Tikkun Olam

I know there's a big fuss about Thanksgiving coinciding with Chanukah this year, and I can understand that. The former is an important American secular (as opposed to Christian, although it was that as well, generically) holiday, and Chanukah, although a "minor" holiday-as opposed to a Holy holiday such as Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Pesach/Passover and Shavuot-designated by our sages thousands of years ago (it ain't new, that's for sure), is quite big in the United States, giving Jews, both affiliated and not something to celebrate while their Christian brethren are making a big commercial deal about Christmas. But what is the reason we celebrate Chanukah? The popular narrative is that the one little cruse of pure, un-contaminated oil was only enough to last for one day, but miraculously, it lasted for eight!  Of course, I loved this legend growing up; it made Chanukah magical to me, and I'm sure to many others.  Here is an interview with Rabbi David...

The holiday of Chanukah is going splendidly so far (Baruch Hashem). We have had Chanukah party after party, get-together after get-together, and eaten home-made and store bought levivot ('latkes' for you Eastern European-type Yiddish folks) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts or "Bismarks" for you, uh, other folks. . .) In addition, which actually was the highlight of the week, the sixth night of Chanukah--in Israel--it was the fifth day for us--we had the great treat of being with our children & grandchildren , albeit virtually, for their Chanukiyah lighting ceremony and songs. How, you ask? (thought you'd never). Very simple: my younger son Nathaniel Blumenstein invited his brother, Mister Arnold Mayergi & his lovely wife Hardally & their baby sister Rambo to Jerusalem for that night's candle-lighting in their apartment (or flat , for you Europeans). N.Blumenstein ( he can cook, a little like his Abba) had fried yummy levivot for the occasion, ...

Really, Leora's post and looking at her photo of her 'chanukah table' with all their menorahs on them made me wax nostalgic. . . Chanukah was one of our favorite magical holidays when our kids were little. I know it's a very Northern Hemisphere view of it, but our memories of Chanukah are of dark, snowy evenings with our chanukiyots'* blazing candles in all the colors of the rainbow, or their oil wicks flickering in the air, creating dancing shadows on the walls and reflections in the frosty windows, lighting up the night from within. A Jewish Holiday Meme via Here in HP (who got it from Ima on the Bima , who got it from--oh, enough already!): Everything that I am writing about below took place in the past. Our children haven't been home for a long time now, and except for 2004 in a different state, and 2005 in Israel, we have not been together for Chanukah in years. But this is what we used to do, and hopefully, in the near future, do again (with the ad...

Chanukah is coming. I wrote that before the chag began. I can't believe that I haven't been able to post since November 30th: my computer has been out of commission so long that now Chanukah is here ! Thank G-d we have the most wonderful chagim (holidays) to remind us of Goodness, and Light, and the Purpose of Life--especially in the light (NO pun intended there) of what is happening in the U.S. with the revelation of serious corruption and fraud, some major one even perpetrated by a Jew named Bernie (a shanda): fodder for anti-Semitism, of course. My computer had been corrupted by 2 Trojans which disabled the security software - how appropriate, in this season, to beware of Greeks bearing gifts --but now they have been quarantined (the Trojans, not the Greeks) and I can reconnect to the internet, my lifeline. I felt totally disconnected (not a pun. really.) without it . Now to my earth-shatteringly-important question: why, oh why do they NOT have levivot* in Israel? You ge...