by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 3, 2021 | Chanukah, Haggai, Redemption, Temple
The Book of Maccabees is a collection of four volumes that recount the history of the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, and the Seleucid dynasty. They do not appear in the Jewish canon of the Tanakh (i.e....
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 2, 2021 | Chanukah, Kings, Temple
Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that is not mentioned in the Bible. Its name means ‘dedication,’ and it commemorates the eight-day rededication of the Second Temple by the Hasmoneans that took place at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 2, 2021 | Chanukah
Everyone knows that Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights celebrated by the lighting of candles. But there is so much more to the holiday that makes it an eight-day family event. Lighting the Menorah Lighting the nine-branched menorah is not just a tradition. It is a...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 30, 2021 | Chanukah, Kislev, Temple, Tetzaveh
The holiday of Hanukkah is most famously identified with the story of the miracle of the single cruse of pure olive oil that burned for eight days. The story of Hanukkah does not appear in the Bible but it is told in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b). The story begins in...
by Rabbi Tuly Weisz | f 28, 2016 | Chanukah, Light Unto the Nations, Mikeitz, Responsibility, Zechariah
In 1949, the Provisional Council of Israel, the temporary cabinet that governed the Jewish state until the formation of its first government, selected an official emblem for the fledgling Jewish state to display its sovereignty in the community of nations. Graphic...
