Happy Hanukkah 2006

DollyCali | 15 December 2006 | DollyCali

[DollyCali]

Hanukkah

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights or Festival of Rededication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of Kislev, which may be in December, late November, or, while very rare in occasion, early January (as was the case for the Hannukkah of 2005–2006). The festival is observed in Jewish homes by the kindling of lights on each of the festival's eight nights, one on the first night, two on the second night and so on.

In Hebrew script, the word Hanukkah is written חנכה or חנוכה. It is most commonly transliterated to English as Hanukkah or Chanukah.It is also known as the Festival of Lights, Feast of Dedication, and Feast of the Maccabees, Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by Judas Maccabee in 165 BC after the Temple had been profaned by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria and overlord of Palestine.

[AppyPappy]

Latkes....yum.

Holidays are a great time to remember all those who have come and gone.

[APRPEH]

Chag Chanukah Sameach

FOR YOUR SHABBAT TABLE
By Rabbi Shimon H Posner

Did the Maccabees win? Would we have rooted for them? Were they fighting the bad guys? They were fighting the Greeks: Athens! The best of Western culture has its roots in Greece. Form graceful columns to Homer to Hippocrates, sound-in-mind-sound-in-body still rings beautiful and still entices two-thousand-plus years later. Think of something more pleasant than a sound mind and body. I defy you.

Even the the Maccabees have morphed into a warped Athenian tribute. Maccabiah, the sports competition that draws Jewish athletes from around the globe, is utterly Greek. The Maccabean revolt began - in large measure - when a gymnasium went up in Jerusalem. Irony of ironies, perhaps. Overlooked, no doubt; but facts are stubborn things.

We identify with sound-mind-sound-body. We long for it. Then why are we celebrating Chanukah? Why do Jews who insist they are "secular", who have no qualms about eating latkes together with the animal the Greeks demanded the Jews sacrifice in their Temple, why do such Jews celebrate Chanukah? Why then, in homes no Seder is kept, no Yom Kippur fasted, no shofar blown, is the menorah lit?

I know the pat Americanized-Jew-needed-a-civil-religion-equivalent for-end-December. But centuries before retail found December, the Good Books told of how Chanukah -- alone among the holidays - would never be forgotten.

Chanukah makes no sense. The Talmud concedes that the Jews could have used other oil to burn eight days, according to the letter of the law. But the Jews then were not being legalistic; they weren't looking for loopholes.

They were in a fight for Jewish identity itself. They recognized the threat of malicious Greeks, they recognized the threat of theoretically benign Hellenists. Their devotion to a cruse of oil was a devotion to a link to Sinai.

Sound-body-sound-mind connects body and mind. It offers no ladder to the soul.

The Macabees knew that without a conscience to bug you, the body and mind are at peace. Like animals in pasture. But if G-d wanted us to be nothing more than content, He wouldn't need anything more than cows.

Did the Maccabees vanquish their enemies? Not at all. Not then; while the menorah shone for eight days, battles waged within earshot of the Temple Mount. Not now, Greece still lives well thank you, even in Jerusalem. Is there a Jew alive today that is not intrigued or entranced by the theater or gymnasium? However they react to its allure: acceptance, resistance or repugnance they are all dialectically related to it. No, the Greeks are not vanquished.

But the Maccabees were not either. And that is a miracle. That in the shadows of gas chambers, in the cockpits of spacecraft and on the foremost boulevards of the greatest cities, the candle still burns.

That in heimish neighborhoods of lakes, dreidels and Chanukah oy Chanukah, and also in homes that wouldn't have a Chagall or a little wooden camel from Israel because it's 'too Jewish', in these homes too, Chanukah has not been forgotten. There is that pure flame that shines, unconquered and unwavering, and that is a miracle that is a victory.

There is a future, foreseeable or not, when the glitz of Greece will not diminish the flame -- only add luster to it.

Then Moshiach himself will be lighting the candle. A flame. A witness of a people who - at the end of the very long day - did not waiver.

[rogue yam]

Here's some traditional music:

http://www.fatwreck.com/video_track/lowres_video/27/MeFirstAndTheGimmes_SoleMED.mov

[ZULU]

Happy Hanukkah to all the Jewish members of Free Republic.

Christians and Jews have common roots and face the same determined, insane enemy. And the Nation of Israel fulfills the promise of God, and its survival should be the goal of all Jews and Christians.

[Mama_Bear]

Happy Hanukkah to all our Jewish friends!

[Rte66]

Happy Hanukkah!

Play the dreidel game here:

http://www.torahtots.com/holidays/chanuka/dreidel.htm

[netmilsmom]

>>Pancakes and crepes? OY VEY!<<

You either have to get there REALLY early or work the breakfast. I elect to work it. That way I get the sympathy vote to reserve some for me!

[lesser_satan]

And don't forget part 2:

Put on your Yamaka
Its time for Chanukah
So much funnaka
To celebrate Chanukah

Chanukah is the festival of lights
Instead of one day of presents
We get eight crazy nights

When you feel like the only kid in town
Without a Christmas tree
Here's a new list of people who are Jewish
Just like you and me

Winona Ryder,
Drinks Manischewitz wine
Then spins a Dreidle with Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein

Guess who gives and receives
Loads of Chanukah toys
The girls from Veruca Salt and all three Beastie Boys

Lenny Kravitz is half Jewish,
Courtney Love is half too
Put them together
What a funky bad ass Jew

We got Harvey Keitel
And flash dancer Jennifer Beals
Yasmine Bleeth from Baywatch is Jewish
And yes her boobs are real

Put on that yarmulka
Its time for Chanukah
2 time Ocsar winning Dustin Hoffmanaka
celebrates Chanukah

O.J. Simpson
Still not a Jew
But guess who is,
The guy who does the voice for Scooby Doo

Bob Dylan was born a Jew
Then he wasn't
but now he's back,
Mary Tyler Moore's husband is Jewish
'Cause we're pretty good in the sack.

Guess who got bar-mitzvahed
On the PGA tour
No I'm not talking about Tiger Woods
I'm talkin' about Mr. Happy Gilmore.

So many Jews are in the show biz
Bruce Springsteen isn't Jewish
But my mother thinks he is.

Tell the world-amanaka
It's time to celebrate Chanukah
It's not pronounced Ch-nakah
The C is silent in Chanukah
So read your hooked on phonica
Get drunk in Tijuanaka
If you really really wannaka
Have a happy happy happy happy Chanukah!

And part 3:

Put on your yamulke
It's time for Chanukah (sounds good guys)
Once again it's Onakah
The miracle of Chanukah. (give it up for the Drei Dels)

Chanukah is the festival of lights.
One day of presents?
Hell no, We get eight crazy nights.

But if you still feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree
I guess my first two songs didn't do it for you
So here comes number three!

Ross and Phoebe from "Friends" say the Chanukah blessing.
So does Lenny's pal Squiggy and "Will & Grace"'s Debra Messing.

Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon never mixed meat with dairy.
Maybe they should have called that show "Little Kosher House on the Prairie."

We got Jerry Lewis, Ben Stiller and Jack Black.
Tom Arnold converted to Judaism, but you guys can have him back!
(Just kidding Tommy!)

We may not get to kiss underneath the mistletoe
But we can do it all night long with Deuce Bigalow! (I'm jewish!)
Oh My God! Sweet Robbie Schneider is here!

Put on the yamukah
Here comes Chanukah
The guy in Willie Nelson's band who plays harmonica
Celebrates Chanukah.
Oooo, good job Schneider

Osama bin Laden--(Booo!)--not a big fan of the Jews.
Well, maybe that's because he lost a figure skating match to gold medalist
Sarah Hughes! (her mama's Jewish)

Houdini and David Blaine escaped straightjackets with such precision.
But the one thing they could not get out of
Their painful circumcision.

As for Half-Jewish actors, Seann Penn is quite the great one,
And Marlon Brando not a Jew at all ,
But it looks to me like he ate one.

There's Lou Reed, Perry Ferrell, Beck and Paula Abdul.
Joey Ramone invented punk rock music
But first came Hebrew school.

Natalie Portmanukah
It's time to celebrate Chanukah.
I hope I get an Abrtronicah,
on this joyful, toyful Chanukah.

So get a high colonicah
And soil your long johnukahs
If you really really wantukah.
Have a happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy

Happy Chan-u-kah!

[exdem2000]

What is Kislev?

[Convert from ECUSA]

A joyful and happy Hanukkah to all our FR Jewish friends. From Virgnia to all of you: "God bless y'all real good!"

[Lurking Libertarian]

Chag same'ach!

[Lurking Libertarian]

What is Kislev?

It's the name of one of the months of the Jewish calendar. Hanukah starts on the 25th of Kislev (and runs over into the month of Tevet).

[saradippity]

Alouette,correct me if I am wrong. I have heard,or read that scriptural reference to Chanakah is contained only in the Catholic editions of the Old and New Testaments. As I understand it,neither nonCatholic nor Hebrew written scripture cover the reason for the season (so to speak). However,netmilsmom,you can find the whole story in one of the books of Maccabees,I can't remember chapter and verse,being Catholic,ya know.(wink)

[ArrogantBustard]

Hannukah music?

[DollyCali]

I don't do music

:-(

Maybe someone else can help????

[Sam Cree]

Happy Chanukah, everyone!

[ArrogantBustard]

But the Maccabean Revolt (or at least its conclusion) is, as one might say, "the reason for the season".

[BigSkyFreeper]

Happy Hanukkah BUMP from Denmark!

[netmilsmom]

Thanks!!!

[SJackson]

Thanks, I'm part of a conspiracy you know.