By Ruby Ginsberg

With only 5 weeks left to my son’s Bar Mitzvah, invitations had to be addressed and mailed. We created the address spreadsheets, set up the mail merge, and fed the envelopes through the printer.

But we needed postage. I estimated 150 stamps would do. But which theme stamp would be most appropriate?

I visited the USPS website and wondered about the choices. Flags? Too standard. “Happy Birthday?” Too juvenile. “I Love You?” Too mushy. Flowers? Too feminine. Fighter planes? Maybe…but not very mitzvah-ish.

Then I saw the decorated Dreidle Chanukah stamp. Perfect! We’ll be mailing them on Chanukah. They come in sheets of 20, so I needed 8 sheets of Chanukah. What could be better?

Off to the post office I went, and when my turn came I politely requested “Eight sheets of Hanukah, please.”

The clerk frowned and said, “Hanukah? We’re out of Hanukah.”

“Can’t be!” I exclaimed. “You must have Hanukah stamps.”

She looked and leafed through all her drawers and folders. In the end, all she could find was one single sheet of Hanukah stamps.

“But that won’t do,” I said. “One sheet won’t last. I need eight sheets of Hanukah.”

She called over another clerk who looked through his folders. He came up with another two sheets. “Three, that’s all we have,” she said.

Emboldened, I said, “Please check in the back. I know you’ll find eight!” I announced.

Eyebrows raised by my attitude, she headed toward the back of the Post Office. I saw her say something to each clerk she passed, and each time the clerk shook his head. After checking with the last clerk, she looked across the room at me and shrugged.

I gave her a nod of encouragement and she disappeared into the back. (If I was one of the people standing behind me in line I would have killed me…)

Several minutes later she emerged with a triumphant look on her face.

“Eight Hanukah sheets! Here it is!” she proclaimed.

“Thank you so much for your patience and perseverance,” I said. “I knew you’d find eight!”

“How could you be so sure?” she asked.

“Why, that’s the miracle of Chanukah,” I said.

Happy Chanukah to all!