[Avodah] Articles by RSRH Related to Chanukah

[Prof. L. Levine]

The articles below are form the Collected Writings of RSRH and deal with Chanukah.


Kislev_I The Prayer for Rain<https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/kislev_I.pdf>  (Collected Writings II)


[https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/New_icons_50.gif] Kislev_II Hellenism and Judaism<https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/hellenism_judaism.pdf>  (Collected Writings II)


  [https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/New_icons_50.gif]  Kislev_VI Chanukah: Consecration and Inspiration in Judaism<https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/kislev_VI.pdf> (Collected Writings II)

Kislev II discusses Hellenism and Judaism.

>From https://www.jewishpress.com/headline/hanukkah-real-message-alien-to-most-american-jews/2022/12/20/

It may come as a shock to most American Jews, but Hanukkah is pretty much the opposite of the modern secular celebration of Christmas that most of their neighbors celebrate. Rather than an expression of peace, the revolt of the Maccabees was a battle against foreign oppression and a bloody civil war.


The priest Mattathias and his five sons and their followers fought both their Syrian Greek oppressors and the assimilated Jews who had embraced the Hellenistic practices of their overlords. Contemporary leftists critical of Hanukkah aren’t wrong to point out that most American Jews probably have a lot more in common with the latter—who were embracing a universalist culture and rejecting the narrow, parochial beliefs of the rebels—than the heroic Judah Maccabee.


That’s precisely why Hanukkah really does deserve the disproportionate attention it gets from American Jews this time of year, relative to its lesser importance in the liturgical calendar.


See the above URL for much more.


Professor Yitzchok Levine


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