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1. Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas. The parallels are striking. Both happen near the end of the secular year. Both center around lights. And both involve gift giving. But, despite their outward similarities, the two are vastly different in religious meaning. Christmas is a central Christian holiday, marking the birth of Jesus. Hanukkah, which is not…

December means family time. We celebrate holidays. We take a little time off. But many of us greet this with a feeling of worry. Our country feels more divided. The ties that bind us feel more frayed. I’ve read some accounts of siblings cutting themselves off from one another because of the way they voted in…

The newspaper is rarely is a good source to find wisdom. We find opinions. We find facts. But real insight on how to live well is are. So we turn to other sources like books and essays and blogs. But what if I told you one section of the newspaper does contain wisdom? And that…

Jewish tradition often leaves me perplexed. A few years ago, the first night of Chanukah coincided with Thanksgiving. This year Chanukah begins on Christmas Eve. How is that possible? The Jewish calendar revolves around the lunar cycle. The lunar cycle lasts about 28 days. That is a month in the Jewish calendar. The typical lunar year is 355…
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