Chanukah begins this evening, and not a moment too soon.
When my daughter was young and the sun rose and set on her every lesson with alphabet and equation, I bemoaned any gap between Christmas and the Festival of Lights. The closer, the better, if you ask me. How better to illustrate the primal lesson of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the pleasure and challenge of a Jew living simultaneously in two civilizations.
Rosh Hoshana related web site links
In a concert entitled \”The Light of Helfman-Generations of Music from the Brandeis-Bardin Institute\”, which celebrates Max Helfman, founder of Brandeis Bardin\’s Summer Arts Institute, the LAJS will inaugurate its sixth season with a performance of Handel\’s triumphant \”Judas Maccabeus\” in a Yiddish translation by Helfman.
My Granny was gleeful, giving us the best part of her, as we gathered in her kitchen on the first day of the joyous holiday — Chanukah — the \”Festival of Lights\”.
So here\’s my vote to simplify Hanukkah and restore its inherent values: freedom, conviction, dedication, hope, continuity, peace, rebuilding, community, family.
All evening Taumisha Freeman sat dutifully, listening to the story of the Exodus out of Egypt, tasting matzah (\”It needs salt\”), reciting the plagues, without any expression. It was hard to know if she was bored or if, given the fact that she had never been around anything Jewish before, it was just too strange to be here at this intergroup Passover, sponsored by the Pacific Southwest regional office of the Anti-Defamation League.
\”You shall live in booths seven days in order that future generations may know I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt\” (Leviticus 23:42-43).
Isaac submits without struggle to the twisted leather straps that bind him. He is a helpless partner in this odd dance of death. Abraham reaches for the knife to slit his son\’s throat when mercifully, an angel calls out to stop the slaughter. A ram is to die instead of the boy.
For promoters and lovers of Jewish books, now is the season of our deep content.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.