Hanukkah
The menorah and a tale of two flames.
“The stories of the Maccabees are coming to life before our eyes.”
The rabbi joins us to talk about the deeper theological meaning of the holiday through the lens of a fascinating essay by the Modern Orthodox thinker Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
“If Jews had the fortitude to believe in victory over the Greeks, then we could not now surrender our trust in defeating our enemy.”
As an “unrecognized” religion, Judaism is illegal.
Footage of Hanukkah in Baghdad in the 1990s.
A plea from Britain’s chief rabbi.
Originally, Jews didn’t kindle lights to celebrate the holiday.
The problem was not that the stars of the Hanukkah story were too heroic, but that they confused their military heroism for the capacity of communal leadership.
The forgotten history of the sufganiyah.
“It was one of the decisive events in human history. Never before had men been convinced, as they were then, that an idea was something to fight for and to die for.”
’Tis the season of Hanukkah bashing.
The miracle of the Jews and the existence of Jew-hatred go hand in hand.
Some back-of-the-envelope sociology of American Jewry.
