The primary evening of Hanukkah was celebrated by Jews internationally on Thursday night (Dec. 7) — and by one who isn’t presently on this world.
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli is a member of the Worldwide House Station’s (ISS) present Expedition 70 mission aboard the orbital lab. To have a good time the Jewish competition of lights, Moghbeli introduced a felt menorah made by her and her household.
Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, after the Maccabean Revolt to conquer the Greeks through the 160s BCE. The apocryphal story from that victory says there was sufficient oil left to gentle the Temple’s ceremonial lamp for under in the future. However the oil miraculously lasted for eight days, therefore the vacation’s eight-night period.
Associated: NASA astronaut will have a good time Hanukkah in area with felt menorah
A Menorah, or hanukkiah, is a nine-branched candelabra, with one seat raised above and used to gentle the others. Throughout Hanukkah, it’s conventional for Jews to gentle an extra candle for every of the vacation’s eight nights. Nevertheless, open flames are prohibited aboard the ISS, and most crewed spacecraft. So, quite than lighting candles every evening, Moghbeli will likely be including an extra piece of “fireplace” to her felt show.
Alongside along with her NASA-compliant hanukkiah, Moghbeli additionally has a dreidel along with her aboard the ISS. The four-sided high is used to play a Hanukkah recreation through which members probability their spins with chocolate cash known as “gelt,” letting the dreidel’s fall resolve who will get the pot. The highest’s 4 sides function letters, which, in Hebrew, make an acronym for the phrase that interprets to “an awesome miracle occurred there.”
Blissful Hanukkah from the @Space_Station!! Actual candles not allowed! pic.twitter.com/xdqwyot5aeDecember 7, 2023
Sharing a video to social media, Moghbeli wished viewers “completely happy Hanukkah, from the Worldwide House Station,” after which spun a dreidel in view of the felt menorah and one of many station’s home windows trying downward at Earth.
As with all issues in microgravity, the spin of the dreidel would proceed till acted upon by a larger power. And, towards the tip of her video, Moghbeli’s dreidel does, in reality, bump in opposition to the digicam lens and bounce off the area station’s window, however that does not utterly cease its spin.
What’s extra, and not using a clearly outlined directional orientation, a real recreation of dreidel could not even be potential in microgravity, as the highest might by no means definitively land on any of its 4 sides. For now, that may be an issue for the rabbis to debate, and we will simply benefit from the marvel of a (theoretically) endlessly spinning dreidel in area.
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