
Speaker 1: who were loyal to the crown still, and there were
Speaker 1: others who were like, well, we'll tar and feather you
Speaker 1: for that. This Hanuka is about the group that would
Speaker 1: have tart and feathered the loyalists. Yes, specifically that started
Speaker 1: with a family, just one family, the Hasimonians, led by
Speaker 1: Mattayahu also known as Matthew and his five sons, who
Speaker 1: must have been some pretty bad dudes because they took
Speaker 1: a stand and sort of one like right off the
Speaker 1: bat right well, there was apparently a an incident where
Speaker 1: Matthew was told to go ahead and start praying to Zeus.
Speaker 1: There's a statue right there it's a nice marble statue.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, And he said no, and not only that,
Speaker 1: I'm going to attack you Greek soldiers. And he did,
Speaker 1: and uh that started the Jewish Rebellion of one sixty
Speaker 1: seven b C in a good way. It well if
Speaker 1: they were pretty successful early on, right the family the
Speaker 1: hasmoneans yeah, yeah, oh, I think they they this guy
Speaker 1: and his five sons who led the rebellion became Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they were successful. But the most successful among
Speaker 1: them was Judah, who by this time they had changed
Speaker 1: their names to mccabee, which means uh as strong as hammers,
Speaker 1: men who are as strong as hammers. That's that's basically.
Speaker 1: His son changed his name to Judah the Hammer, and
Speaker 1: he was the head of the Jewish rebellion. So the
Speaker 1: whole thing kicks off in one sixty seven BC. By
Speaker 1: one sixty five b C, apparently they have been successful
Speaker 1: enough because over the two years, remember we're talking BC,
Speaker 1: so it goes backwards, it counts down to zero. You remember,
Speaker 1: I do remember um they had recaptured the temple in
Speaker 1: Jerusalem right on the twenty five of the Hebrew month
Speaker 1: Kiss left, which is Kiss left five, and that's they
Speaker 1: chased the crazy bald heads out of town. It's very
Speaker 1: important date because that's the start of hank Yeah, kids love,
Speaker 1: I think the kids love. Yeah. Yeah, that's the twenty
Speaker 1: day of that count of that month of the Hebrew calendar.
Speaker 1: I think we can think of even one more way
Speaker 1: to say that. Let's hear the day after kids live,
Speaker 1: before kids live. So, chuck, what did they do on
Speaker 1: the kids live? Well, they took the temple back and
Speaker 1: they said, you know, we need to rededicate the temple
Speaker 1: because it's dirty from all these uh Greek worshiping pagans,
Speaker 1: well private pagans, people's, and so let's redicate it and
Speaker 1: let's light a lamp with the oil. But holy cow,
Speaker 1: we don't have enough oil. We only have enough for
Speaker 1: one night. Yeah, what are we gonna do? Well? Lo,
Speaker 1: and behold, you've heard of Christmas miracles. This is the
Speaker 1: first Hanaka miracle, as it was because that one night
Speaker 1: of oil lasted for eight nights. It did, and that
Speaker 1: is indeed a miracle. It gave the Jewish rebellion chance
Speaker 1: to make more oil, so they didn't actually ever run out, right.
Speaker 1: So that's what this says. This is the commemoration of
Speaker 1: that miracle of the rededication of the temple. And it
Speaker 1: lasts eight nights, the eight nights of Hanukkah, eight crazy nights.
Speaker 1: So it's not Jewish Christmas. But it has become that
Speaker 1: demo isn't Mexican. Fourth of July. I love that the
Speaker 1: American purviews through everything. I like. Recall you referring to
Speaker 1: Canada as America's hat recently on our Facebook page. The
Speaker 1: only reason I did that, it's because the Canadian introduced
Speaker 1: me to that term, and I really found it very funny.
Speaker 1: It is funny. I guess what would that make Mexico
Speaker 1: our shirt? I would say it's our foot or shoe.
Speaker 1: Are well, if the hat is Canada, that would make
Speaker 1: mexicorn neck. So no, that's not necessarily true. So chuck um,
Speaker 1: as you said, it's it's not Jewish Christmas, it's the
Speaker 1: festival of Lights. It's commend m rates Jewish culture, right, um.
Speaker 1: And let's talk about the practical applications of this. How
Speaker 1: do you celebrate Hanukkah or Hanuka? Well, as most people know, Josh,
Speaker 1: even a couple of boys like us know that there's
Speaker 1: a menora holds nine candles, eight that represent the eight nights.
Speaker 1: And then there's the shamash, which is the candle you
Speaker 1: used to light the other candles. You would make a
Speaker 1: good converted jew man. You got the you get the
Speaker 1: pronunciation down, the enthusiasm, everything I'm trying. So what you
Speaker 1: do is you inserts very specific You insert the candles
Speaker 1: from right to left, one for each day for which miracle.
Speaker 1: You insert them from right to left, right, but you
Speaker 1: light them from left to right. Yeah, so the leftmost
Speaker 1: candle represents the most recent day that the oil kept burning.
Speaker 1: And by by lighting the leftmost candle first, they're saying,
Speaker 1: we're very pleased with this most recent day of miracle. Yeah. Perfect. Uh,
Speaker 1: they need to burn for it. You need to light
Speaker 1: them after it gets dark. They need to burn for
Speaker 1: at least a half hour after it gets dark, which
Speaker 1: presents a problem on shop it, because lighting a candle
Speaker 1: is work and you're not allowed to work after the
Speaker 1: sun goes down. And shop it. What do they do
Speaker 1: shop it? They light it before the sun goes down,
Speaker 1: but it sells to burn thirty minutes after, so they
Speaker 1: got a time in out just right? The candle work? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think anything, but not necessarily because you're gonna exhale anyway, right,
Speaker 1: you weren't going to light a candle and exhaling near
Speaker 1: the candle. Well, they do blow them out, so yeah,
Speaker 1: well I guess it's not work. Yeah, a heavy sigh uh.
Speaker 1: And then there are some blessings. And then on the
Speaker 1: first night you recite all three of these blessings. You're
Speaker 1: gonna try your hand at this, and on each subsequent
Speaker 1: night you only do the first two. This is a
Speaker 1: blessing for the candles, for the Hanukah, and for thee So, Chuck,
Speaker 1: since you are so good at Hebrew and or Yiddish pronunciation,
Speaker 1: I think you should try these and then I will
Speaker 1: translate after you've made it through each one. So go ahead, please.
Speaker 1: This is the blessing for the candles, as presented by
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant Butcher. This melam a cherki dashah
Speaker 1: new themts votaf the svanu led had licknair shell very nice, beautiful.
Speaker 1: What Chuck just said to those of you, um who
Speaker 1: didn't get it is blessed are you, Lord, our God,
Speaker 1: King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his
Speaker 1: commandments and commanded us to light the candles of Hanukah,
Speaker 1: or once you do this one, and already you're just
Speaker 1: doing so well at it, let's do it again. This
Speaker 1: is the blessing for Hanukah. So you say the first one,
Speaker 1: you say the second one on each night, and then
Speaker 1: on the first night you say this third one that
Speaker 1: you're going to do as well. So do the second one, Chuck,
Speaker 1: the blessing for hanaka bar don't i olam shiasa, nissam
Speaker 1: labatai new ba yah mimima jase very nice, blessed are you?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you're trouble the English version? Are you kidding me? Blessed?
Speaker 1: Are you Lord, our God, king of the universe, who
Speaker 1: performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time?
Speaker 1: Pretty straightforward stuff. Uh. And then the last one, this
Speaker 1: said the first night only it's the shek Yahnu. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: and uh, this is the first night blessing. So go ahead, Chuck, Bara,
Speaker 1: I don't ila newam new viki, I'm a new vernew
Speaker 1: lasman Jose. Okay. So Chuck just finished the full blessings,
Speaker 1: all three of those of what he just said would
Speaker 1: be said on the first night, and then the first
Speaker 1: two would be said on each night after that. And
Speaker 1: what he just said is, blessed are you Lord, our god,
Speaker 1: king of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us,
Speaker 1: and enabled us to reach this season. And that's that's hanka.
Speaker 1: Every night you light a candle, you say the blessing,
Speaker 1: and you spin the draidal, don't you. Yeah? You also
Speaker 1: u sing songs, traditional songs, you recite psalms. You want
Speaker 1: to talk about the dredel. And then there are games
Speaker 1: like the draid So the draidl is that top that
Speaker 1: you've always seen and dradell actually is German for to spin, right,
Speaker 1: is it? I believe? So on each side is a
Speaker 1: Jewish character. There are four characters, none, Gimmel, hey, and
Speaker 1: shin right, And they're actually the abbreviations for or a
Speaker 1: phrase nest guttal hya sham or a great miracle took
Speaker 1: place here right um. They're also German Yiddish for uh, nick, goot,
Speaker 1: hobb and schlecht, which is um, no good, half and bad,
Speaker 1: And they refer to the possible outcomes for playing the draidl. Yes,
Speaker 1: you spend the draidal and you get good, you win
Speaker 1: all everything's in the pot. What do you mean by everything, Well,
Speaker 1: guilt is usually what's in the pot. Uh, So that
Speaker 1: the reason they spend. You know, there's some history here.
Speaker 1: The draidl was what they used to fool people into
Speaker 1: thinking they weren't practicing the religion. Right, So they shooting
Speaker 1: around reading the Torah. Some dudes come up and like
Speaker 1: what are you doing. They're like, we're just spending the draydle, dude.
Speaker 1: And then the Greek soldiers, like those Jewish people in
Speaker 1: their dradels, they love this. They take their guilt it.
Speaker 1: So that's the dreidl. It is. It's a gambling game.
Speaker 1: It is sort of four kids. No, you're not really gambling.
Speaker 1: This gambling implies that you're putting money down for it
Speaker 1: to come up on a certain thing, and you're just
Speaker 1: from what I know, you spend it and depending on
Speaker 1: what it comes up as you get money or nothing.
Speaker 1: That's gambling. It's gamle. Putting money on on chance is gambling? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: But what they're not. They're not saying I'm putting twenty
Speaker 1: on gimmel. No, but you're just putting money on a
Speaker 1: possible outcome. It's gambling. All right, so we've got the guilt.
Speaker 1: I bet you were going to hear from people to
Speaker 1: say it is never gambling, that's gambling. Okay, uh is guilt.
Speaker 1: We've got gelt, we've got the dradell, and we can't
Speaker 1: forget the food, chuck um. Because the oil factors in
Speaker 1: so heavily into the celebration, the Festival of lights Um.
Speaker 1: The food is generally cooked in oil, and it's also
Speaker 1: generally delicious. Potato pancakes. It's basically shredded potatoes held together
Speaker 1: with eggs and milk and deep fried. This is like
Speaker 1: the greatest Holly Day ever. Deep deep fried food. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as part of the holiday is awesome. Well you know
Speaker 1: what they say, Josh, best are in frient mitt gets
Speaker 1: at a un crix. It's a better one friend with
Speaker 1: a dish of food than a hundred with a sigh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Truer words have never been spoken and checked. There's also
Speaker 1: what is where do the jelly donuts called uh self
Speaker 1: kanyat does sound delicious as well? They're just fried jelly
Speaker 1: donuts fried in oil and then with powdered sugar all
Speaker 1: over them. Well, yeah, they say they fry a lot
Speaker 1: of this stuff in oil because oil was such a
Speaker 1: big deal for the miracle. I think they do it
Speaker 1: because it just tastes better. It's delicious, nutritious. Well, there
Speaker 1: you have it. There we have it. It's it's a
Speaker 1: lot more simple than I thought. Very simple. Not to
Speaker 1: say that's a bad thing. Christmas is pretty simple too.
Speaker 1: There's jelly donuts and lacus. I'll take it. So what's
Speaker 1: next year? I was thinking Kwanza? What else is there? Um? Ramadan?
Speaker 1: It's not Christmas, but it's pretty holy holiday, isn't it.
Speaker 1: It's cover all the holidays. They don't have to be
Speaker 1: December December. I think that's a good idea. Well, then
Speaker 1: for next year we'll do I don't know, maybe we'll
Speaker 1: do center clause. Did we talk about We talked about
Speaker 1: him a lot in the Christmas one D Yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: figure it out. Yeah, we have a year. Who we're
Speaker 1: planning this thing out like years in advance. Now that's
Speaker 1: that's dangerous. Well, until next year, we hope that you
Speaker 1: keep listening. We hope that you have a fantastic that
Speaker 1: you've had a fantastic Hanka to our Jewish friends and listeners,
Speaker 1: um for our Christian friends and listeners and are Jewish
Speaker 1: friends and listeners who practice Christmas Um. Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays. Uh.
Speaker 1: And if you want to learn more about Hanukkah, you
Speaker 1: can type that word in We spell it on How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works as H A and U K k A H.
Speaker 1: Type thing into the handy search bar how Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com UH, and that means now it's time for
Speaker 1: listener mail. Josh, I'm gonna call this one Medieval Times email.
Speaker 1: I got permission to read this to UH. This is
Speaker 1: from Gerald in Boston, although I believe he said he
Speaker 1: was from Texas. Gerald says this interestingly, Guys, my first
Speaker 1: job after college was the Master of Ceremonies, also known
Speaker 1: as the King's Chancellor at Minipal times. That was the
Speaker 1: role Andy Dick played in the cable guy Us The
Speaker 1: Master's Ceremonies. I wrote A Very Large and Delusion Horse
Speaker 1: or a Velvet and sequen Cape, and introduced all the
Speaker 1: nights and narrated much of the action of the show. Supposedly,
Speaker 1: our show was set in Spain in the eleventh century.
Speaker 1: One of the more embarrassing aspects of the job was
Speaker 1: the occasional educational matinee that we put on for large
Speaker 1: groups of students. The show was not researched at all
Speaker 1: and was written by someone who didn't have a background
Speaker 1: in the entertainment industry, let alone any knowledge of history whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Among this is like a restaurant employee writing this. Basically,
Speaker 1: among the ridiculous facts quote unquote we were required to
Speaker 1: present was that the night sword weighed fifty pounds, their
Speaker 1: armor weighed three hundred pounds. Despite such misinformation, we couldn't
Speaker 1: do much about our show being written by someone who
Speaker 1: just made things up. The perils of a working stiff anyway,
Speaker 1: you might want to mention not to pay too much
Speaker 1: attention to the information presented by a caped man on
Speaker 1: horseback and what is basically a rodeo arena with a
Speaker 1: medieval decor scheme and fancy lights. It was interesting work,
Speaker 1: although it was one of the worst jobs I've ever
Speaker 1: had in terms of hours, pay and lack of benefits. Oh,
Speaker 1: how Knighthood has fallen? Killer show dudes, Gerald, I hear
Speaker 1: the chickens good. I don't know. I've never been there.
Speaker 1: I haven't either. We should totally go some time just
Speaker 1: for laughs. Okay, in history, okay, and yeah, fifty pound
Speaker 1: swords and three und sits of our Thanks Gerald, how
Speaker 1: about your worst job? Let's hear about that. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: had good jobs. I can't talk about my horse, John
Speaker 1: don't air well. That means that we need to hear
Speaker 1: from all of you listeners to fill in for Chuck.
Speaker 1: Fill in the blanks to see if you can guess
Speaker 1: what Chuck's works job was. He'll probably never actually say,
Speaker 1: but let's see what you got. Wrap it up sending
Speaker 1: in an email to Stuff podcast at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics.
Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com. To learn more
Speaker 1: about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the
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