Shammai and Hillel fight it out: How should we light the Hanukkah candles?

By -
How was it decided that we should light one candle on the first night of Hanukkah? In this audio message, join me in going back in history to listen to the debate between the ancient rabbis Hillel and Shammai about how best to mark the Hanukkah miracle, and how best to face the challenges of the future.  Chag Urim Sameach - best wishes for a happy Hanukkah holiday!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What happened to Haman's descendants?

By -
Image
On the surface, Purim seems like the most lighthearted Jewish holiday, with joking, masquerading, feasting, and delivering treats to friends and family.   But under that surface boils the powerful rage of thousands of years.   When we yell and stamp and make noise during the reading of the Megillah, we express our rage not only at Haman, the villain of the Purim story, but also at those in every generation whose irrational hatred of Jews has led them to violence.   But let us exhibit this rage with caution. The rage of Purim finds dramatic expression in the special Torah reading for the Shabbat before Purim, known as Shabbat Zakhor, the Sabbath of Remembrance. We read (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)   that as the Israelites were wandering in the desert, they were attacked by the tribe of Amalek. The Amalekites chose to fight their battle not against the armed Israelite soldiers, but against innocent, defenseless civilians, the “stragglers in the rear.” The Torah commands us to obliterate
Read more

Two words for "husband": Haftarah Bamidbar

By -
Image
From the Shofar Newsletter May 2013   What’s the Hebrew word for ‘husband’? Actually, you have two choices.  Both are in use in Hebrew today.  and both were used in the time of the bible.  The first word is ‘ ba’al ’.  If a woman in Israel today wants to refer to her husband, she might refer to him as ‘ ba’ali ’ - ‘my husband.’ But if you know Hebrew, you know that the same word ‘ baal ’ can mean ‘owner.’  For example, ‘ ba’al ha-bayit ’ means ‘home-owner’ or ‘master of the house.’  And more insidiously, the owner of a slave is also referred to in the bible as ‘ baal ’. So you can see this term’s etymological origin.  It is a relic of a time when a woman’s relationship with her husband wasn’t that different from the relationship between a servant and master.  There are some people who won’t use the word baal on principle for this reason.  So what word would they use instead?  The word ‘ ish ’.  Most literally, ‘ ish ’ simply means ‘man’ - but there are some point
Read more

Talking peacefully? (Parashat Vayeshev 5784 / 2023)

By -
  Talking peacefully? Parashat Vayeshev 5784 / 2023 This week I saw a very chilling video and a very inspiring video, both of which were both recorded on the same day in the same location.  Both videos were recorded at a place very dear to me, the campus of Columbia University in New York City, this past Wednesday December 6.  Both were recorded in the lobby of the Columbia School of Social Work. A student group in the Columbia Social Work school had announced a ‘teach-in’ in support of Gaza to take place this past Wednesday December 6. If the topic of  this event had been the plight of people in Gaza currently, the difficulties and horrifying loss of life faced by civilians in Gaza in the face of Israel’s bombardments, that’s something I would have expected. But that’s not what this event was. This event planned by Columbia Social Work students was an event specifically to applaud the violent events of October 7.  In fact, the title that the students gave to this “teach-in and discuss
Read more