Free Republic

On the first day of Chanukah My true love sent to me. Some gelt with Ju dah Macc a bee On the second day of Chanukah My true love sent to me. 2 plastic dreidels And some gelt with Ju dah Macc a bee On the third day of Hanukkah My true love sent to me. 3 crispy latkes 2 plastic dreidels And some gelt with Ju dah Macc a bee On the fourth day of Hanukkah My true love sent to me. 4 sufganiyot 3 crispy latkes 2 plastic dreidels And some gelt with Ju dah Macc a bee...

Tuesday, December 16, 2014 A Dangerous Holiday Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Holidays are a calendar. They mark points in emotional and physical time. They remind of us who we are. Many of those celebrating Chanukah celebrate a holiday that does nothing more than celebrate 'celebration', the rituals and rites of entertainment, a special food, a symbol whose meaning they don't remember and a little family fun. Chanukah is many things but it is not a safe holiday. It is a victory celebration in a guerrilla war. It is a reminder that Obama's war on Jerusalem...

A brief (8 minute) talk about the connection between Thanksgiving, its acknowledgement of G-d, America's religious freedom/founding, and Chanukah (spreading light.) Note: This is subtitled (the Rebbe, Rabbi Schneerson speaks in Yiddish) but it's worth listening, reading, and watching. He highlights our REAL American values so poignantly and perfectly-- and blesses Reagan to boot... a great end of the Holiday!

There’s nothing like the holidays for laughing at anti-religious malcontents being driven to madness by the thought of Christians and Jews celebrating their faiths. Crosses, menorahs, happy people with satisfying personal lives – these things drive the militant atheists into a sputtering rage. Watching them fume is the gift that keeps on giving. Normal atheists just don’t believe in God, and those of us who do, figure that’s between them. They respect our religion and we respect their right to have no part of it. Sure, some religious folks talk to people about their faith, but it’s not clear why...

Israeli police closed the Temple Mount Sunday after Jewish visitors to the Mount—which is Judaism’s holiest site and the exact spot of the events of the Hanukkah holiday—broke out into Hanukkah songs, enraging Muslim worshipers. Following the song, a scuffle broke out between Jews and Muslims. Four people were arrested. Police have decided to close the Mount to all visitors until further notice. …

Years ago, on a perfect Hanukkah day, my brother and I were getting off the Coney Island bumper cars on the way to kosher country, when we heard "Dirty Jews!" Before having a chance to react in anger or fear, two boys were running full speed away from us. Knowing they were not running from a 7-year-old in a plaid shirt or his slow moving 11-year-old brother, I imagined that the hand of God had descended from the cyclone. But, spotting a speeding Judah Maccabee chasing down those thugs, to my amazement and some chagrin, the Maccabee was none other...

Because Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day for 2013 -as they last did in 1888-  this year's calendar has produced a  rare concurrence that won't be repeated for another 79,043 years... FoxNews   h/t Speedunque

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

The greatest Thanksgiving episode of any TV sitcom — ever. “With God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Happy Thanksgiving 2013!! ~ GOD BLESS AND WATCH OVER THEM, WHEREVER THEY SERVE Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863 By the President of the United States of America. The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source...

Watch the students of the Technion compete for the best Rube Goldberg device to....LIGHT THE MENORAH! Technion students Eyal Cohen and Tomer Wassermann from the Mechanical Engineering faculty and Matan Orian and Dvir Dukhan of Industrial Engineering and Management take on the challenge to build a Rube Goldberg machine that lights the Chanukah menorah. Hanukkah is the holiday of miracles and here is another one.

Still today there is controversy as to the “real meaning of Chanukah.” So let’s keep it simple by declaring that Chanukah is about a group of Hebrew fighters who were mad as hell and were not going to take it anymore. These were the Maccabees, hammers for justice and freedom in Judea/Israel some 2,000 years ago. The Maccabees took to heart the Torah dictate that the Hebrews were to be “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” So, outnumbered and out-gunned, they used guerilla tactics to rise up against their Hellenistic oppressors who had defiled the land, the people...

A young Jewish girl was pranked by Santa after she refused to believe that Santa comes to Jewish houses. While celebrating Chanukah the young Jewish girl opened her mother’s closet and found Christmas presents with her name on it. 4-year-old Ashley questioned her mother about the gifts. Her mother Amy said that Santa dropped the gifts off early. The family participated in a Christmas celebration at the girl’s aunt’s house, but clever Ashley did not believe the reasoning. That is when Ashley’s father asked his co workers at Z100 radio show to pretend to be Santa and prank call his...

Since the November elections we have never seen so much despondency and despair. We're hearing from so many people who say they are depressed, see no way out, and are just giving up. And, yes, things are looking worse than ever before. Four more years of Barack Obama. More socialist politicians elected to Congress. And the "opposition" Republican leadership with no backbone or will to fight back. "It's finished. America's done. I'm giving up." We're hearing that everywhere. People are feeling beaten and completely powerless. Today is the 8th and final day of the Jewish holiday Chanukah. Most people (and...

A candle is a brief flare of light. A wick dipped in oil burns and then goes out again. The light of Chanukah appears to follow the same narrative. Briefly there is light and warmth and then darkness again. Out of the exile of Babylon, the handful that returned to resettle and rebuild the land faced the might of new empires. The Jews who returned from the exile of one evil empire some twenty-six hundred years ago were forced to decide whether they would be a people with their own faith and history, or the colony of another empire, with...

Video at link.

At first glance “ ’Twas the Night Before Hanukkah” looks like a novelty album. On the cover two smiling women in 1950s garb exchange presents by a fir tree topped with a Star of David while a demure girl lights a menorah. It seems to promise a kitschy collection of comic tunes along the lines of Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song.” But the people behind this double album — four Jewish record collectors who form the nonprofit Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation — say they are deadly serious about the subject. They have compiled an eclectic set of songs that not...

The eight days of Chanukah this year begin on Tuesday the 20th of December. The Jewish historian Josephus gives an account of the history:The First Chanukkah (December 164 BCE)Key excerpt:["And on the twenty-fifth day of  the month Kislev, which the Macedonians call Apellaios, they lighted the lights [phôta] that were on the menorah, and offered incense upon the altar, and laid the loaves upon the table, and offered whole burnt offerings upon the new altar. As it happened, these things took place on the very same day on which, three years before, the divine worship had been reduced to an impure and...

The same video captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing and karaoke

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is marking Hanukkah as a story of "faith over doubt."