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Shalom LaKulam! How is everyone on this lovely Shabbat?

Anyway, so Hanukkah is coming up. What is everyone's opinion about Hanukkkah?

As I'm sure everyone knows, Hanukkah is a holiday celebrating the Macabees' victory over the Syrian Greeks. Antiochus, the Syrian Greek King, tried to make the Jews assimilate by forbidding all monotheistic pratices. Some believe that this is where the Dreidel came up, as a way for Jewish children to study scripture while appearing to just be playing with spinning tops. it is alsoi believed that this is when Haftarah portions from the Nevi-im started being paired up with Torah portions, as Jews began studying those in place of the Torah portions they were paired with because Torah study was forbidden

It has become so westernized, though! The story of the Menorah's oil miraculously lasting for eight days has come up, although many believe that it was made up by Rabbis in Babylonia to prevent the Jews from becoming civilly disobedient about celebrating a military victory holiday by giving them a different victory to celebrate. Also, Hanukkah has now become a gift- giving holiday to compete with Christmas. To think that it was originally a minor holiday!!!! ( I remember learning once in Hebrew school about hte irony of Hanukah; that a holiday originally created to celebrate our not assimilating has assimilated so much.) Has anyone heard of Hanukkkah bushes? I have.

To clarify, I am not anti- Westernized Hanukkah; far from it, I love Hanukkah and all that it has become . I love the American Dreidel games where diffrerent letters mean winning different amounts of gelt. I love the chocolate gelt itself (in Israel they use real money to signify the repealing of Antiochus' taxations) and the gift giving. The only thing I can't stand is people saying 'Menorah' instead of 'Hanukkiah'. The Menorah had 7 braches and was lit in the Temple era, whereas the Hanukkiah has 9 and is what e light now at Hanukkah.

So, let's dicuss! What does everyone think about Hanukkah's westernization or just Hnaukkah in general?

Am I that much of a thread killer that I killed my own thread before anyone posts on it?

Lets see, for Chaunkah I'm getting power tools per request, which ones exactly I'm not sure.

All I know is that I've refit my parents computer and taught my mother how to use Limewire and BitTorrent.

So she has discovered how to get large collections of her favorite music, such as Kelly Clarkson and Sheryl Crow, at low low prices, and by that I mean... pirate

Every now and again she will download the same song again and again trying to find the better or most original version. Meanwhile I'll be convincing her not to download viruses or bad tracks.

The beautiful part is when I'm using the computer she will chime in and ask for music requests to listen too, and play it loud enough so she can hear it in the next room.

That being said, if I'm not here after Chanukah, it's because I have put a gun in my mouth.

Neuf: May I recommend a double-barreled shotgun, with a brick wall behind you? Twice the bullet with half the mess!

Tachi: I'm glad you get to see your friend, say Happy Hanukah from me! And your Yeshiva sounds like fun.

I love Hannukkah! In my family we do all the typical Hannukkah stuff, lighting menoras, eating latkas, playing draydel with gelt. But we've never really done much gift giving. My siblings and I always get a gift card to somewhere from our non-Jewish grandparents, but other than that just maybe one or two things. I love the smell of Hannukkah, too. Tonight at my Shul we're having a big Hannukkah party and right now latkas, snitzel, and sufganiot are being made so the ENITRE house smells like oil!

How cheerful! I would encourage you to all look up Boris Johnson, Mayor of London. This guy is the greatest, daftest Brit since Prince Charles.

First night: Sunglasses with built-in FM radio and Ear-buds and External port.

Second Night: Various gift cards.

And how come when you go to the shops to by items for your avi it automatically says that you 'caroled' and says to keep doing so for some sort of prize or whatever.

I just wanted to check out what item I got for the hotel for dogs game (look at the avi and guess what it was), and I foud out I 'caroled.' Then I went back to see if any stores had Jewish Decor (though I probably should have known better and stayed away) I 'caroled' again automatically.


I know that I designed this thread for a different topic, but eeveryone is thinking about that so I decided to bring it up.