Why give gelt on Chanukah?
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| Chocolate gelt |
Along with latkes and sufganyiot, chocolate gelt is one of the treats that signals the arrial of Chanukah. But the original custom of giving gelt was not about candy but about actual money. Why is that?
I did some research to refresh my memory and found two primary reasons offered. One was a reminder not to use the lights of the menorah to distinguish coins. The other was the concept of using money for holy purposes.
But as I thought it about it more, I realized there's another reason that fits the Chanukah theme perfectly. The concept of the coin of the realm.
We see that idea come up in the Midrashic exchange between David and Avigayil in Megilla 14b: מוֹרֵד בַּמַּלְכוּת הוּא, וְלָא צְרִיךְ לְמֵידַּיְינֵיהּ. אָמְרָה לוֹ: עֲדַיִין שָׁאוּל קַיָּים וְלֹא יָצָא טִבְעֲךָ בָּעוֹלָם. אָמַר לָהּ: ״בָּרוּךְ טַעְמֵךְ וּבְרוּכָה אָתְּ אֲשֶׁר כְּלִיתִנִי [הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה] מִבֹּא בְדָמִים״.
A few years ago, Rabbi Yosef Karmel of the Eretz Hemda Institute spoke at the YILC and offered an interpretation of the טַעְמֵךְ referenced as coins. He said that Avigagyil argued that David could not find Naval guilty of treason against him while Shaul was still the king. Her proof that David's monarchy was not yet recognized was that he had not yet issued his own coins.
There will be a change in printing British money now, as a king takes the place of the reigning queen. It is a long-established practice for the likeness of the reigning monarch to be reproduced on the coin of the realm (or today also on paper bills).
Reinforcing that connection of coin and crown becomes even more important when there has been a shift in the possession of the throne from one family or nation to another.
Accordingly, when the Jews rebelled against the imperial hold over Israel, they made a point of demonstrating that in the design they put on coins, as you can see in the coin from the time of the Bar Kochba rebellion discussed in the video below:
It follows that coins reflect sovereignty. And making a point of giving coins --gelt on Chanukah -- serves a reminder of the fact that Jews proclaimed their independence by putting their own marks on the money.
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