First of all let me start by wishing everyone a happy and healthy Chanukah. I always love how the Jewish tradition finds our past fused with our present and future. The Jewish faith is based on the thesis that we do not live on a linear timeline, but rather a spiral one. The time of year has meaning, it has a place, the same place and importance that happened last year, 100 years ago, 1000 years ago or 100 years from now. It makes the other Jewish concept, that there is no time or concept of space for God almost logical to us. Of course we believe that the Lord is Omnipotent, and perfect to us, but that is impossible for us to relate to, even for your crazy boss who thinks he is God. But when you talk about time and space, and how that relates to us, well it starts to make sense. If we live on a spiral timeline, then we can have a bit of what God must perceive, we can feel how with the coming and going of certain times of the year, that we ebb and flow with it. I hope no one has had a Passover and not felt the kinship of family and friends a little bit sharper or more brighter than in other times of the year. I pray that no one has had a Yom Kippur where they never felt somewhat closer to our creator.

With the coming of Chanukah – the time and place where Judea fought for the soul of the Jewish people, it is natural that we feel a bit more Jewish pride and sense of self. I hope we feel a tug on our souls asking the ultimate question – why are we here and what are we meant to be doing on this planet? Well, for me that is a quest that I have yet to finish.

Still, while I cannot believe that my time on Earth during this phase of humanity is solely to enjoy food and wine with people, I am sure it has a part of it, only because I love it so, and God would not have given us abilities if they were not part of the ultimate plan for each of us. So, with that in mind, I hope we can agree that the food and wine that you do share with your family and friends should help us all feel a closer bond with our Jewish past and hopefully find a way to fuse it with our future.

To me, for now, food and wine is what I want to share with all of you – my virtual friends and family, around the social internet table called the Blogosphere. If there was a way to channel the past – while fusing it with the future it would have to be around a table of latkes and jelly filled doughnuts. If you had to choose the food of Chanukah, those would be it for me. That perfect crispy potato/leek/parsnip/root vegetable Latke – whichever of those that fit your personal and diet profile – is about commemorating the lighting of the Menorah with the single flask of pure olive oil. It is that oil that miraculously powered the Temple’s 7 branched menorah for 8 days and nights – which is why we get presents for 8 days! No really, it was because we felt and saw, first hand, the presence of God – our reason for being on Earth – in our midst at that time. It was his clear message to us to be proud and true to who we are that we commemorate his aura and miracle with food! Really? Yup, us Jews get it! We understand and are ready to inculcate the past – or maybe the present – within ourselves, but we also want to enjoy that commemoration. We wish to find a way to incorporate it both spiritually and physically, so that it becomes more than just a spectacle, but rather a way of life. I hope we all get more out of this holiday than a few more pounds on our frame’s. I hope we get the chance to see what is here now, what our forefathers saw now, what their parents and the parents before them and after them saw each and every Chanukah – the joy of our Heritage, our religion, our spiritual connection with God, and yes the joy of how we share all of that around food and wine with our friends and family!