Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Chanukah

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the eighth and final night of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'To light another light'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

There’s a fascinating argument in the Talmud. Can you take one Chanukah light to light another? Usually, of course, we take an extra light, the shamash, and use it to light all the candles.

But suppose we don’t have one. Can we light the first candle and then use it to light the others?

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the seventh night (tomorrow on Motzei #Shabbat) of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'Inside / outside'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

There is more than one command in Judaism to light lights. There are three. There are the Shabbat candles. There is the havdalah candle. And there are the Chanukah candles.

The difference between them is that Shabbat candles represent shalom bayit, peace in the home. They are lit indoors. They are, if you like, Judaism’s inner light, the light of the sanctity of marriage and the holiness of home.

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the sixth night of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'The light of war and the lights of peace'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

There is a law about Chanukah I find moving and profound. Maimonides writes that ‘the command of Chanukah lights is very precious. One who lacks the money to buy lights should sell something, or if necessary borrow, so as to be able to fulfil the mitzvah.’

The question then arises, What if, on Friday afternoon, you find yourself with only one candle? What do you light it as — a Shabbat candle or a Chanukah one? It can’t be both.

Read 9 tweets

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the fifth night of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'The third miracle'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

We all know the miracles of Chanukah, the military victory of the Maccabees against the Greeks, and the miracle of the oil that should have lasted one day but stayed burning for eight.

But there was a third miracle not many people know about. It took place several centuries later.

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the fourth night of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'The first clash of civilisations'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

One of the key phrases of our time is the clash of civilisations. And Chanukah is about one of the first great clashes of civilisation, between the Greeks and Jews of antiquity, Athens and Jerusalem.

The ancient Greeks produced one of the most remarkable civilisations of all time: philosophers like Plato & Aristotle, historians like Herodotus & Thucydides, dramatists like Sophocles & Aeschylus. They produced art & architecture of a beauty that has never been surpassed.

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the third night of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'Chanukah in our time'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

Back in 1991 I lit Chanukah candles with Mikhail Gorbachev, who had, until earlier that year, been president of the Soviet Union. For seventy years the practice of Judaism had been effectively banned in communist Russia.

It was one of the two great assaults on our people and faith in the twentieth century. The Germans sought to kill Jews; the Russians tried to kill Judaism. Under Stalin the assault became brutal.

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the second night of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'The light of the spirit never dies'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

There’s an interesting question the commentators ask about Chanukah. For eight days we light lights, and each night we make the blessing over miracles: she-asah nissim la-avotenu.

But what was the miracle of the first night? The light that should have lasted one day lasted eight. But that means there was something miraculous about days 2 to 8; but nothing miraculous about the first day.

Talia Lavin

@chick_in_kiev

listening to chanukah music all morning filled me with joy and pride. it bloomed a few parts of me that wilted a bit while researching the most vicious of antisemites all year. proud to be a yid always & forever

anyway its my favorite anti-imperialist guerilla warfare holiday about minority religious freedom that has jelly donuts as a holiday food #chanukah

https://twitter.com/chick_in_kiev/status/1208779999391764482?s=21

song thread here, full cheesy judaica

https://twitter.com/chick_in_kiev/status/1208779999391764482?s=21

https://twitter.com/chick_in_kiev/status/1208779999391764482

Read 3 tweets

Here is a short thread as we light the candles for the first night of #Chanukah 🕎 called 'Inspired by faith, we can change the world'. Chanukah sameach! 🥳

22 centuries ago, when Israel was under the rule of the empire of Alexander the Great, one particular leader, Antiochus IV, decided to force the pace of Hellenisation, forbidding Jews to practice their religion and setting up in the Temple in Jerusalem a statue of Zeus Olympus.

This was too much to bear, and a group of Jews, the Maccabees, fought for their religious freedom, winning a stunning victory against the most powerful army of the ancient world.

Read 7 tweets

There is more than one command in #Judaism to light lights. There are three. There are the #Shabbat candles. There is the havdalah candle. And there are the #Chanukah candles.

The Chanukah candles used to be lit outside — outside the front door.

Arsen Ostrovsky

@Ostrov_A

@yadvashem

In honour of the Jewish holiday of #Chanukah now, I'm going to make a THREAD here with some powerful Chanukah images (c/- @yadvashem) from 'Before, During and After the #Holocaust'.

Starting with this, perhaps most powerful one: Kiel, Germany (1932)

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@yadvashem

@yadvashem Lodz, Poland, 1943, #Hanukkah in the Ghetto. 2/

@yadvashem

@yadvashem Berlin, Germany, 1930s, a lit Hanukkah candelabrum on #Hanukkah. 3/