Why Do We Give Gelt on Chanukah?

Rabbi Moshe Elefant of the Orthodox Union is back with more

knowledge! This time he’s discussing why we give gelt on Chanukah.

What is the source of the custom of giving Chanukah gelt ? The word Chanukah is related to the word Chinuch, educating. And Chanukah is a time for us to re emphasize how important giving our children a Chinuch, a Torah Chinuch, is in our lives. And in order to show our children that if they are succeeding in learning, and we want them to succeed in learning, the custom began is to give them gifts.

Rav Belsky ztl used to tell us that actually the original minhag , the original custom was, he said this in the name of Rav Yaakov Kamenetski ztl , was that they used to send a gift to the children’ s teachers in appreciation for them teaching our children Torah. And they would also give the boy, the child with whom they sent the gift, also a gift as a tip for delivering the gift to the Rebbe. And that’s where this meaning of giving Chanukah Gelt to our children came from.

He also used to tell us that Rav Yakov Kamenetsky would say that the best night to give Chanukah Gelt is the fifth night of Chanukah, because the fifth night of Chanukah is the only night of Chanukah that can never come out on Shabbos, and money is muktzeh on Shabbos.

For more Chanukah learning, check out OU&You.