I would like to address an aspect of Chanukah which I think is a little misunderstood. Chanukah is very popular, and I think this popularity is due to many people having a misconception about it. They look at it as some type of 4th of July, some type of fight or struggle to Jewish independence, or a struggle for the Jewish people to have a freedom, and so on and ...

The underlying theme of the conflict between the Jews and the Greeks is the clash between two diametrically opposed worldviews.  [In the Jewish view of reality, everything in the physical world is a reflection of the spiritual.  A physical conflict is a superficial manifestation of a deeper spiritual conflict.]  There are, of course, many points of contention between Jewish tradition and Greek philosophy.  The spiritual essence of the Judeo-Greek conflict ...