Chag haBanot Sameach! Happy Girls Day!
Do not adjust your dial. Today is not March 3rd, Japan’s Hinamatsuri celebrating the young ladies of Nippon. In the Jewish calendar, we find ourselves on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the start of a new Hebrew month coinciding with the Sixth Day of Hanukkah. Unsatisfied with the dueling festivities of Rosh Chodesh and Hanukkah, Tunisia’s Jews add still more significance by calling today Chag haBanot or Girls Day. While likely not the inspiration for Beyonce’s ‘All the Single Ladies’, Chag haBanot’s traditions specifically honor the Jewish community’s as yet unmarried women. Families bake an assortment of sweet cakes as part of a large meal commemorating the feminine contribution to Hanukkah and Jewish history writ large.
The spiritual leader of Tunisian Jewry, Rabbi Matzliach Mazuz zt”l, writes that the holiday most likely originated in remembrance of the Israelite women who did not participate in the sin of the golden calf. Alternatively, the 19th century Iraqi luminary the Ben Ish Chai suggests that Hanukkah’s coinciding with the new month of Tevet leads us to recall the Hanukkah Heroine Judith who slew the Assyrian general Holofernes.
The 12th century French über-commentator Rashi specifically mentions Judith as a symbol of the miracle of Hanukkah. Rashi’s grandson Rashbam goes one step further asserting that Judith represents the core of the Hanukkah miracle, no different than Esther on Purim who the Megillah teaches was crowned in the month of Tevet. There is a large degree of variability depending on the community but a common practice is to light each candle in honor of a woman whose importance can be historical, like Judith and Esther, or familial. There is no wrong way to celebrate Chag haBanot, especially if you incorporate Tunisian-Jewish classics like sfenj(donuts), kaber ellouz(marzipan balls) and bjawia(google it).
The search for more obscure Tunisian-Jewish holiday continues. Our sages teach ‘mitzvah goreret mitzvah’ which loosely translates to ‘observing one commandment inevitably leads to observing another’. In our case, Tunisian-Jewish holiday goreret Tunisian-Jewish holiday. The more we learn about the rich tapestry of Jewish experience worldwide, the greater joy we bring to our own community in Japan.
Services
Kabbalat Shabbat – Chinese Food Bonenkai Sayonara Shabbat
Friday, December 15th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Events
Stay tuned for more events in the new year!
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Announcements
Please reserve ASAP for Friday night’s annual end-of-year Chinese Food Bonenkai Sayonara Shabbat. While this year we will not coincide with the birth of a nice Jewish boy in Bethlehem a little over 2000 years ago, the December tradition of Jews eating cuisine from the Middle Kingdom nevertheless must be observed. Join us as we say farewell to some incredible JCC families in hopes that we can convince them to stay just a few decades longer.
Over 250 people, young and old, residents and tourists, passed through the JCC doors for our Saturday and Sunday night Hanukkah parties. Everyone enjoyed themselves thanks to the planning of the Events Committee, Education Committee and more people than I can mention who helped including the Soiffer family who led our kommunity kinderlach in making dreidels out of clay. A special debt of gratitude to the JCC kitchen staff for literally ‘burning the midnight oil’ cooking latkes and baking sufganiyot by the thousands.
On Tuesday, our community hosted a dinner for the Japan-Israel Friendship Association where families of the abductees served as the guests of honor. May their loved ones swiftly and safely return home so that next year each family will once again light Hanukkah candles together.
Thank you to everyone who joined the lecture on the situation for Jewish students on the American college campus. Dr. Laura Shaw Frank of AJC led a spirited discussion on where we are, how we got here and next steps.
In what might be history’s first simultaneously anti-semitic and anti-Japanese act, an arsonist attempted to set fire to the Jewish-Japanese restaurant Shalom Japan in Brooklyn, NY. Thankfully, the damage was limited and the restaurant managed to continue preparing for Hanukkah/Shōgatsu. On the menu? Okonomi-latke and honey-yuzu sufganiyot.
It’s not too late for Furusato Nozei. Get your free peaches and mangoes while supporting countryside Japan.
The newsletter will be on hiatus until mid-January. Wishing everyone safe travels and happy returns.
Yiddish Club with Jack Halpern: Please contact Jack at jack@cjki.org if you are interested to join. All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced. Much more than just language, the club’s monthly meetings explore Yiddish culture as well.
Shabbat Miketz
Candle Lighting: 4:10pm
Havdala: 5:11pm