This rhyming paraphrase and translation of the blessing over the lighting of the Ḥanukkiah was written by Jessie Ethel Sampter and published in her Around the Year in Rhymes for the Jewish Child (1920), p. 31.

Source(s)

“לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל חֲנֻכָּה | Blessing for Ḥanukkah, a rhyming translation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Jessie Ethel Sampter

Jessie Sampter (March 22, 1883 – 1938) was a Jewish educator, poet, and Zionist pioneer. Born in New York City to Rudolph Sampter, a New York attorney, and Virginia Kohlberg Sampter, she contracted polio at thirteen which prevented her from leaving home. Unable to attend school her family hired tutors. Later she audited courses at Columbia University. In her twenties she joined the Unitarian Church and began writing poetry. Her poems and short stories emphasized her primary concerns: pacifism, Zionism, and social justice. Around this time, she began spending time in the home of Henrietta Szold and began to appreciate the Eastern European Jews of New York City. She moved into a settlement house on the Lower East Side, then to a Young Women's Hebrew Association. Assuming the role of Hadassah's leading educator, she produced manuals and textbooks and organized lectures and classes, training speakers and leaders for both Hadassah and other Zionist organizations like the Federation of American Zionists (then the Zionist Organization of America). She composed educational manuals with Alice Seligsberg and edited a textbook on Zionism. In 1919 she settled in Palestine where she helped organize the country's first Jewish Scout camp. Sampter developed a strong commitment to assisting Yemenite Jews, founding classes and clubs especially for Yemenite girls and women. She adopted a Yemenite orphan. At the time of her death she had established a vegetarian convalescent home at Kibbutz Givat Brenner.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Works of related interest:

 

לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל־שַׁבָּת | Blessing the Sabbath Candles, a rhyming translation and explanation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

הַמוֹצִיא לֶֽחֶם מִן הָאֲרֶץ | Blessing on Breaking Bread, a rhyming translation and explanation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֵץ | Blessing Over Fruit, a rhyming translation and explanation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה | Blessing Over Vegetables, a rhyming translation and explanation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

שֶׁהַכֹּל נִהְיָה בִּדְבָרוֹ | Blessing on Partaking [all other] Food, a rhyming translation and explanation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

שֶׁכֹּחוֹ וּגְבוּרָתוֹ מָלֵא עוֹלָם | Blessing on Hearing Thunder, a rhyming translation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

עוֹשֶׂה מַעֲשֶׂה בְרֵאשִׁית | Blessing on Seeing Lightning, a rhyming translation by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

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