This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for the festival of חֲנֻכָּה (Ḥanukkah), commemorating the crucial victory of the Jewish people in retaining its culture, lifeways, and Temple vis-à-vis the oppressive hegemony of the Seleucid Greek kingdom around 164 BCE. Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and/or translation of a historic Ḥanukkah prayer or song in any language, familiar or obscure. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
“Lights in the Temple” by Rev. John Keble (1792-1866) was initially published anonymously in The British Magazine and Monthly Register of Religious and Ecclesiastical Information (1 March 1834, vol. 5, p. 280), and a few years later republished under a pseudonym ‘γ’ in a collection of religious poetry, Lyrica Apostolica (1836) (under the section “Lighting of Lamps,” pp. 74-75). Keble’s authorship was clearly identified in Miscellaneous Poems, published posthumously in 1868. The poem was one of three by Keble included in the Standard Book of Jewish Verse (ed. Joseph Friedlander and George Alexander Kohut, 1917), pp. 72-73. . . . A prayer for festival of Ḥanukkah. . . . “Arise! let the souls of the Hebrews rejoice,” by Cordelia Moïse Cohen (1809-1869), appears under the subject “Feast of Dedication” as Hymn 194 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), p. 189. . . . “God dwells in light!,” by Rabbi Moritz Mayer, published in 1856, appears under the subject “Feast of Dedication” (i.e. Ḥanukkah) as Hymn 193 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), pp. 188-189. . . . This Thanksgiving Day Prayer for 28 November 1861 was reprinted in The Jewish Messenger (vol. 10, no. 12, p. 91), on 13 December 1861. It was preserved by Rabbi Morais in his ledger (page 22, clipping 023), an archive of newsclippings recording material he contributed to the press, among other announcements. (Many thanks to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania for helping to make this resource accessible.) Unfortunately, that bit of clipping containing the prayer had disintegrated enough to make much of the prayer illegible. But thankfully, a microfilm copy of the The Jewish Messenger for the date of printing was available at the HUC-JIR Klau Library, Cincinnati. . . . This prayer for “The Feast of Light and Dedication” by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is found in his, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 37-39. . . . This “Prayer for Chanukah” (5 December 1942) by the Hon. Lily H. Montagu (1873-1963) from the archives of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London, was published in, Lily Montagu: Sermons, Addresses, Letters, and Prayers (ed. Ellen M. Umansky, 1985), p. 352-353. . . . Did you know that the great songwriter and activist Woody Guthrie wrote Ḥanukkah music? It’s true. Though Guthrie himself was not Jewish, Marjorie Greenblatt, his second wife and their children were, and he would write Ḥanukkah songs for the kids in his neighborhood in the 1940s. Two of these songs were recorded by Moses Asch, head of Folkways Records, in 1949 — a kid’s song called “Hanuka Dance,” and a twenty-verse ballad retelling the story of Ḥanukkah called “The Many and the Few.” Below is an original Hebrew translation of “The Many and the Few,” preserving the meter of the original. With a simple melody and a lot of historical research, it could certainly be sung at a Ḥanukkah event. . . . “[I’m Spending] Hanukkah in Santa Monica” by Tom Lehrer was first written at the request of Garrison Keillor for his radio show The American Radio Company on which it was performed twice, in 1990 and 1992. The song was later released on the album, Bible & Beyond (Larry Milder, 1999). The first recording of Tom Lehrer singing his song can be heard on The Remains of Tom Lehrer (Disc 3) (2000). In 2022, Tom Lehrer gave an enormous Ḥanukkah present to the world, dedicating his entire oeuvre to the Public Domain including this song. . . . A prayer for “Thanksgivukkah,” on the rare year that the two festivals intersect. . . . An interpretive version of Al HaNisim for Ḥanukkah that is playful, powerful, and embodied. May it fuel our activism, including the self-care and community-building that is part of activism. . . . In the midst of terrible violence and war in Israel and Gaza, these words came in response to the questions: how to engage meaningfully with Ḥanukkah in 5784 with integrity. How can it still be a source of wisdom and liberation? . . . Four things to pray and learn for the last night and day of Ḥanukkah. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 12 December 2023 . . . Eight qualities are mentioned in the prayer: Peace, Blessing, Hope, Return, Promise, Strength, Life, Courage. You can pick one to focus on each night. (You can do them in the order they appear in if you like.) Where do you find that quality in you? Where do you find it in the world? What will a life, or a world, transformed by that quality look like? Feel like? . . . |
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