 | On Chanukah we give the children gelt. Why?
I've heard it has something to do with having reached the majority (half or more) of Chanukah.
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the 5th night can never fall on shabbat so it is customy to give gelt then
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I heard that the less religious Jews give gfts and that more religious Jews do not. I also heard that some give inexpensive gifts are a way of gift giving without giving it importance and is thus done by people that are more religious than those that give expensive gifts. Of course, I have heard the opposite to this too. What is true?
Thanks
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We're in a non-observant community, but our family tradition is mostly Jewish-themed gifts. This year we've gone for a number of books, some software, but all with Jewish themes. Though we lean toward "fun" rather than overly serious- though as my oldest gets older, they're getting more serious. Every year, I say that they didn't want us to learn, so we should learn to show they still haven't won.
We don't set it as building value of gifts or anything- in fact we put a number or symbol on each package and draw randomly what's getting opened that night.
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Traditionally, money—called gelt—is given on Chanukah. It seems that a lot of the gift giving seen today is a spinoff of the non-Jewish culture, and not a Jewish custom. For this reason, many traditional Jews follow the age old tradition of giving money, as opposed to other gifts.
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Why is it traditional to give a heftier sum on the 4th and 5th nights of Hanukkah? I had never heard that.
Thank you.
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It was the tradition of the Chabad Rebbe's to give 'Chanukah gelt' on either the fourth or fifth night. See Hayom Yom for the 28th of Kislev.
Additionally, one of the reasons given for the significance of the fifth night is that the fifth day of Chanukah can never fall out on the Shabbat. Thus we wish to add extra light on that day.
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I have learned that since the Chashmonaim minted coins when they reclaimed the Temple, the custom of gelt began to remind us of our independence from Hellenistic rule, spiritual, physical and monetary.
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