Interactive Chanukah Learning With the YU Torah Mitzion Kollel

This morning, ICJA students put their Chanukah learning to use with interactive workshops with YU Torah Mitzion Kollel fellows.

Why was it so important to burn pure olive oil in the Beit Hamikdash? Students found out why when they burned a range of oils, including cod liver oil, pumpkin oil, walnut oil, and more. While some oils smelled sweet, students observed that they emitted lots of smoke. Other oils burned clear, students found, but gave off unpleasant odors. Only olive oil produced both a sweet aroma and a clear, steady flame – making it the only oil suitable for use in the Beit Hamikdash.

How much olive oil was burned each day in the golden Menorah in the Beit Hamikdash? Students have learned the amount but hadn’t yet visualized it in a fun hands-on way. Students poured the amount of oil that the kohanim used to burn in every day into cups, giving them an easy way to understand just how much olive oil was required in the Beit Hamikdash. Students then were given raw olives and instructed in how to squeeze them to produce oil. Students had a lot of fun producing oil and observed that each olive only yielded about a drop of oil – it was a great way to viscerally understand how precious olive oil was during ancient times and the panic that the Kohanim felt when they realized they only had a single jug of olive oil with which to rekindle the Menorah on Chanukah.

In the final interactive learning station, students got to shape doughnuts out of yeast dough and deep fry them. As students waited for their doughnuts to cook, they reviewed the halachot of making brachot, learning that if dough containing yeast is cooked by any methods other than dry heat – for instance if it is boiled like noodles or fried like doughnuts – then one makes the mezonot bracha on it, rather than hamotzi. Once the doughnuts were finished cooking, students sprinkled powdered sugar on them or drizzled chocolate syrup and enjoyed their sweet Chanukah treat.

Thank you to Rabbi Reuven Brand, Rosh Yeshiva of the YUTMK, all the Kollel Fellows, and our student activity coordinators Mrs. Alissa Zeffren and R. Mordy Greenland for making today’s morning of learning such a spectacular success.