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It’s Hanukkah and I am in hiding. I don't want to see Facebook posts and news items about weird creative Hanukkah candelabras in which each flame stands for some new-fangled liberal cause. I don't want to see the significance of potato pancakes explained to senators or read that Obama is Jewish in his soul. I want to keep Hanukkah close to my heart, away from those who would tamper with its true meaning which is this: The Jews fought a war against assimilation and won. Those flickering Hanukkah lights have nothing to do with equality, integration, and multiculturalism. They have...

An audio class on the origins and practices of Chanukah in Jewish teachings, with application to our modern culture.

Why Orthodox Christians Prefer the Septuagint Third Edition By Metropolitan Ephraim Preface All told, there are some 300 textual differences between the Masoretic and the Septuagint texts, some of them important and some of them insignificant. These articles will explain why Orthodox Christians prefer the Septuagint, despite some admittedly beautiful and eloquent passages found in the Masoretic text. The articles by Metropolitan Ephraim were originally published on the internet in the Spring of 2009, and they appear here in a slightly edited and augmented form. ONE - HONOR THE PHYSICIAN In the Wisdom of Sirach, it says: “Honor the physician...

The Jewish people not only defeated the Greeks on the battlefield, but we defeated them spiritually as well. In fact, the spiritual struggle was the true heart of the conflict. In Greek philosophy, the power and wisdom of man was preeminent. In the Greek worldview, there was no room and no need for G-d. All that needed to be accomplished could be accomplished by man, on his own, with no assistance at all. This is why the Greeks so desperately wanted to crush Judaism. In the case of other conquered peoples, the Greeks were benevolent to their new citizens. They...

Menelaus would have been proud. He was the Hellenistic high priest installed by Antiochus who championed the battle against traditional Jews that brought about the holiday of Hanukka. Not much has changed - it would seem - in 2,000 years. Instead of the Greeks and the secular Jews combining forces to stifle Jewish observance, today it's Labor MK Ophir Paz-Pines. He has introduced a bill in the Knesset that would effectively punish an adult who brings a minor closer to mitzva observance or Torah study. Invite a teenager to put on tefillin, and you could be prosecuted.

Chanukah reminds us that Judaism sees everything as a miracle. But Hellenism saw nothing as a miracle. To the Greeks, a miracle was an absurdity. To them, only what was reasonable, logical, and rational could be real. Miracles were illogical and, therefore, not possible. The Greeks could never see the light of Chanukah, the light of miracles, because they only believed in the light of logic and reason. According to the Greeks, the world always existed, it never was created. History is an inevitable process — the present and the future are linked to the past and are the necessary...

'snip' I was reminded of this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury of the dialogue carried on-- perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara-- by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned Persian. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures...

Because Chanukah usually occurs in December, it is sometimes thought of as the "Jewish Christmas." It isn't, of course. And yet it is fair to say that the reason for Chanukah's popularity -- especially in America, where it is the most widely observed Jewish holiday after Passover and Yom Kippur -- is precisely its proximity to Christmas. Chanukah used to be regarded as a minor half-holiday, cheerful but low-key. It has become something bigger and brighter in response to Christmas, which transforms each December into a brilliant winter festival of parties, decorations, and music. Attracted by the joy of the...

The collapse of the Western tradition in the United States, seen in the hostility to Christianity in government and education, and the elimination of "traditional" or "canon" learning from our institutions of middle and higher learning, provides a crisis and an opportunity for serious believers at the beginning of the third millennium. These essays are an invitation to think squarely and forthrightly about what the Christian agenda should be. I submit that so far too great a degree of Bible-believing Christians are allowing Roman Catholics and secular conservatives to do their thinking for them. Both of these groups advocate a...

Cain's world: Why they hate us... by Greg Swann This is from Dennis Prager at TownHall.com: If America abandoned Israel, our Arab and Muslim haters would rejoice, but they would surely not stop hating us. Not one of them. They would only conclude that their terror worked, and that America will give in when the threats are great enough. One proof? Most Muslims living in Europe, which has abandoned Israel, continue to loathe Europe. Europe's abandonment of Israel has only convinced them -- for good reason -- that Europe has lost its moral fiber and is ripe for an Islamic takeover.Prager...

Curing the incuriosity of the East... by Greg Swann Intrepid weblogger Billy Beck pointed me to this 'Why Do They Hate Us?' piece by John Derbyshire in The New Criterion. I think Derbyshire was padding his thesis to a pre-set length; the article is long, rambling and unfocused. Funny in places, though. Like this: Try to imagine that your own notion of life in the United States was constructed entirely from American movies and TV programs. You would perceive my country as being inhabited by a mix of gigantic, steroid-enhanced basketball stars, exquisitely beautiful young people with perfect teeth and musculature,...