{"id":202,"date":"2006-12-13T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-13T20:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/12\/tis-better-to-give.html"},"modified":"2006-12-13T20:24:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-13T20:24:00","slug":"tis-better-to-give","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/12\/tis-better-to-give.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Tis Better to Give&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I want to clarify for <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/12\/oprahs-hanukkah-torah.html\">Rabbi Stern<\/a>\u2019s benefit that I don\u2019t mean to be the Grinch who stole Hanukkah.<\/p>\n<p>Gift-giving is a fun part of the holiday, and there\u2019s certainly nothing wrong with having some fun.  The point is also well taken that a thoughtful present, generously offered, can be a truly touching expression of one\u2019s feelings. <\/p>\n<p>The difficulty can come\u2013as it did for <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/12\/its-beginning-to-look-alot-like.html\">the parents in my office<\/a>\u2013when the emphasis is much more on the <em>receiving<\/em> than the <em>giving<\/em>\u2013some kids relate to Hanukkah primarily as a time to grab as much loot as they can, forgetting both the giving <em>and<\/em> any other lessons of the holiday. <\/p>\n<p>One suggestion that was raised is for children who receive multiple gifts to put a few aside to be donated to organizations such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toysfortots.org\/\">Toys for Tots,<\/a> so they can benefit someone less fortunate.  That way, the child can have the pleasure of receiving and perhaps come to learn the deeper joy of giving as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I want to clarify for Rabbi Stern\u2019s benefit that I don\u2019t mean to be the Grinch who stole Hanukkah. Gift-giving is a fun part of the holiday, and there\u2019s certainly nothing wrong with having some fun. The point is also well taken that a thoughtful present, generously offered, can be a truly touching expression of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Tis Better to Give... - Virtual Talmud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/12\/tis-better-to-give.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Tis Better to Give... - Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I want to clarify for Rabbi Stern\u2019s benefit that I don\u2019t mean to be the Grinch who stole Hanukkah. 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The point is also well taken that a thoughtful present, generously offered, can be a truly touching expression of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/12\/tis-better-to-give.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-13T20:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Joshua Waxman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Tis Better to Give... - Virtual Talmud","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/12\/tis-better-to-give.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Tis Better to Give... - Virtual Talmud","og_description":"I want to clarify for Rabbi Stern\u2019s benefit that I don\u2019t mean to be the Grinch who stole Hanukkah. 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