Jerusalem: The Eternal City of Jewish Longing
The resurrection of Jerusalem, after centuries of wandering and the near-death experience of the Holocaust, eludes simple rational explanation.
December 18, 2017
How Ancient Hebrew Poets Commemorated Hanukkah Even When Rabbis Ignored It
Liturgical tributes to the Hasmoneans in 7th-century Palestine.
One of the enduring puzzles of the Hanukkah holiday is the scant attention paid to it in the Talmud: it receives only passing mention in the Mishnah (the Talmud’s earlier stratum), and most of the comment on it in the Gemara (the later stratum) is confined to a single two-page discussion. By contrast, even the similarly minor holiday of Purim gets its own tractate. But while the rabbis seemed content to downplay Hanukkah, the liturgical poets of the same era composed numerous prayers (piyyutim) celebrating it. Examining the works of Galilean poets from the 5th through 7th centuries, Ophir Münz-Manor writes:
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Why the U.S. Must Assume a More Direct Approach to Rolling Back Iranian Power
Lebanon’s stability is not a U.S. interest.
Sweden Has an Anti-Semitism Problem. But Politicians Would Rather Blame It on Israel Than Acknowledge Where It Comes From
Muslims and the far left, not the far right, are responsible for most of the attacks on Jews.
How Ancient Hebrew Poets Commemorated Hanukkah Even When Rabbis Ignored It
Liturgical tributes to the Hasmoneans in 7th-century Palestine.
How Sephardi Refugees Brought Chocolate to France
They were plugged into an international network of Iberian exiles.