Mikeitz-Chanukah: Victorious Dreamers
Yehudit, our Chanukah heroine, executes a cunning plan to save her starving town from a siege. She maneuvers her way into the enemy ranks and leaves with their general’s head under her arm. Displayed at the city gates, it scares off the besieging forces.
With a stealthy and quick-witted heroine, a well-devised plot and a gruesome but triumphant finale, the story is thrilling and, well, a little remote. Does the Yehudit brand of heroism elude those of us who are short on plots to save our people?
Perhaps the theme of Chanukah—its celebration of the miraculous, its triumph of light over might, holy over profane, faith over reason—tells us otherwise.
Maybe, like Yehudit, each one of us can concoct our own cunning and stealthy plot—one where we outwit skepticism and sidestep cynicism. Slaying these smug generals, we replace them with faith and wonder, trading in what is merely possible for the truly miraculous.
Devora Levin,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
Chanukah videos, information, articles, stories, games, cards, how-to guides, and much, much more!
Cook up a traditional Chanukah storm: latkes and applesauce, jelly doughnuts and more. Recipes for all tastes.
Send best wishes to family and friends during the festival of light and warmth.
To the ancient Greeks, if something wasn’t seeable or understandable, it simply wasn’t.
What moved me was not just the generosity of his act, but the immediacy of it. The fact that it came so naturally. As if it was no big deal.
The Hellenist bristled at the notion of a realm into which he could not insert his ego . . .
Both the menorah and the showbread table of the Temple are symbolized by the Chanukah menorah.
The left side of the car was completely bent in; the back seat windows were shattered. The car was totaled.
Flying across Grenada, I receive instructions from the Pentagon to call Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn . . .
He slowly tries lighting the fourth and fifth. I close my eyes for the miracle, but there is none.
The auction began. The bids rose steadily upward, and soon all the poorer people and even those of average means were forced to drop out.
It’s a rags-to-riches story: Joseph interprets a couple of royal dreams and goes from the dungeon to the throne!
The priorities you cultivate during your “good times” should be of the kind that will sustain you during your “bad times” as well.
Jordana Raban loves that there are giant holiday symbols standing tall in Basking Ridge, N.J. From the huge Chanukah menorah to what some say is the world’s biggest dreidel, it makes her proud to drive by and see it all.
Corrections officers in S. Petersburg joined Jewish community officials in dedicating a synagogue in the city’s newly-opened Yablonevka Prison.
Anxieties, worries, feelings of inadequacy and failure—all these smother and cripple the soul from doing its job.
You need to find the appropriate time to deal with them. But don’t carry them around the whole day.
During the day, you are Adam and Eve before they tasted the fruit of good and evil.
