Countdown to Hanukkah 2008!!

As the non-Jewish contributor to this blog, I decided to devote a little time to Hanukkah ... a holiday I have never celebrated and until this moment did not know how to spell. I found this website that provides very useful information for the neophytes among us. For one thing, I learned that Hanukkah is not all that important to Jews - not as important as the many other Jewish holidays of which I no nothing.

Also, I learned that the Maccabees were bad-ass Jews whose name comes from the Hebrew word for "Hammer." Apparently, the Greeks were defiling the Holy Temple in Jerusalem (offering pigs for sacrifice to multiple gods) and the Jews fought back. All this was about 165 BCE. When the Jews got their temple back, there was a miracle at the temple: candles remained lit for eight days on oil that was only supposed to last for a day! If you are underwhelmed by this miracle, you are not Jewish.

That is my Jewish lesson for the day.

As for personal opinions on Jewishness, I have very few. I was once afraid that I'd insulted Lauren because I said something anti-Israel, but I later found out she's anti-Israel, too. One of my problems with Israel (besides the whole geopolitical thing) is that the young men get out of the military, no doubt a hard, dangerous military (not the namby pamby military of, say, the Swiss), go to foreign lands (especially India and Thailand) and do as many drugs as possible. This creates a good deal of tension, as you may well imagine. Some Israeli who is used to carrying around an automatic weapon and having people fear him comes to a poor country, yells at people a lot, wears tie-dye and velvet pants, and takes ecstasy every day. The former-military-turned-insta-hippie is a poor representative of Israel. I think there should be a prolonged de-programming after the military, and it should involve frequent reminders that bongo drums are not toys and LSD is a superfluous drug in a country that deifies cows.

Actually, I think I can summon a bit of an opinion about Jews in general. I am jealous of the culture, the ability of a people to maintain their identity over centuries while also adapting to the economic and social realities that they find themselves in. That is, truly, a miracle. What other religious group has survived so long - maybe Zoroastrians? At any rate, it may take a religion to keep people glued like this for such a long time. Any thoughts, Lauren?