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Hanukkah: A Great Miracle Happened Here

Hanukkah lights
[EvgeniT / pixabay]

Rabbi Ismar Schorsch and Host Larry Josephson talk about the history, rituals and meaning of Hanukkah, and its importance in our time. Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch explains that Hanukkah is really about a Jewish civil war, a war between assimilated, Hellenized Jews and a pious band of zealots, the Maccabees. The well-known "miracle of the oil," occurs at the end of the story, after the Temple has been retaken by the Maccabees, and rededicated and cleansed. The program also includes music for Hanukkah.