Hanukkah

Can Maccabees and Hellinists Get Along?

For Chanuka: Rav Kook on: Adopting the Positive Without the Negative of Greek/Western Culture Chanuka is a good opportunity to study Rav Kook's detailed advise regarding how exactly to adopt the good from the Western and modern world without the problematic and negative aspects. The class gleans many sources on this central topic of Rav Kook's various books and summarizes the Who, What, Where and How of this basic issue for religious-Zionist and Modern-Orthodox Jews.

The Hidden Light

The light of Chanuka becomes dark in Tevet but it never disappears.

The 2,200-Years War

The Jewish war against Greek culture continued with its battle against Christianity, which is a blend of Jewish and Greek-Roman ideas, and continues today as well. The leading culture today is Western culture, built on the foundations of Christian culture. And so the points of difference that exist today between Torah and Western culture are also based on the points of struggle between Greek and Jewish philosophy.

What Is the Procedure for the Torah & Haftora Reading This Shabbat?

…Who Help Themselves

What is Chanuka really all about? Does it revolve around the miracle of the oil lasting for 8 days instead of just 1?

Who are the Hellenists of Today?

The holiday of Hanuka commemorates both military and spiritual victories, of a national nature, during the Second Temple period. On the one hand, the one-day supply of oil in the Holy Temple miraculously lasted for eight days. On the other hand, the greatly outnumbered Jews also won incredible military victories over their Greek enemies, thus preserving the State of Judea for over 200 years. The war was fought also against the Hellenists [Greek sympathizers, mostly Jews], who sought to secularize the Jewish Nation. Do the Hellenists of then have a parallel today?

Who Lights the Chanukiya - When, Where & How?