A palate cleanser offered as proof that the GOP’s leadership isn’t totally useless. Hatch wrote the lyrics after Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic urged him to do so — ten years ago. Flash forward to today:

It’s a delightful thing to have Orrin Hatch write a song for Hanukkah. Of course I appreciate the absurdist quality to this project, but I also deeply appreciate Hatch’s earnestness. His lyrics are not postmodern or cynical, which is a blessing, because I for one have tired of the Adam Sandlerization of Judaism in America. Yes, we are, as a people, funny (at least when compared to other people, such as Croatians) but our neuroses, well-earned though they may be, have caused us to lacerate our own traditions, which are in fact (to borrow from Barack Obama) awesome. The story of Hanukkah is a good case in point–maybe the perfect one…

Hatch said he hoped his song would be understood not only as a gift to the Jewish people but that it would help bring secular Jews to a better understanding of their own holiday. “I know a lot of Jewish people that don’t know what Hanukkah means,” he said. Jewish people, he said, should “take a look at it and realize the miracle that’s being commemorated here. It’s more than a miracle; it’s the solidification of the Jewish people.”

Follow the link for Goldberg’s historical elaboration on that last point. Obvious exit question: Better or worse than Sandler’s song?

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.