Chapter 20: Menorahs
~2012~
"If we are going to celebrate Chanukah, then we must have a menorah to do it properly," Ziva explained to Tony as the pair finished eating Sunday brunch at her place, well their place since he'd just about moved in with her.
"Okay, where do we buy one?" he replied with a grin. "I want to do the holiday the right way, you know. Teach me all about the traditions, everything there is to know."
Ziva got up from the breakfast bar counter and walked to the bookshelf in her living room. Tony watched as she browsed the titles and pulled a thin book from the second to bottom shelf. She returned to the counter and handed the book to him.
"First, you must read this book," she instructed. He glanced at the cover: a kids' book titled All About Hannukah. The colorful picture on the cover showed a menorah with brightly colored candles and a boy with a yarmulke watching his mother light the candles.
"Um, you do realize this is a book for kids, right?" he smirked at her.
"Yes; it will be very instructive for you," she leaned into his face with a grin. "And it has pictures…"
"Very funny."
She pecked his lips with her own, "Just your pot of tea, yes?"
"Cup; cup of tea," he corrected her without thinking about it. "Uh… not that I am admitting anything here…" At her amused laugh, he tried again, "I don't just read books and magazines with pictures; I mean, they help get the point across, but the words are important too." She laughed out loud as he dug the hole deeper. "Um, shutting up now and reading," he opened the book to read about the Maccabees, the miracle of the oil, and the traditions and symbols of the holiday.
"That is a good idea; then we will find a menorah and candles."
Three hours later, the pair returned to the apartment with a simple traditional menorah with the four branches on either side of a central stem with the shammash candle and a box of forty-four candles that reminded Tony of birthday cake candles on steroids. Tony had read the book while Ziva cleaned the kitchen from their brunch. They had a joint shower which lasted longer than either one anticipated due to some adult activity, then started a load of laundry before driving to the nearest superstore.
Ziva searched online and found a transliteration of the blessings for the candles and the first night. She printed them for Tony, telling him that she expected him to recite the nightly blessing over the candles on the fifth night. He reluctantly agreed, but it was for her, so he would do his best to learn the words.
One night five, they almost didn't get to light the candles due to a case but managed to return to the apartment with minutes to spare before sundown. Tony took a deep breath as Ziva looked to him to begin the blessing. He recited the prayer perfectly and was rewarded with a kiss after lighting the shammash and then the five candles. He joked that if he could get that reward again, he'd say the blessing for the remaining nights. Ziva held him to the deal.
~2016~
Tony was at the large Parisian superstore on a grocery run when he spotted the display of menorahs and candles. Checking over the display, he realized that Chanukah and Christmas week overlapped. Ziva hadn't said anything about the holiday, but then again, the family of three were still getting their bearings as a family.
The flat was small, so small that they'd agreed on a three-foot tree as the annual decoration. Tali wouldn't know any difference at two- and one-half years old anyhow. He found a small six-inch long by four-inch tall – including the candles - menorah, silver-plated, that held slim, birthday cake type candles that they could place on the counter or even on a windowsill. Tiny or small was the operative word when it came to decorations in the flat; there wasn't room for anything else.
He was determined that his, no, their family celebrate both holidays each year and any other of the Jewish and Christian holidays that they wanted. He was willing to embrace Ziva's heritage wholeheartedly.
Once home, Tony and Ziva unpacked the groceries while Tali watched a children's program on one of the many cable TV channels to which he'd subscribed within two weeks of moving to the flat in the summer. She loved watching television; she was his child after all. If it made her happy, he'd get the little girl the moon.
"What is this?" Ziva pulled the plain brown box from the bag.
Tony grinned, "Open it."
Ziva shot him a scowl but her curiosity won out. "Candles? We have celebrated all our birthdays for this year."
"Keep going."
"OH! I had forgotten all about Chanukah," she pulled the shiny menorah from its box. "This will fit on the counter nicely. Toda," she kissed him lightly on the lips and smiled at him. She handed him the box and placed the menorah on the raised part of the counter.
Tony noticed another item wrapped in tissue paper at the bottom of the box. "What's this?" he separated the paper to find a one-inch plastic dreidel. He held it up for Ziva to see, "You can teach Tali and me how to play the dreidel games!"
~2017~
"Any idea which box we packed the menorah?" Ziva rummaged through the boxes that had been shipped from Paris and stored in the garage of the house they were renting.
Tony shrugged, "None, sweetcheeks. We could just go buy a new one this year. A bigger one since we are in a house and have lots of room."
Ziva was about to open another box when the sounds of Anthony waking came over the baby monitor app on her phone. Tali appeared in the doorway a minute later.
"Anthony is awake, and he stinks," the little girl held her nose as she informed her parents. "I think he poo-ed."
The small menorah was forgotten as the parents took care of the messy baby, fed the family, and chose the movie for their family movie night. After getting the kids in bed for the night, Tony pulled up his saved items on the internet mega-store site on his tablet.
"At what are we looking?" Ziva questioned her husband.
"Menorahs," he replied. "I saved a few that I like, but we can browse more and choose one for the family that we both like. One that will be our Chanukah tradition for the foreseeable future. Maybe one our kids will fight over when we're gone?"
As they browsed the selections, neither saw any particular one that jumped out as the one. On the third page of items, both Tony and Ziva immediately were drawn to a brass tree of life menorah with the shammash candle on the highest part of the tree and the daily candles arched over the treetop. Tony clicked on the image for details.
"Sand-cast bronze, acacia tree; three dimensional," he read the description out loud. "I really like this one."
"As do I," Ziva noted. "A bit pricey, though. It is almost two hundred dollars."
Tony shrugged at her, "We are buying something that will last years, Ziva. It is worth the money in my opinion. Besides, we both like it." He clicked Buy It Now before she could argue. "Should be here in two days; Chanukah starts in six days."
~2019~
"So, do you want our usual menorah or the one from the Haifa house this year?" Tony asked his very pregnant wife. He refused to let her help with any decorating or lugging the totes inside from the garage. His one concession was to allow her to hang the Christmas stockings and some ornaments on the tree. He made that choice after she threatened him with a paperclip.
"I don't know… we have our menorah that we hope to make a tradition, but the one from Haifa is one I remember from my childhood…" Ziva looked between the two. The menorah from her family things was made from gold and silver, a traditional style with the center stem holding the shammash candle and the eight branches equally spaced on either side. The Star of David adorned the center stem as well. A maker's mark on the bottom of the piece and a date indicated that the menorah had been made in Be'er Sheva in Kislev 5713 – December 1952. Ziva remembered her Ima telling the children that the menorah had been a gift to her Savta and Saba.
"How about we use both?" Tony suggested. "Nothing wrong with having two menorahs; you can light one and I can light the other."