Josh Peck and Robby Hoffman have vastly different ideas about a few core aspects of celebrating Hanukkah.
“You taught me something that is a little bit of a Jewish superstition. It’s not a superstition, but it’s inappropriate to blow out the candles on a menorah,” Peck, 39, told guest Hoffman, 36, during a recent episode of his “Good Guys” podcast. “You were not pleased with me.”
Hoffman stated that “it’s not OK” to ever blow out the candles on a menorah.
“It’s like a Yahrzeit candle,” she said, referring to the traditional 24-hour candle to honor deceased relatives in the Jewish religion. “Just let it go. It’s, like, one person had a candle that burned everything down. You never heard of it again.”
Peck speculated that candles catching on fire probably “happens a lot” because many menorahs are placed in a windowsill next to fabric curtains.
“We always had the menorah, my mother did on the stove with a lot of tin foil,” Hoffman said. “Just grab some in foil, there’s nothing tin foil can’t do. It’s a to-go box, it’s a tray [or] it’s a cover. There’s nothing it can’t do.”
Peck, for his part, revealed that he’s “a menorah-in-the-sink guy.”
“Is that nuts?” the Drake & Josh alum said. “It just kind of looks like I’m hiding it ‘cause you’re supposed to put it in the window.”
Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, takes place every winter and celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Maccabees. The holiday — it starts at sundown on Sunday, December 14, this year — is often marked by individuals who practice Judaism lighting candles on a menorah for eight consecutive nights.
While Peck’s sink storage may help prevent a fire from breaking out, Hoffman had qualms about the symbolism.
“I think it’s not a great look,” the Hacks actress said. “It feels like you’re washing it down.”
Hoffman was raised in a Hasidic Jewish family but has since strayed from the conservative rules. She still identifies with the religion, though, and has even taught wife Gabby Windey about her traditions.
“She’s desperate to [convert],” Hoffman said on a 2023 episode of Bethenny Frankel’s “Just B” podcast, referring to her now-wife. “I’ve said nothing. We don’t need. At this point, when people go, ‘Important to you Jewish?’ I say, ‘It’s over, what are we talking about?’ She’s so into it.”
Windey, 34, further revealed that she had been getting a crash-course in Judaism since she and Hoffman started dating earlier that year.
“I get a Jewish history lesson almost every day, which I love and I die for now,” the former Bachelorette said. “There’s so much culture, I mean truly.”
Windey also noted that she had been learning a few Yiddish phrases from Hoffman, too.
“I like the number things [with] the 18. I was at the spa the other day, and I looked for a multiple of 18 to put my stuff in ‘cause this is probably good luck,” Windey said. “I’m buying it just for the fun of it.”
