Hamantaschen for Hanukkah?!

Sep 14, 2026 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Sue Weston and Susan Rosenbluth –  Two Sues On The Aisle 

The first story I ever heard about the wise men of Chelm dealt with the question of which side of a buttered slice of bread hit the ground when it fell from a table. The wisest man in Chelm insisted it was always the buttered side. The second wisest man questioned that hypothesis, and, like any good scientist, proposed testing it by buttering a slice of bread and tossing it from the table. When it landed on the plain, unbuttered side, the second-wisest Chelmite turned to his sparring partner. “You see, you were wrong.” Undeterred, the wisest man simply shook his head. “Not at all. You buttered the wrong side.”

Just in time for the holidays, a new picture book, Hamantaschen for Hanukkah? (Tiny Torch Books), by Highland Park resident Maurice J. Elias, with illustrations by Hector Borlasca, is ready to introduce a new generation to the delightful silliness of wisdom as perceived by the chachamim of Chelm. Written for ages 4-8 (grades pre-K-3), the text, accompanied by vibrant full-color illustrations evoking pre-war Poland (except for the presence of the town’s female Mayor Chaya, dressed like a good-natured bubbie), tells the story of a Chief Rabbi’s Purim letter that gets delayed ten months, and, thus, arrives just in time for…Hanukkah.

In Chelm, reasonable explanations are tossed by the wayside, and the Talmudic-like debate over whether the upcoming celebration should reflect the misconstrued will of the Chief Rabbi or the calendar makes for exactly the kind of silliness adored by young children—and the lucky adults who get to read this funny-but-oh-sweet tale with them.

It would make a perfect gift for Hanukkah, Purim, Sukkoth, or, for that matter, any time—after all, as Mayor Chaya tells her constituents, “We can celebrate Purim today, Hanukkah tomorrow, and Passover the next day.”

Chelm is for sure the wisest city.