My
father made beautiful, useful things with his hands and his tools. As far back
as I can remember he had a well-equipped workshop in the garage which included
a 1949 Shopsmith, an amazing multiple purpose woodworking tool that could saw,
drill, sand, and best of all be a lathe on which he turned many intricate smooth
objects like the posts and spindles on my brothers’ bunk beds, table legs, chair
legs, candlesticks, and other decorative but useful items for our home. I liked spending time with him while he worked,
especially when he turned some blocky 4 x 4 post into a smoothly rounded, fluted,
curving piece of beauty. I loved the smell of sawdust mingled with oil and the
faint burning smell as his chisel cut into the swiftly turning block of wood. I enjoyed the task of using fine sandpaper to further
smooth the objects he turned on his lathe, luxuriating in the feel of the wood.
After
thirty years of knowing my father, I should have realized when I asked him drill
9 holes in a block of wood as a makeshift Chanukkiah* for my first Chanukah that
he would not pay attention to my instructions, but instead create something incredibly
beautiful that violated all traditional Jewish rules for a Chanukkiah. A Baptist turned Methodist by marriage, my
father knew nothing about my adopted religion. I think he wanted me to know that
he supported me as I made this major change in my life, unlike my mother who
took my conversion as a rejection of her and my childhood.
I
sent my dad (in California) a sketch of a plain, flat, block of wood with nine
holes in a row. A few weeks later, I received (in Kentucky) a large box in
return. Carefully wrapped in layers of tissue paper and newspaper was a work of
art.
My first discovery was
that he had chosen to use some of his precious chestnut wood instead of a scrap
as I had suggested. The wood had been scavenged in the late 1970’s from his
childhood home in Virginia. In the late 19th century before the blight destroyed most of the
American chestnut trees, my grandfather had built the family home with chestnut
paneling, stairs, railings, doors, molding, and other adornments.
Within the box was a
block of wood, but unlike my sketch it had been carefully laminated in half
inch layers of decreasing size, creating a double staircase effect with four
steps on each side and a ninth platform at the top. There were nine holes drilled, one in each
step. However, those holes were not for candles,
for in the box, individually wrapped were nine perfect wooden cups, each with a
stem to sit in the stair-stepped holes. Each cup had been turned separately on
the lathe to perfect smoothness. They were all the same size, same diameter,
same depth. The bottom of each cup had been curved like fat brandy snifters. Each of those little wooden cups had to be
turned on the lathe separately; checked and rechecked to make sure they were
the same diameter, the same height, the same, length stem, so that when set in
the stair-step block they would form a perfectly graduated holder for candles
rising on both sides to a point in the middle.
I lifted each cup, turned them in my hands feeling the smoothness of the
fine wood grain and placed them in the block one by one.
My father had carefully
cut green felt and glued it to the bottom of the main block of wood, so that
the bottom of it would not scratch or scar any surface it was place on. Then in
the center of the bottom, he had left an opening in the felt, and in it he had
burnt the words: To SUE/from DAD/DEC
1981.
Thirty-seven Chanukahs have
come and gone. Sometimes I consider getting a “proper” Chanukkiah. Jewish law
and tradition say that all the candles in a Menorah or a Chanukkiah should be
at the same height, because no day, and no person is more important than
another. Also, Jewish law and tradition call for a new candles every night or a
total of 44 candles, so most Chanukkiah are designed for small candles less
than ¼ inch in diameter and only about 4 inches high. My father designed his candle
holder for regular sized candle tapers - 2/3 of an inch in diameter and eight
to ten inches in height. The cost of 44 regular sized candles is getting to be
a little prohibitive these days even at Walmart.
But in the end, every
year I use this cherished gift from my father. It may not meet the standards of
Jewish law, but it is still beautiful and a product of love.
______________
*Most people refer to these as Menorahs.
However, a Menorah is a seven branched candle stick used in synagogues and
homes on the Sabbath. A Chanukkiah is a nine branched or holed candle holders
used only for the eight days of Chanukah.
