HANUKAH at Etz Hayyim – 24 Kislev – 1st Dec. 2010

 

Etz Hayyim and its fraternity and friends celebrated the first night of Hanuka as is usual since 1999.  This year the celebration was especially notable as we had over 60 people.  For three days before the Festival members of the Havurah worked hard at getting the Synagogue in order – all of the benches were oiled, the cushions and carpets aired and on the morning of  the Eve the hanukiote were polished and wicks and oil in preparation.  By the time that people began to arrive the atmosphere of the Synagogue was rich with the smell of cypress from the polish that we had used on the benches rather than the still, on occasion, lingering smell of burnt wood from the fires. (Recipe - if you wish – 1 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup wine vinegar and 1/3 cup cypress or cedar or even oil of spike-lavender. To be shaken frequently during application with a soft cloth).)

Nikolay Kiesling, the president of the Friends arrived from Herakleion in good time to inspect the progress on work in the new library that is being brought to a close and that he has generously funded and with him was Const. Papadopoulos who has been committed to the Synagogue since its re-dedication.  Bizarrely enough (for Crete) everyone was present well before the service began. Minha prayers had been said earlier and then Arvith and we had the short service initially when the lamps were lit and the blessings recited.  Fortunately Gabriel Negrin was with us and he and Stavroulakis as well as other members of the Havurah lit the hanukiote. After this Stavroulakis explained some aspects of the Jewish festival of light in which he placed it in the very ancient traditions that determined the celebration of light in the midst of winter darkness.  He stressed very much the manner in which we are called upon to be ourselves lights and to find ways in which we can bring greater love and peace into the world…as the Prophet Isaiah called upon us to be. At the termination of the ceremony two large tables had been set up to hold masses of traditional food served at Hanukah – all from Sephardi recipes which had been prepared by the participants.  We even had potato pancakes that were light and easily digestible as the Sephardi variation does not incorporate matsah meal, as do Ashkenazi ‘latkes’, but rather a greater proportion of eggs and the addition of liberal amounts of allspice and nutmeg. Needless to say there was good wine and tsikoudhia on hand as well.  The celebration went on until quite late and Gabriel and Lorenzo led many of us in singing Ladino songs.

N.S.

Although the weather may not show it, December is fast approaching, and with it Chanukah!

We will be celebrating the lighting of the first candle for Chanukah (Erev) on Wednesday, December 1^st at 18:00 at the Synagogue and we invite you to attend and celebrate with us. The holiday service will be followed by the lighting of the Chanukiah and a pot luck meal immediately after. 

Anyone interested in contributing a dish is welcome to do so. We do ask that you contact the Synagogue so that we can coordinate the foods.

We are also looking for a few volunteers to help with cleaning the Synagogue (dusting and oiling the furniture) in preparation for the holiday on Monday, November 29^th around 10:00. We will provide coffee and snacks. Again, please contact the Synagogue if you are interested in helping.

Thank you all in advance for your support and help.

We have a weekly challenge in Hania at the synagogue as we never really know how many people will be attending services – especially Erev Shabbat.  During the summer months we can have up to 50 people and during the winter when there are few visitors we are usually about 12 to 15 persons who are all members of the fraternity.  On the Jewish Holidays inevitably we have more people. This year we had some 50 people attending the evening service for Rosh HaShannah and for Kol Nidre we had 59 people and for the morning and afternoon service we had 18 people and for Neilah again over 60 people. A good number of people who came to services were from abroad and came in order to show support for the Synagogue and still others are members of the fraternity who live in Israel or England.  David Clark from London is always here for holidays and we are especially blessed in having the presence of Rabbi Nicholas de Lange of Cambridge who is also on the Board of Trustees of the Synagogue.  Lior Asher came especially to be with us for Yom Kippour, as did Iosiph Naim from israel. Lior took much of the service with Rabbi de Lange and Stavroulakis (who filled in at times). Lior took on the ‘heavy’ afternoon prayers of Kippour and also led our ‘Koen’, Sam Cohen, in giving the priestly blessing…and took over the blowing of the shofar at the end of the service. 

Ever since 1998 when two of us sat in the empty synagogue to keep Kippour the Synagogue had proved to be an intense place of peace and introspection.  We were especially fortunate that all of the mahzors for the two holidays had not been burnt in the fires and in order to compensate for the large number of people our administrative secretary, Alex Phountoulakis put together service books that were adequate o our needs – for the most part. 

 We all broke fast together in the courtyard of the synagogue with dates, small baklavas and soft drinks – soumada and lemonade.  At 9:00 we all ate together at the Galini restaurant where they had prepared boiled chickens, avgolemono soup, araka ladera (peas in oil an dill), okra. Wine, tsikoudia and fruit ended our meal.

On the morning of the day following Kippour the wooden supports for the Sukkah were set in the courtyard and at the time of writing this the first branches are being set on the roof and the arrangement of hangings and decorations are being taken care of by Egon Roth and Yehudit Berndt. Erev Sukkoth service as well as the blessing of the Sukkah will be done by Rabbi de Lange and Stavroulakis will make the kiddush. A buffet dinner will be served in the courtyard of the Synagogue prepared by members of the fraternity…vegetarian and based on traditional Jewish recipes from Greece.  Our caretaker, Besnik Seiti, brought back from Albania a gift of an enormous Pumpkin which was a gift from his mother and we will make good use of it in preparing rodanches etcs..    

Blessings to you all from us at Etz Hayyim -

 

N. Stavroulakis – Parnas, Etz Hayyim Synagogue.

In early June we had a festive wedding in the Synagogue. Since last year plans had been afoot for this event and though there were some initial halachic and even canonical problems we broached these with no difficulty. The couple, Mathieu and Alexandra Touboul of Paris and we avoided the question of a proper Jewish wedding (with ketubah etc.) by concentrating on the Seven Blessings.  The couple had been married according to French law and so what we envisaged doing was some ritual that would indicate the Abrahamic tradition.  Mathieu and Alexandra arrived with a bevy of 49 friends from Paris – all members of the Algerian Jewish community. As Alexandra’s family was originally from Rethymnon her grandmother and several relatives were also in attendance and they all assembled on the Friday evening for Erev Shabbat services - all of them dressed in very chic white outfits. With many of her girlfriends the bride performed a mikveh in the sea at Nea Hora reciting the traditional Hebrew prayer. On the Sunday afternoon our synagogue was packed with even more chic looking Parisians in fine suits and frocks and the bride arrived with her father, Mr N. Flouris, dressed in a fine wedding gown and veiled….quite appropriately late.  In front of the ceremonial huppa four friends held up a talleth that symbolizes the tent of Abraham and we brought back an ancient Cretan Jewish custom of having the bride and groom wear floral crowns bound together by a single ribbon.  Seven close friends stood in a circle around the bride and groom and formally recited the Seven Blessings (in Hebrew) and these were repeated by everyone in the synagogue – one by one. After the traditional breaking of the glass by the groom everyone assembled in the courtyard to have pre-cocktail drinks. The wedding dinner was held at the Panorama Hotel where they were all staying and much after midnight its swimming pool was filled with our wedding party – save for the children. 

 

NS

 

Passover at Etz Hayyim is somewhat like a family gathering…