Happy Hanukkah to all !!!

[Prinz Eugen]

I am not Jewish, but I would like to thank and honor those spiritual descendants of a successful uprising against Macedonean state forces, presenting a shining example of re-asserting the right to free practice of the religion of ones choice, without interference from the State.

[RemSaverem]

Thank you!
My cousins' Moshav is actually on   Macabee land, as authenticated by the Department of Antiquities,  and is an annual pilgrimage site for many Jews & Christians.
If anyone is interested, my cousin, a Chassidic Rabbi, has written about Chanukah from a mystical perspective, & I could email you some of his work off-list.

[Washougal_Otaku]

[RemSaverem]

Awesome.

[jaybug]

Here's a joke I'm working on. What hairstyle do Jews wear in Jamaica this time of year? Dredl-locks!

Could that get any worse?

[Washougal_Otaku]

@Ellen - Thanks.  I found it on Yahoo!

@Jay - I kinda liked that...

[RemSaverem]

Here's a joke I'm working on. What hairstyle do Jews wear in Jamaica this time of year? Dredl-locks!

Could that get any worse?

I dredyl to think how much worse Chanukah puns could get.
 They could get a latke worse.

[Washougal_Otaku]

^ lol

[RemSaverem]

Be careful, there's Menorah where that came from.

[Washougal_Otaku]

^
   

[Prinz Eugen]

Hey, the whole event was a little Waco, after all...

(obscure, crass pun; unlike Janet Reno's assault on the Branch Davidians compound in Waco TX, the Maccebeans KICKED ASS against the State...)

[Washougal_Otaku]

^ Meh, that one was okay...

[RemSaverem]

Heh. There are some funny little Chanukah gimmicks out there. There are now dreydels that, instead of the traditional hand-painted wood, are plastic, and when you spin them, they play "The dreydel song". Oh, I heard folks back east just set a new Guinness Book record for the greatest # of folks spinning dreydels at the same time.

Ever wonder what that is that is written on the Jewish spinning top used at Chanukah?

There are 4 Hebrew letters painted on a dreydel. They are nun, gimmel, hay, and shin. This stands for "Nesh Gadol Haya Sham", i.e., "A great miracle happened there."

[Washougal_Otaku]

Yup!  It's a great game with a great story behind it; the dreidel is one of the main reasons why Hanukkah is my favorite Jewish holiday.

[RemSaverem]

I loved it as a kid because so many of our holidays (e.g., Yom Ha-Shoah, Pesach, Tisha B'Av) are about dire tragedies & being the underdogs, & here's a chance to celebrate a victory.

[Washougal_Otaku]

Purim is like that, too.  (I once wrote a Purim play for my Synagogue, like 7 years ago, or so).

[RemSaverem]

Purim is like that, too.  (I once wrote a Purim play for my Synagogue, like 7 years ago, or so).

Huhwha? I had no idea you are Jewish? Wow neato! Hag Sameach!
I would love to read your Purim play.
For folks who don't know, Purim is like our Halloween, in that kids dress up & get treats. It's a very festive celebration, though, and is about evading genocide through garnering the favor of a king.

One of my favorite childhood memories / relics is a photo of me and a couple kids in my nursery school in our Purim finery. I was dressed as Queen Esther, supposedly, but really, I was wearing my red Raggedy Ann nightgown. And my "crown" was an inside-out one from Burger King.

[Washougal_Otaku]

Purim is like that, too.  (I once wrote a Purim play for my Synagogue, like 7 years ago, or so).

Huhwha? I had no idea you are Jewish? Wow neato! Hag Sameach!
I would love to read your Purim play.
For folks who don't know, Purim is like our Halloween, in that kids dress up & get treats. It's a very festive celebration, though, and is about evading genocide through garnering the favor of a king.

One of my favorite childhood memories / relics is a photo of me and a couple kids in my nursery school in our Purim finery. I was dressed as Queen Esther, supposedly, but really, I was wearing my red Raggedy Ann nightgown. And my "crown" was an inside-out one from Burger King.

Hag Sameach!

I'm not actually Jewish, but the church I go to is a Messianic synagogue, so I call it either that or a church; I try to keep it as a synagogue though when I'm thinking about it first.

As for the play, I think there's a copy of the script somewhere in one of our boxes... I'm not sure where, though...

[RemSaverem]

That's awesome. I love archives of childhood relics!
And neat, are you referring to what others call "Jews for Jesus"? Not all Jews count such churches or synagogues as Jewish, but I personally do; the same is true for other branches of Messianic Judiasm such as the Lubavitcher Chabadniks.

[Cassiopeia]

I loved it as a kid because so many of our holidays (e.g., Yom Ha-Shoah, Pesach, Tisha B'Av) are about dire tragedies & being the underdogs, & here's a chance to celebrate a victory.

You kidding? "They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat!" Is pretty much the defining phrase of most Jewish holidays.

[ainekatt]

Fun fact: the dreydels in Israel have different letters, because they stand for "A great miracle happened HERE".

@Charly THAT SONG. OH MY GOD THAT SONG.

[Washougal_Otaku]

^ Yup!  (It was already mentioned on the last page, but the more people know, the better!)

That's awesome. I love archives of childhood relics!
And neat, are you referring to what others call "Jews for Jesus"? Not all Jews count such churches or synagogues as Jewish, but I personally do; the same is true for other branches of Messianic Judiasm such as the Lubavitcher Chabadniks.

Jews for Jesus is an organization that has lots of Messianics involved, but pretty much you're right.  It's also for (such as with my case) Christians who want to get more in touch with the Jewish heritage of Christianity.

I loved it as a kid because so many of our holidays (e.g., Yom Ha-Shoah, Pesach, Tisha B'Av) are about dire tragedies & being the underdogs, & here's a chance to celebrate a victory.

You kidding? "They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat!" Is pretty much the defining phrase of most Jewish holidays.

I wouldn't say it quite like that, but many of them do have ties to feats of survival.  Sukkot, for example, began when the Hebrews were still wandering the desert towards the Promised Land.  Hanukkah is more about a miracle that happened after the Jews fought off the Greeks than it is about the war itself.  Yom Kippur is about atonement and repentance.  Rosh Hashanah = Jewish New Year.