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Growing up with Chanukah in (718)
By Barbara Newman
(716) is the area code for University at Buffalo (UB), where I went to college. (617) is the area code of Boston University (BU), where I went to graduate school. (716) / (617) and UB / BU – I always wondered if there was significance to the reversal of those numbers and letters. This made me think about growing up in (718) – Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, NY. I wonder, could there be some cosmic, hidden meaning to that number? If you’ve read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you’d know that the answer to the ultimate question of life and the universe is 42. So what’s up with numbers?
Over the years, I’ve become more and more fascinated with gematria, Hebrew numerology, which is the interpretation of the numerical equivalents of Hebrew letters. Since I’m not a professional, I consulted my Rabbi. At first, he couldn’t find a significant word combination with the letter equivalents of 7 (zayin), 1 (alef), 8 (chet). After some thought, he arrived at a few interesting concepts, including one about the upcoming holiday of Chanukah.
What is the miracle of Chanukah? That the oil lasted eight nights? No. It’s that the oil found was expected to last only 1 night, but then burned for an extra 7 nights. And 7+1=8! According to my rabbi, this combination of numbers could mean a lot of things, but it caused me to reflect on my childhood Chanukah experiences in 718.
Chanukah in Kew Gardens Hills was special. I grew up in a Jewish community that has become more vibrant over the years. Many of the stores on Main Street are owned by Jews. There are dozens of kosher restaurants and you can get any kind of Judaica you might need: modest clothing, siddurs, and mezuzot are easy to find. My family belongs to the Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills, the only traditional, Conservative synagogue in the neighborhood. When I was growing up, there were a few Modern Orthodox and Orthodox shuls in the neighborhood; now you can find one every few blocks. On Shabbat the neighborhood shuts down and you’ll find more black hats and tzitzit moving about on the streets than cars.
It seemed like almost everyone in my neighborhood celebrated Chanukah – just about every home you’d walk past had at least one menorah in the window. Our neighborhood was a sea of lights: electric, candle and oil-based. I thought this was the norm in most neighborhoods, as American as Christmas trees and tinsel.
The annual Chanukah photo of me, my brother, and my dog became a tradition that can now be turned into a flip-book where I can watch myself age quickly over the glow of the menorah. There were Chanukah photos with braces, long hair, short hair, blue hair, dog hair, and friends. Things changed over the years, but things also stayed the same, like latkes, dreidels, singing “maoz-tsur,” being with family, neighbors, and friends, and the beautiful candles, each night glowing and growing brighter. In (718) some things changed – like a new kosher restaurant opening where an old one closed – but like the candles glowing brighter each night, the Jewish community has grown brighter in Kew Gardens Hills.
So what about the significance of (716) and (617)? I still have research to do. But I do know that my Chanukah experiences in both places paled in comparison to (718). I learned that the Chanukah menorah in the window is not as American as the Christmas tree and realized just how special Chanukah was growing up in (718).
Photo by MauriceReeves, licensed under Creative Commons.
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For more on Jews in different area codes, check out Issue #2: Area Codes.
Tags: Area Codes, Gematria, Hanukkah
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Hebrew Gematria is a fascinating subject! Chanukkah, in particular, has a great many examples of amazing Gematria associated with it. The Gematria, and the historical events surrounding Chanukkah, are miraculous.