In memory of Andy Rooney, who passed away at the age of 92 last month, I thought I would take a stab at doing what Andy did best.  Chanukah begins on the evening of the 20^th of this month and here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Don’t you hate it when the candles you purchased don’t exactly fit into your menorah and you are forced to jam them in?  Inevitably one or two always break.

2. Don’t you hate it when you can’t remember the melody for the Chanukah blessings? Am I the only one who can’t get the Shabbat melody out of my head?

3. Don’t you hate it when some people try to make “healthy latkes” by adding broccoli or zucchini to their pancakes or who try to bake their latkes?  Remember the story of the oil.  Latkes are supposed to be greasy.

4. Don’t you hate it when you cannot seem to get last year’s wax off the menorah or when this year’s candles, purported to be “dripless”, are not really dripless?

5. Don’t you hate it when you forget to squeeze all of the water out of the potatoes and your latkes stick to the pan?  Or don’t you hate it when you can’t remember which latke recipe you used last year?  Did I put baking powder in or didn’t I?

6. Don’t you hate it when the last candle in the box is misshapen or broken or when you realize you only have 8 candles left for the last night of the holiday?

7. Don’t you hate it when you can’t read the letters on the dreidel because they are either in some kind of Olde English font or they are too small to make out whether you landed on a nun or a gimel?  I always end up losing to someone whose sight is better than mine.

8. Don’t you hate it when local businesses seemingly close overnight?  The Dunkin Donuts on 28^th Street has been the source of my chocolate honey dipped sufganiyot for 10 years. What am I going to do this holiday?  I guess I will just have to complain to my family.

The truth is even with all of these annoyances I love Chanukah.  I am fairly certain most of the American Jewish community does too.

As we celebrate this year let us recall that our ancestors fought for the right to live as Jews in a time and place that sought to deny them their Jewish identity.  May we celebrate Chanukah with pride and may we remember that that pride throughout the year.

Susan and Shira join me in wishing our community a chag sameach.

Rabbi