While you’re trying to keep on a diet, a holiday celebrated with latkes, potato pancakes fried in oil, and sufganiot, jelly donuts, can be a challenge. One wonders that if there were air-fryers back in the Macabees’ day just how Jews would celebrate Chanukah. Of course, almost all Jewish holidays follow the format of “they tried to kill us, we survived, first let’s pray, then eat,” except fast days, which we observe by eating just before and just after (and the obligatory TTTKU etc.)
I can’t serve you latkes with sour cream and applesauce on a website, so instead I’ll post some of my favorite Semitically Seasonal Songs, some traditional, some sort of traditional. The last, Adon Olam, Eternal Lord, is not really a Chanukah song, it’s part of the daily liturgy and typically ends Musaf, the additional prayers recited on Saturday morning. This baroque version is by Shlomo “Salomone” Rossi, who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and you can never have enough Rossi.
I like Mel Waldorf’s Meshugga Beach Party band’s Hot Rod Hanukkah. The title track is cheesy, but the rest is really good.
Happy Hanukkah!