The Battle

There’s a kind of transcendent vibration of possibility in a doorway—a potential that isn't found in the more clearly defined areas of “indoors” or “outdoors.”

A world of reason, intellect, and knowledge alone is not a sustainable world. Within true wisdom flickers the light of a higher consciousness, an awareness that we are not the end-all of being, that within this reality and within this life breathes the One that created all things. Even reason itself.

This is the light of G-d’s wisdom. It’s not there for our use that we can manipulate it and modify it to fit our needs and desires. If we’re able to figure a little bit of it out, well, that’s pretty amazing. But if we can’t, that doesn’t change its truth one iota.

They could have learned so much from each other! Instead, the extremists hit the battlefield

What happens when you mix the soil of materialism with the water of spurious reason?

A great debate about G‑d and man lies at the heart of the West. Athens and Jerusalem still are what they always were--the struggling twins of the western civilization

What does Chanukah actually commemorate?

To a mature tree, a gash here or a torn limb there is of little or no consequence. But the smallest nick in the seedling results in an irrevocable deformity

Seven symbolizes the Natural order, eight symbolizes the Super-natural

Historians note that this was the sole occurrence in the career of Antiochus that a people's religious privileges were revoked...

Hedonism and ascetics are two sides of this same Hellenic coin: when the soul (flame) meets the body (wick), either the flame gutters out, or it consumes the wick leaving only formless soot behind...

Today is the seeds for all of the "shoulda, coulda woulda" that can become weeds of regret. Yet at times it seems that the flowers that blossom from our choices take too much time to blossom.

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. Torah vs. Greek philosophy.

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 . . .

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 . . .

To the ancient Greeks, if something wasn’t seeable or understandable, it simply wasn’t.

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?

What lesson can we take from Joseph? Why did Manasseh come first? How does this connect to Chanukah?

Who dares to criticize Chanukah? Luckily I didn’t run out of my free articles for this month (it’s only the 6th), as I was even willing to buy a subscription just to find out!

The Maccabees were Jewish fighters who led the revolt against the Syrian Greek ruling class. Their victory is celebrated every year on Hanukkah.