The Ninth Night of Chanukah

December, 2007:

I got home late on Tuesday night from work, and was not feeling well. So, we just had dinner, and then I went to bed. We both forgot that it was the last night of Chanukah.

The next day, I remembered that we had forgotten to light the candles. When I got home from work, Nadine had already gone out to her book club. But, there on the table were the nine (8+1)remaining candles.

I felt a need for completion, so, even though Chanukah was over, I put the candles into the menorah, said the prayer, and lit them.

About half an hour later, there was a knock on our patio door. Michele's two oldest boys, who are Orthodox, were returning some chairs we had loaned her for a party last weekend. As the boys handed the chairs in to me, thru the doorway, I could see that they were looking past me, rather intently, at something inside our apartment, but I had no idea what could be of such interest to them.

Later, it dawned on me. I imagined what they might be thinking...."that meshuge Jew! Doesn't he know that the last night of Chanukah was LAST NIGHT?"

And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, for the rest of the story, which I found out from Michele the next day.

Even later that evening, Michele was walking past our place with her boys, and they saw the burning candles thru our window. But, by that time, two of the candles were already burn out, so there were only seven still burning. Michele said to the boys: "Oh, how nice! Now they're celebrating Kwanzaa".

(Note from the Web: Kwanzaa lasts seven days, from December 26 to January 1.)