Chanukah & Kislev

Cook (and fry) up a traditional Hanukkah storm: latkes to applesauce, jelly doughnuts and more recipes for all tastes.

If you could have taken a snapshot during the time of the Maccabees, what would it have looked like?

No matter how much I tried to forget about my Jewish roots, it kept emerging front and center in my life, sometimes in frightening ways.

The concept of support is deeply interwoven with Kislev.

We don't have to take on an army in order to experience miracles.

Some say you have to see to believe. I say you have to believe to see.

As far as Jewish holidays go, Chanukah, when kept to tradition, is actually an inexpensive one.

Rabbi David and Chana decided to remain in the country until there were no more travelers that needed them, even though the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous.

The G‑dy soul has a secret weapon.

As we approach the end of the calendar year, I am often asked, “Why do Soviet Jews buy evergreen trees for New Year’s?”

On the windowsill stood a silver candelabra large enough to hold nine candles and a box of tall candles. I understood I was being initiated into a rite I hadn’t known existed until that moment.

I just couldn’t appreciate what it must have been like for my mother to grow up in a city where you are the micro-minority—that is, until I moved to Tokyo.

Motherhood is a new territory, and every child—no matter how many you have—is its own, beautiful, new light. You enter new stages all the time. What worked for one child doesn’t for another.

My cataract operation was like my own little Chanukah triumph—my personal victory of overcoming my anxiety, and my universe turning from darkness to light.

I remembered you saying, “If someone, even a stranger, has to bend down to ask, you have to walk over to give.”

Chanukah represents much more than a physical victory. The menorah provides a guide to help us fight our inner, spiritual battles.

I asked myself, “How can you dress one way in one place and a different way in another?” To have one identity at “home” and another one when I was away felt off. It felt contradictory.

How does it feel to be a tzadik?

I wonder if we’ve become so used to miracles that we almost take them for granted.

I don’t know what happened. I opened up my eyes and stared straight up at the dark, starry sky. Why was I flat on my back on the sidewalk? Where was I?

It’s not the first time I hear this, and it probably won’t be the last. The woman sitting before me is so afraid of having a baby. I watch her face and try to decipher the source of the tension from what I see on her body.

Rosh Hashanah? Not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Chanukah!

Two years post-divorce, I had passed the initial shock and grief stages of my marriage’s dissolution. But I hadn’t yet found the way to infuse my lonely, meaningless existence with a measure of joie de vivre.

When I was growing up in America, Chanukah was always overshadowed by the non-Jewish holiday that occurs during the same season.

if it’s not the skin color or shape of the eyes, what makes a Jewish woman Jewish? What makes her part of the Jewish nation? What makes her different than anyone else? What makes her unique? What is her true beauty?

There’s a natural order to our beautiful world.

She was recuperating from an operation for a broken leg, and though she had been experiencing some occasional breathing problems since the operation, there had been no indication that anything was wrong, apart from her inability to walk.

As I made my way to my favorite vegetable stand, I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation of the tourist mother with her four- or five-year-old daughter.

Surrounded by strangers, he was afraid to strike a match or recite a blessing for fear of calling undue attention to himself and his family.

The light I speak of is not harnessed through modern technology nor emitted through halogen bulbs. It is a spiritual light.

No matter what dirt tries to attach to our souls—and it surely will—our souls remain pure. We just need to learn how to see that.

It’s easy for me to cook and clean, arrange for things and do the shopping, make phone calls and give baths, but it’s not so easy for me to be present while I’m doing these things.

Religion that is motion without emotion is missing something.

It was said innocently enough. “Don’t Jew me now!” There was a moment of silence. Everyone looked at me for a response. But I didn’t know how to respond . . .

Judaism’s fire-lighting has always been one of building. We celebrate our days, our weeks, our months and our relationships with a fire, literally and figuratively . . .

She wanted him to give her advice on she should deal with the situation once the child was born. She wanted him to bless her with strength. He didn’t. You know what he told her instead? He told her that a person should not ask to be able to pass a test that they don’t even have....

Ask me what I did today. I’ll tell you what I recently told a fellow mom when she asked me what I did this past summer: “Nothing.” Fascinating. When I review my day with Naftoli, it’s jam-packed. When I review my day with myself, it leaves me questioning my very identity as a person...

There is no doubt that these flames are telling a story. The real question is, are we listening?

This woman was comforting me because she thought I was crying out of pain, the logical reason to cry after an accident like this. And yet, here I was crying because of the way I would look the next day...

This is not a holiday of splurging and materialism, but one of teaching our children how fortunate we have been, and how to help those less fortunate than ourselves...

Our task on these eight nights is to rededicate the Temple, in our own times, in our own lives; each night illumines a new aspect of self, lighting a new alcove of our inner House of Holiness...

It was the twenty-fifth of December. A Jewish girl from Queens had fulfilled her secret dreams, decorating that bright, forbidden tree…

G‑d in the day-in, day out is the G‑d I can relate to. Now that all the blockbuster holidays have passed, I feel like my soul is in a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers...

Should I give them an answer that they want to hear, one that won't separate me from the group and will increase my chances of winning, or do I tell them what is really in my heart?

A young woman asked me this week why G‑d gave her an eating disorder. Her friends are enjoying the pleasures of youth,she struggles every moment for her health and sanity. She is young. She doesn't remember ever asking for this...

Are things as they appear to be? Or is everything also its opposite? Is heat hot? Or is it cold as well? Is ice fire? And am I no-thing?

An in-depth evaluation of the events of Chanukah reveals that the war between the Jews and the Greeks was first and foremost a spiritual war — a clash of cultures. At odds were Torah and Greek philosophy — two entirely different conceptual schemes of human life...

So “hitting rock bottom” is not the worst thing after all . . . it is only once we reach the bottom that we can actually be present to the new reality we are faced with. Only when we become present to a reality can we begin to move on from it . . .

Because Chanukah is about Jewish faith and pride, it is especially pertinent to Jewish women...

The Jewish people—men and women—defied every Greek law with enormous self-sacrifice, yet it was largely by and for the sake of Jewish women that the Maccabees were led to declare war . . .

I wanted to be tactful, but I also wanted to express my disagreement with her. "I know it's difficult, but the situation is difficult, the age is difficult. Your child isn't difficult."

By defining themselves in perfect contradistinction to one another, "light" and "darkness" enter into a symmetrical bond which attests to an underlying unity forming their common source

“Ritually pure”—what, exactly, is that? What properties does a ritually pure sample of olive oil have that the others don’t?

His pulling and pleading become more insistent and I ignored him. I knew his cries were a result of being tired and cranky and I had thought that he could wait...

I knew then that even if by some miracle I could talk my way out of not having a Gentile document, I could never explain the latkes and doughnuts in my bundle...

The ceremony marking the beginning of the school year was held in a local church. When I went to speak with the college president about this non-inclusive choice of venue, he answered me with a kindly smile . . .

I came home and explained to my husband that I just couldn't do it again. I couldn't start with the treatments again, the running around like a madwoman, the ups and downs, the anxiety. I just wanted to be happy with what I had...

In the comfort of the bus, G‑d sent me my own miracle- and made me realize that everyday brings its own causes for celebration...

Gone were the memories of all my mother’s happy years of Chanukahs celebrated together as a growing family, and they were now permanently replaced by the one indelible memory of her first Chanukah in England, alone, torn from her parents and sisters, while the Nazi inferno raged in Europe . . .

Making beeswax candles is the perfect easy craft to do with kids and prepare your home for Chanukah...

Darkness is not just what fills the sky. It can fill our vision, craft negativities in the mind, and color the same in heart. What lives in our mind is closely linked to how we feel and defines our entire reality...

As I enjoyed the beauty of G‑d’s creation, a strange thought struck me—after the leaves change, they will fall off the trees. This vibrant display of nature only occurs when the leaves are dying!

Good teachers inspire us to grow. By expecting the best from us, they make us better.

It seems that every year the dreidel-makers try to outdo themselves.

Gently, the doctor breaks the devastating news to Debbie that Mark probably won't survive.