Make an Ice Menorah!

How to make an ice menorah:

(from http://neohasid.org/zman/chanukah/ice_menorah/)

First, here's what's cool about an ice menorah: reflections in the ice; it floats – water is amazing and awesome; renewable resource – and if it's cold enough where you are, just freeze it outside; meditate on climate change and melting glaciers, and resolve to do something about it!

Here's how to do it:

1) Set candles in cardboard brace.

2) Fill loaf pan or any container part way and set brace over it — see diagram. Candles should be immersed half inch or more in water.

3) Shamash (not pictured) — fill dixie cup or any small cup or jar with a few inches of water and set shamash candle in that.

4) Freeze it all.

5) Remove ice with shamash, put it on top of ice in loaf pan. add another half inch or more of water to freeze the shamash to the rest of the menorah.

6) You can carve a little channel for melted water to flow away from the shamash

(idea and execution – Heidi Creamer; diagram and instructions – David Seidenberg; neohasid.org)

for pictures of a real ice menorah, before and after it's lit, go to http://neohasid.org/zman/chanukah/ice_menorah/

You'll notice while the menorah is burning that the melted ice warms up and creates its own channels (see pic above), sometimes making holes through the ice. Among other things, that's a great moment to talk about melting glaciers. Let us know what you do and how it goes!

You can design meditations on water, on climate change and glaciers, on renewable resources, on science, using this project. Send ideas to rebduvid8@gmail.com and I'll post them here.

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