This is an old tale from Russia, around 1947.
It was a particularly cold winter in Moscow, and a man and his family were slowly starving to death, due to him being fired from his jobs. One morning, he went out in search of work when he was startled by someone whispering at him.
"PSST! HEY! YOU! C'MERE!"
Like so.
The man wanted to know what the Whisperer wanted.
"What do you want Whisperer?"
The Whisperer told the man that he possessed a magic potato that could grant wishes.
"I have a magic potato that can grant wishes."
The man didn't believe him.
"I don't believe you.
The Whisperer offered the man a single wish to prove he was telling the truth.
"I wish that right here, in front of me, a pile of meat would appear. Enough that my family and myself could eat for many weeks!"
And it was so. A cooler full of a variety of meats appeared in front of the man. He was amazed.
"I am amazed!"
"Dear sir! You can have this magic potato under one condition. You must kill your son and bring me his body."
The man was appalled.
"This, I can not do! He is my only son!"
"You can wish him back later."
"Oh. Alrighty then."
So the man skipped like he never skipped before down the long streets until he found himself at his house.
"Son! Son! To me, my son!"
His 7 year old boy scurried over to his father. He looked up at him with adoring eyes which soon widened with surprise as his father began to cut open his chest with a bonesaw. The man took out the heart, placed it in a jar, and left it outside, surrounded by snow. You know. Just in case they ever needed food. He lifted the boy up by his legs and allowed the blood to flow freely onto his wooden floor. Once the boy was completely drained of blood, he put him in a garbage bag and skipped back to the Whisperer.
"Here he is. Please, sir, give me the magic potato!"
The Whisperer took the bag from the man, opened it, and looked inside.
"Yes! Now I can finally complete it and return home!"
The man became angry.
"Meow! I am angry. Give me the potato now."
The Whisperer handed the magic potato over to him, and the man wished that his boy would be returned to life.
....
....
Nothing happened.
"What is this madness? The potato is not working! Give me back my son!"
The Whisperer began to back up and laughed at the man. He placed his right hand on the side of his hip and said:
"No, no, no. You can't have him."
The Whisperer quickly removed his Phaser and set it on kill. He began to shoot lasers at the man from both his gun and eyes, but the man evaded the blasts like an agile cat that is super agile, but has a wounded leg, so he has to favor one leg over the other. Which, you know, kinda makes him move a little slower than he normally would be, but what are you gonna do, right? Shouldn't have gone skiing in Colorado last month.
The Whisperer continued firing lasers at the man when a wormhole suddenly opened up behind him. 20 men jumped out of the wormhole and pulled out phaser rifles and set them to kill (no one uses stun; it's there so they don't get sued).
"Freeze! Future Time Police! Drop your phaser and stop firing lasers from your eyes!"
The Whisperer didn't know what to do. He quickly picked up a potato and threw it at the man, you was hurled backwards into the wormhole. The Future Time Police turned around for a split second and saw the man disappear, followed by the wormhole soon afterwards. When they turned back to the Whisperer, he was already in his phone booth time machine with Napolean, Abraham Lincoln, Death, 2 aliens (on on the others shoulders), and the Whisperers Cyborg double.
"Better luck next time, coppers!"
He was gone the next instant.
Meanwhile, the man was falling down and down and up and left and right and twirling and twirling and had no idea what to do. Using Mega Atomic Buster, he was able to open up another wormhole, which he fell into and then out of, landing on a what appeared to be a beach.
He got up, looked around, and realized he was still in Russia. The sand was frozen as was the ocean.
"Wait. Ocean?"
He looked around him, and wasn't quite sure where or when he was, but he knew that he must get home and seek revenge for his son who died during WW2 (that's what he was going to tell people, anyway). He began to make his way off the beach, but he did not get far, however, because he saw a visage that would that would destroy his hopes of ever returning home....for you see, on the beach......was the Statue of Liberty.
And that is the meaning of Hannukah.