Hanukkah
Miracles, religious freedom, human agency. What is the “real” story of Chanukah, anyway? Join Rabbi Glazer for an exploration of three texts that each tell a different version of the Chanukah story. Through these texts, we’ll come to understand what the story of Chanukah has meant to others and what it might mean for us today.
Hanukkah meaning "dedication" in Hebrew, refers to the joyous eight-day celebration during which Jews commemorate the victory of the Maccabees over the armies of Syria in 165 B.C.E. and the subsequent liberation and "rededication" of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is celebrated by lighting the hanukkiyah, a special menorah for Hanukkah; foods prepared in oil including latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts); and special songs and games.
Maoz Tzur and Other Hanukkah Songs Linked HERE
Wed, April 24 2024
16 Nisan 5784
On Hanukkah, we traditionally serve holiday dishes cooked in oil to commemorate the miracle of a single vial of oil lasting eight days. But oil as the Hanukkah food of choice was not always so.
One thousand years ago, in the warmer climates of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa, the Hanukkah specialty dish was a cheese latke (pancake), which commemorated Judith's heroic efforts to save her people during the second century B.C.E. As the story (told in the Apocrypha) goes, the Syrian General Holofernes was sent to Bethulia (due east of Caesarea) by King Nebuchadnesser to annihilate the Jews. To make him thirsty, the beautiful Judith fed him salty cheese, followed by wine...