The seventh night of Hanukkah coincides with Rosh Hodesh Tevet.  While the new moon and new month has long been associated with women, Tevet is extra special.  In North Africa, Greece and Turkey, Jewish communities celebrate this special night with Chag HaBanot (Festival of the Daughters). It’s the day Esther was taken to Ahasuerus’s palace in the Purim story and it’s when we honor the heroism of Judith in the story of Hanukkah. On Chag HaBanot, women and girls across generations...

Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (https://www.keshirahalev.com) offers eight questions to guide us in reflection as we wind down and look ahead to a new secular year. Inspired by the great teacher, Rabbi Shammai, who starts Hanukkah with eight candles lit and ends with just one candle, this ritual invites us to count down and release as we move toward (and embrace) the darkest part of the year.  8) What is something you're ready to leave behind this year?  7) What is something...

When the world is upside down, I/Me/Us/We must flip the script: Grab hold of the narrative, revolt against the same old story, resist the riptide of history despite grim odds, the plot twist brought to untwist this plot. Thus begins every inner rebellion. I/Me/Us/We enter the cold wetness of the cave made of echo-stone to retrieve the oil hidden in secret and Maccabean shadow-folds for generations. When the world is upside down, I/Me/Us/We must flip the script: Watch the exalted letters...

I watch the candles and sing again the tunes you taught me. I still see you kindle lights, standing next to me in a white shirt, I still feel my head on your chest in a movie theater on 13th Street, feel yours on my shoulder, on a bench in Brighton Beach, snow falling outside, salt in your hair. I still sing the tunes that almost went away with you. I won’t let the lights go out, I promised.  I didn’t...

Director’s Note: You can either read this skit free-form by going around the table and having everyone take turns, or you can assign parts, or you can just have two people take turns reading … whatever makes your Hanukkah kick-ass! If you’re going big, then you’ll want to include the following props: Salty cheese, a bottle of wine (Manischewitz is best), a wine glass and a plastic sword. Have fun! MACCABEE: 19 lines BAKER: 19 lines JUDITH (A BEAUTIFUL JEWISH WIDOW):...

I watch the candles and sing again the tunes you taught me. I still see you kindle lights, standing next to me in a white shirt, I still feel my head on your chest in a movie theater on 13th Street, feel yours on my shoulder, on a bench in Brighton Beach, snow falling outside, salt in your hair. I still sing the tunes that almost went away with you. I won’t let the lights go out, I promised.  I didn’t...

As a child, I spent the last week of December under gray skies, the old year like landscape fading out. Days of new toys and boredom, a scent of drying pine needles and cold wax the sadness of soon-to-be abandoned trees. For a few more hours, they are in sync, Kislev and December -- sun and moon made love during the darkest time. Tonight, by the first silver sliver, they drift apart again, the distance growing with each remaining candle lit....

The 24th of Kislev was about to end, dusk was falling I recognized your face from more than four cubits away, six feet You wore blue and I wore green We sat down on a white bench near the playground of your past One by one the children left stars came out and darkness settled in You said the words I needed you to say Your arms around me beneath your light down coat, your heart that will love someone else...