Not Safe Anymore: Rapper Responds to Texas Terror Attack
God, Paradox, and the Holocaust: When Our Minds Cannot Understand
Nona, Did I Kill God?
Getting to “I Do”
When All Jews Are Being Threatened
A Woman Called Me and My Family Ugly Jews
The Mutation of Antisemitism
Timeless Wisdom from Survivors: To Give Is To Live
How and Why Jews Light Shabbat Candles
Being a Jew of Color: Will Accepting Our Differences Make Us Better People?
Wear It On Your Face: How Smiling Changes You and the People Around You
Moments before Being Gassed at Auschwitz, A Mother’s Letter
Queen Esther's 6 Lessons for Today
Purim Animated
C Is For Connection, Not Cancel Culture
Now's the Time to Reveal Your True Identity
Home » Jewish Holidays » Hanukkah » Themes » Deeper Themes
by Sarah Pachter
by Miriam Kosman
It’s the radiance emanating from within the home, not the dazzle from without, that ultimately lights up the darkness.
by Rabbi Tzvi Nightingale
What is the essential philosophical difference between the Greeks and the Jews?
by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld
Hanukkah: it’s all in the numbers.
by Gabriel Ethans
Chief Editor's Blog
by Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith
The mohel instructed me to hold the baby’s legs tight, thrusting me into the reality of what was unfolding.
by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg
Why is Hanukkah called the holiday of vision?
by Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield
Why did Judaism pose such a great threat to ancient Greece?
by Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider
Why that small flask of pure oil is like the heart of every Jew.
The actress's desire for a Christmas tree isn't trivial. It represents the contemporary Jew's struggle to hold onto her Jewish identity.
When it comes to spirituality, never take no for an answer.
by Karen Wolfers Rapaport
Understanding Judaism’s requirement to generate light on three different occasions.
Rabbi Benjamin Blech
by Rabbi Benjamin Blech
Why relight the menorah when reason dictated that a day later it would go dark once again?
by Debbie Gutfreund
Hanukkah is a special time for us to say thank You for all the little and big miracles in our lives.
The similarities – and essential differences – between Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.
by Jason Elbaum
Lighting Hanukkah candles is a brave act in the Maccabean tradition.
The Maccabees realized that there is a time to fight.
by Sara Yoheved Rigler
Who are the heroes of Hanukkah?
by Rabbi Joel Padowitz
Understanding the cultural clash between the Greeks and the Jews.
Understanding the meaning of the Chanukah battle, a war unlike any other.
by Matisyahu and Ephraim Rosenstein
Light up and be a hero.
Why the Hanukkah battle isn't over yet.
by Rabbi Yechezkel Freundlich
The Jewish definition of “miraculous” is different from Merriam-Webster.
by Dina Coopersmith
The Greeks enlightened the world with art, philosophy and science. So why does Torah associate them with forces of darkness?
Is it a Jewish value to yield or to resist?
Why didn't God simply give the Jews an eight-day supply of oil?
by Lawrence Kelemen
The military victory and the burning oil provide a deep lesson in self-discovery.
by Dr. Simcha Shapiro
Chanukah's eight powerful tools for bringing some light into the darkness.
by Rabbi Doniel Baron
What was the underlying conflict between Jewish and Greek philosophy?
Is a beautiful golf swing enough to make you a hero?
by Chana Graj
What you and I today would have written off as an act of insanity, was in fact one of the greatest deeds in Jewish history.
by Rabbi Avi Shafran
What's the difference between nature and the miraculous?
by Sherri Lederman Mandell
Chanukah and the murder of my son taught me a new way of seeing.
The astonishing connection between the two reflects the deeper meaning of Hanukkah.
by Rabbi Baruch Beyer
Miracles don't happen anymore, do they?
by Rabbi Eytan Feiner
The discrepancy in how the Hanukkah dreidel and Purim gragger are spun reflect a profound lesson in the nature of the two holidays.
The Greeks thought that physicality was a primary goal of man.
by Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky
The world of Greece was defined by beauty and philosophy, which many Jews admired. Yet in the end, there had to be a fight to the finish between the two ways of life. Why?
The Greeks restricted the world to physical beauty while the Jews opened the eyes of the world to the spiritual glory that lies deep within.
by Rabbi Yonason Goldson
The Greeks fought to uproot the Torah, the spiritual compass that kept the Jewish people pointed toward light through the dark exile.
The danger of religion does not lie in religious fervor, but in religious uncertainty.
by Rabbi Yehuda Krohn, Psy.D.
Nurturing the subtle, contradictory strivings for intimacy.
Some surprising lessons are unearthed with Saddam Hussein.
by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
When we light Chanukah lights, we help each other remember God's miracles and kindnesses.
The secret of why the Greek empire didn't survive more than a few hundred years.
by Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf
Comparing the Greek exile to the darkness at the beginning of creation.
Most Popular In Hanukkah
►
01:59
Receive Weekly Calendar and Holidays Emails
Sign up to our Calendar and Holidays Newsletter.
_(english).gif)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).gif)
_(english).gif)
_(english).gif)
_(english).gif)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).jpg)
_(english).gif)
_(english).gif)
_(english).gif)
