Join right in with rhythmic repetition, singing, and surprising sounds - in a joyful celebration of the Feast of Lights, for Jews and non-Jews alike.
Each story has an inclusive message of warmth and hope, exploring the Hanukkah themes of light, renewal, and standing up for the right to be yourself.
This lively tape also features singable songs for family participation.
Web page exclusive! Step-by-step participation instructions - for letting children join in when you tell the stories.
Contents
Side One:
One Little Candle
Doug was inspired by a workshop (by the excellent folksinger Robyn Helzner) on "Jewish songs for children," to create this true accumulative song for Hanukkah.
The Shammas Candle
Doug gave a workshop at CAJE (Conference for the Advancement of Jewish Education) about making up stories for the holidays. During the session, one of the attendees, Rabbi Don Rossoff, commented, "Hanukkah is partly about being Jewish in a non-Jewish world."
This started Doug thinking how to promote self-pride at Hanukkah. A few months later, he re-cast a folktale (sometimes known as "The Stonecutter,") in which a lowly stonecutter seeks power, and is transformed successively into a wealthy man, the sun, a cloud, the wind, the mountain, and, finally, back into a stonecutter.
"Shammes" means servant, and usually refers to the beadle of a synagogue. The shammes candle is the "servant candle" - the ninth candle on a Hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah) - which is used to light the others.
I Want to Spread the Word
To compose this story, Doug drew on Jewish folk-legends of demons, such as the centuries-old stories of King Solomon battling and besting the King of the Demons. Doug's intention was to let the figure of the demon represent destructive, discouraging tendencies - in a concrete form that young children could grasp.
Demons have been included in the folklore of certain Jewish communities (based on contact with their Middle Eastern and, later, their European neighbors) but are not part of the Jewish religion in any form. Jews created monotheism, and have never condoned deification or worship of any beings except the One Creator. In no way should this story be taken as condoning the worship of demons, or even as taking them seriously as real beings.
Side Two:
The Light Is Shining Inside Me
Doug wrote this counting song on an airplane, typing it into his laptop computer. Who knows what the passenger next to you is creating!
Hanukkah Smiles
Once, Doug sat with some Jewish storytellers in a restaurant - in a region of the country where few Jews live. Their waitress implored them to buy dessert; she was one sale short of winning a bonus for selling thirty desserts in one week. They decided to buy the dessert and have the waitress give it to a man sitting alone at the next table. The man looked very surprised and pleased.
As they went home, they began to speculate about the effects of their good deed. Would it affect the man's ideas about Jews? Would it affect his actions that day? Out of that experience, Doug created this story.
I'm Gonna Light My Menorah
Doug created this song after reading a Hassidic interpretation of Hanukkah's "inner miracle," which caused the Maccabees to light their oil when they knew it was insufficient.
Performed by Doug Lipman, with storytelling, singing, guitar, 12-string guitar, bass guitar, flute, 5-string banjo, and Tof Miriam (clay drum).
Cover photo: (c)1990 Susan Wilson
Price: $9.95
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