Tag #120705 - Interview #87387 (Rifca Segal)

Chanukkah is nice. Chanukkah is also called the holiday of lights, on account of the fact that people light candles. The Chanukkah candlestick has 8 branches plus an additional one which is the helper, the shammash, which you use in order to light the candles. And you lit one candle on the irst day, 2 on the second day, 3 candles on the third day, and you lit one extra candle on each successive evening. You lit them by the window. My father lit them. Then it was my husband who lit them. We had a large, beautiful one, but we gave it as a present to Mihai Pascal and Lucica, whom we visited in Petach Tiqwa. And people sang beautiful songs. “Ane rotala lu, alalu, / Ane rotala lu, alalu / sianu madlichim…” – “These candles that we light, may they remind us of the miracle…” –, this is the song I sang along with father, I liked it very much. Each evening during the 8 days, we sat down at the table to eat. People baked potato dumplings and red borscht, this was the traditional food. They also served meat and cream cake, that’s a different matter, but this was symbolic. The red borscht was prepared from beat and borscht made from husks, which we bought. It is called barrel borscht. You slice the beat, boil it, added a lot of vegetables, parsley, dill, carrots, you name it. And then you took all of them out, and you scalded it with this borscht, which has a greenish color. I never prepared it myself. My mother prepared it for me, then someone else prepared it for me. As children, we played with a spinning top. They were made from wood, metal. 4 letters are embossed on it, whose meaning is: “A great miracle was performed there.” N – Nas –, miracle. G – gadol –, great. Hei – haia –, meaning was performed. And sin – sam –, there. [Ed. note: "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham", referring to the miracle of the oil.] They gave me Chanukkah gelt when I was a child. They didn’t give me money, my parents gave me candy or they bought me shoes.