The Meaning of Hanukkah Gelt

YOU KNOW: Those gold foil-wrapped candies in the little mesh bag! TWO EXPLANATIONS:

“…with money, one can procure all that one needs, and can also help others through charitable giving. If, however, one guards one’s money in a piggy bank, then the money has not been used to its potential. Its potential is wasted. One of the fundamental principles in educating children is to explain in clear language that G-d has granted them a treasure of tremendous intellectual and emotional strengths and capabilities. All one has to do is utilize them to the fullest capacity.” — Rabbi Shaul Wertheimer in HuffPo

“On Purim, one ministers to the generally poor, but Hanukkah — a holiday of militant revolution — is celebrated by playing games, eating fried potatoes, and enriching children. Perhaps the sages who slowly perfected this religion (or dare I say, are continually perfecting this religion?) believe that military struggle is child’s play, or basically childish. And perhaps they are right. Of course, my knowledge of Judaism is so sketchy that a good percentage of the previous information is probably near-wrong.” — Sparrow in The Morning News

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