Chanukah Service
David Holden, President of Temple Jacob, will discuss Hanukkah. Hanukkah is known at present as the Jewish Festival of Lights – but it wasn’t always so! Though it is at best a minor holiday on the traditional Jewish calendar, it has risen to prominence quite recently. The transformation of its history and innovation of observance into the form we now practice serves as a lesson of the power of narrative, Rabbinic debate, and the Pia Fraus (the pious lie).
Hanukkah begins on Sunday evening, November 28th, and builds to its conclusion on the evening of December 5th. In what he hopes will be a discussion, David will review current practices, the history of the festival’s formation both militarily and in the Talmud, and some of the causes of its transformation into the complicated amalgam we see reflected in today’s popular culture.