This post created with permission and thanks to The City Congregation in New York
CHANUKAH BLESSINGS
for a Secular Humanistic Chanukah Celebration
(Sung to the traditional melody for lighting the candles)
Blessing One
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-oh-lahm
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-ah-dahm
Come gather round and light the menorah
As we say, “L’hahd-leek ner shel cha-nu-ka”
Blessing Two
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-oh-lahm
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-ah-dahm
We celebrate freedom won a long time ago
Ba-ya-meem ha-hem baz-mahn ha-zeh.
Blessing Three
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-oh-lahm
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-ah-dahm
We light these candles in our home tonight
and we hope
that in the world
light will shine for all.
Light the Menorah
1st & 3rd Blessings by Rabbi Peter Schweitzer
2nd Blessing by Rabbi Daniel Friedman
This is wonderful! We used it tonight for the first night of Hanukkah. Shalom!
Can you please tell me what “ha-or ba-oh-lahm” translates as?
ha-or = “light of” and ba-olam = “the world”
Happy Chanukkah
These blessings are excellent; we just used them this year! It would be helpful if you could provide: 1) Hebrew for the Hebrew parts (I still remember a little from my Hebrew school), 2) translations for the Hebrew parts, 3) some guidance for the melody (either sheet music or a YouTube video or something). I know it says to use the traditional melody, but I don’t remember it very well, and matching up to the new words is tricky. Thanks and Happy Hanukkah!