@@brandancase3852 I recommend a series of interviews with Prof KD Irani to understand Zoroastrianism. Also Jenny Rose's book Zoroastrianism, an introduction is good. Wrt prototheyising, centuries of persecution led to zoroastrianism developing into more of a ethno-cultural minority religion. In India, the Parsi's essentially formed their own caste and slotted in to India's social system easily, due to India's longstanding religious toleration.
I would like to see a video on the social gospel movement, in Canada and around the world, if it happened. Tommy Douglas, a Saskatchewan premier was a big proponent. He inspired Canadian politicians to enact our universal healthcare system. A system that has served us well during this pandemic. I wonder why it was not a force in the USA. Stay safe, stay sane, be well
My Sephardic Jewish family is originally from Venice, Italy, and they barely celebrated Hanukah until it became big in the US. Personally I learnt what latkes are when I was a teenager. Thank you for the wonderful explanation!
Unfortunately it's likely because the implied taboo of talking about religion in general. I can't say I blame people for wanting to avoid a channel solely about discussing religion a deeply polarizing topic. I do however of course think they're missing out, but c'est la vie.
@@airysama8812 yeah...that annoys me. It's like if you mention even one thing. People try to change the topic. So I just stay on forums with like minded people who like reading on religion and myth. :)
@@airysama8812 ya, it couldn't be that he uses Jewish intellectuals understanding of some aspects of Christianity to explain Christianity.... does this with many religions, just saw it on his "when Judaism and Christianity became seperate religions." Didn't quote a single Bible verse, just said we are to privileged to understand. The problem with this is he doesn't get the info from the people who actually believe in the faith he's talking about. Of course he's bias, we all are, but he's arrogant in thinking he's unbiased.
@Storm D Thank you for saying what is so correct. The dumbest people in the world will try to emphasize these very small issues and they are the same ones who wouldn't know halacha if they had 100 years to learn it.
a couple years ago when anti-semitic graffiti and hate crimes were spiking, i noticed that most of my jewish neighbors put up a lot more hanukkah decorations than usual. seems very in the spirit of hanukkah’s origins to me.
@@Pingwn there are! at least where i live, blue string lights are for hanukkah. if you want to get a little more elaborate then there’s big light-up (often inflatable) menorahs, dreidels, and stars of david, plus some less overtly “christmas” winter decorations (snow men, blue and white presents, etc.)
@@tech6hutch Semitic doesn't mean just Jewish there are semites of Islam and Christianity that term is like saying that if You don't like Germans that You're anti European
I guess most of us are already used to the high quality of the content on this channel. However, I would like to praise one more thing: the very good pronounciation of the Polish "pączki"! Such a small detail, but very appreciated.
I remember In kindergarten our class had a 'holidays of our class' party where my dad dressed as sinter Klaus and made olie bollen and my friends parents taught us how to make latkes and play dreidel. We also had a family teach us about Diwali and anyways this just reminded me of how exciting it was to be a kid learning about Hanukkah. Great video and I hope you do more about Jewish holidays!!
My coworkers when I'm not at work for any other Jewish holiday: *silence* Them when December starts: HAPPY HANUKKAH! I hope you enjoy your most important Jewish holiday! Me: 🤦♀️
I guess they are not Christian either. They would know what Passover is. Either that, or the power of the media has won over their own Pascha celebrations lol.
Lol my partner is Jewish, celebrates all major Jewish holidays and his family are relatively religious. Hanukkah 🕎 barely matters to him lol. Most years he doesn’t even realize it’s here. “Oooh? Is Hanukkah going on right now...eh whatever.” Now this makes sense 😆
Yeah, from what I had gathered from my middle school religious studies class was that it was basically just a holiday for kids (kinda like Halloween for Christians). This video definitely expanded on that, but also confirmed my understanding.
In high school they had some religious leaders come to the school and speak with us. If I remeber correctly it was a priest, a rabbi, and an imam. It might've been a Jew, Catholic, and Protestant though. I remember the rabbi joking that Hanukkah was a minor holiday that they'd put more focus on over the years so the Jewish kids wouldn't feel left out during Christmas.
I always thought it is “jewish Christmas” and the most important jewish holiday. So I think I can’t thank you enough for this video. There is another topic I would like to see on your channel. It’s something I’m thinking about it for quite a while and that is “Disney as a religion”. It would make me so happy to see a video about that.
Another interesting point is that long before Hanukah came into competition with Christmas, the Rabbis of the Talmud compared it to its Roman competitor (and Christmas's forebear), Saturnalia. (BT Avodah Zarah 8a)
Thank you for this Informative piece. As "rededication" on a personal spiritual level, chanukah can be thought of as rededication of our lives to God. Some folks consider the human body as a "temple" where God resides within.
lshulman58 exactly! I thought that too! I rededicate the temple of my body to my Lord and saviour 'Yeshua Hamasciach' may His Holy Spirit dwell in me fully and completely, Amen.
Great idea. Pose the same set of questions to each. don't make the interview videos too long. Maybe instead of each video being an interview with ONE person, make each video focused on one QUESTION editing together how several different people of different religions answer the same question.
Hey Great video! I really appreciate your willingness to discuss the complexity of the cultural differences surrounding Hanukkah. Just wanted to add also I'm a Sephardic Jew living in the US and if at any point you find yourself looking for any first hand accounts on the topic I'd be glad to share some of my experiences!
I think Hannukah would be hugely popular with more non-Jewish Americans. A holiday dedicated to oil fried food? Sign me up! 8 days? Who needs Christmas Eve when you can have 8 "Eve"s! Holiday lights? Oh yeah, these ones are supposed to be publicly viewable for those outside to see!
love your channel brother, Im majoring in History at UC Berkeley, love your videos, your content has had a massive affect on my studies, your videos are always intriguing and interesting, best history/religious content on youtube!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait hello fellow cal student. I'm an eng major but love taking history classes, do you have any recs for religious studies classes? I'm going into my senior year and just want to take as many interesting classes as humanly possible before I leave haha
My wonderful father, when asked by me; "Why doesn't Santa visit me when I'm just as good as my friends?", stated: oh no, good Jewish girls get gifts from Max, the Chanukah Man!
I'm a non - Jew, but I know the miracle story, at least in highlights. My take on this is that the Jews were able to reclaim and rededicate and re - consecrate their temple. That they could reestablish their temple and go on living their culture instead of losing it to conquest. To me, that is the miracle: the strength of Jewish culture.
@@LiveAtEs no connection to hanukkah. Epiphany celebrates when the wise men brought gifts to the newborn Christ child. They followed the star in the east - the LIGHT - to find him! That is likely why "light" - refers to the nativity star. Though Jesus is also called the "light that shines in the darkness".
Hannukah is the day Jesus was born equivalen with 25 December 5 BC. Some early Christian celebrate Christmas on Hannukkah, 25 Kislev. Some follow the Roman and coptic Calendar.
@@melissalisaandrean6803 The date of Hanukah may have historic roots. The date of Christmas was invented a few hundred years after the fact possibly to draw Christians away from pagan winter holidays like Saturnalia. There were sheep in the fields at night not in the sheep folds. That only happens during lambing season in spring. The shepherds around Bethlehem still do the same.
We had a wooden blue and white free-standing Star Of David that we would decorate with paper chains and blue and white lights. Also we put our gifts under it. One gift was opened each night, though sometimes two. I have never seen one of these wooden "Chanukah bushes" before or since. It always felt like we had the only one ever made!
I took a couple of Jewish studies class for my Religious Studies minor. I came across an article about how Hanukkah in Israel was/is pumped up to be a cultural/ national holiday. I notice that Joy is repeated theme in Hanukkah, It's interesting that you find it in the text of Maccabees.
Very excited for you and your time in Cairo! I long hope to go there for archaeological work one day; even currently learning the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. Keep up the great work and مبروك!
Thank you for this wonderful video! Yes, you must talk about the Ashkenazi dominance in Judaism. I’ve been working on converting for years, and this was something I noticed for sure. I personally relate more to Sephardic customs, because I am from a converso family (another topic you should talk about!) but everyone is made to follow Ashkenazi customs, even if both customs are perfectly acceptable according to Jewish law. I often had to defend myself not just within the community but even to outsiders to prove I was in fact following the customs just fine. But because I wasn’t a black hat, I wasn’t considered to be doing things correctly. I think this is something more people need to be aware of. Plus it’s a fascinating topic!
Even post-holocaust the majority of Jews are Ashkenazi, in the US it is the supermajority. If you look at what Sephardi authorities say about whether a non-sefardi should follow sephardi customs they nearly all say they should. Its a two way street with both sephardi and ashkenazi rabbis thinking that their customs should be adopted by all.
I've never heard about the money-related part of Dreidel playing but it seems to make historical sense. Overall great video! As and ex-religious Israeli Jew I can say to the best of my knowledge this is all very accurate and even educating.
I think you should have mentioned the connection between Christmas and Hannukah, both occurring in winter and coinciding with shorter daylight hours in the northern hemisphere, hence celebrated with lights as a sign that daylight hours will begin to increase again. The Hindu Diwali festival also seems connected to this. I once heard that the date of Hannukah as the festival for the re-dedication of the temple is connected to the prophecy of Haggai who talks about the day the temple was founded as the 24th day of the ninth month (one day prior to the 25th of Kislev), see Haggai 2:18.
Your channel is awesome. I bought a ticket for your Roman magic lectures but then got busy and missed it! I'll buy another ticket if you do another on magic! I'm really interested in the topic. Good luck in Egypt!
@@eligedzelman5127, nope. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, I’m tis since I attended Catholic school, got the Catholic catechism, took Catholic rites, etc. in the eyes of Jewish tradition, I’m tis by birthright. In point of fact, I am neither. I became a member of Eckankar some forty years ago and am a priest in the ECK teachings. So ECK claims me. Funny how everyone claims everyone else, isn’t it?
These are the days of miracle and wonder This is the long distance call The way the camera follows us in slo-mo The way we look to us all, oh yeah The way we look to a distant constellation That's dying in a corner of the sky These are the days of miracle and wonder And don't cry baby, don't cry - Don't cry - Paul Simon
Just to clarify when people say that Chanukah is a "minor" Jewish holiday, it is very misleading. Chanukah is not as important a holiday as the Shalosh Regalim to be sure nor is it as significant as any of the Holy Days that come from the Torah because they are all God given holidays. You cannot put yourself on the same level as God. The rabbis have the right to institute holidays when they believe it is important enough. Both Chanukah and Purim are Rabbinic holidays or commemorations. Even Jesus would have known these days as they pre-dated him. As you pointed out, some holidays change culturally over time. The only reason we eat latkes or donuts on Chanukah is to remember the oil that lasted for 8 days. It is not a law, just a custom. A person could eat French fries if he wanted. The same goes for the dreidel or sivivon. These are nothing more than cultural traditions that go with the holiday the way carolers go with Christmas. People used to just bake cookies for Christmas and now it is the time of year that keeps most businesses in the Black. As far as the "competition" between Christmas and Chanukah, it may be technically true but it is also misleading. Anytime you have a minority group living in a majority culture it is a struggle not to assimilate and disappear. I would argue that Chanukah is not so much a matter of being a minor holiday as much as the gift giving has become exaggerated in order to compensate for Christmas. When your kids see everyone else getting nice toys for a holiday , you adopt by giving gifts in your own holiday that "miraculously" coincides with that of the dominant culture. Giving gifts on Chanukah is just another aspect of Jewish survival when you are living among people of a dominant religion. But , this should never be confused with Chanukah being a non important holiday. It is older than Christmas and has been celebrated without interruption for over 2000 years. Chanukah has not changed culturally any more than Christmas has.
I'm a big fan of you I'm so excited you moved to my city! I hope you find it good! P.s: there's more to cairo than the traffic and noise. :D Cairo is full of religious monuments, you should totally check out el-moez street and the surrounding mamluk old cairo which still retains most of it's buildings from when they were built 500 years ago!
Hannukah was definitely a big holiday when I was a kid, but as we grew older the whole gift-giving thing was definitely minimized. I remember my mom once told me that Purim was usually the party/gift giving holiday. Wonder if there's any history to that?
My family doesn’t really give gifts and I learned that it’s only practiced by American Jews. Basically kids were jealous of the Christian kids getting gifts, so eventually it was eased into Jewish custom but it really shouldn’t have been
I know this is an old video, but my neighbor has a 8 foot Menorah in his yard and I actually really love seeing it every year, plus it helps because the lighting on that street is mid at best.
Great video. I had never known the reason for hanukkah Only one thing, the Jewish calendar is actually a lunisolar calendar An example of an actual lunar calendar would be the Islamic calendar
Good one addressing ashkenormativity. Hanukkah is my favorite for the story, about radical resistance to assimilation-which ironically makes people think I’m SUPER assimilated...because it’s only seen as important today for the wrong reasons (capitalism and assimilation). Double... mayhaps triple irony...lol Also I thought mizrahi was originally kind of offensive... most MENA Jews fell into Sephardi or Ethiopian or Yemenite to my knowledge. But, I know many people call themselves mizrahi now. I just thought it originated in a way that kind of meant something to the effect of “oriental” I would also amend that ashkenazim were just IN Europe, “roots” is a term I have qualms with. I’m nitpicking now, but it’s only because your videos make me think, haha. Great vid :)
Great video! I hope you'll do a video about all the various Jewish movements that emerged after the fall of the 2nd temple, such as Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai in Yavneh. Thanks!!
I actually never knew Hanukkah bushes were a thing, I thought it was something just from The Goldbergs, love the show, they specifically had an episode where the mom didn’t want her kids to feel left out and wanted them to enjoy Hanukkah more
I know so little Jews in my community who really celebrate Chanukah. Literally most Jewish holidays are more important then Chanukah. But, I also have a suspicion that the reason people assume it’s a big thing is because it happens around Christmas, and because Christmas is important, then Chanukah must be important too. And then I have to explain that no it’s not Jewish Christmas.
Chanukah is a very celebrated holiday. We just don’t need to stop regular lives for it, since it is a minor holiday. All we actually have to do is light the menorah every night, but the celebrations and the food are all complimentary. I love Chanukah but yeah I wish people would recognize our more major holidays more
One thing I find cool is that here in Sweden we put seven handed light holders (nowadays electric) in our windows during christmas time. I do not know if there is a correlation but I think it is a cool similarity.
Interesting how children play a role in the rise of Christmas and Hanukkah! Does anyone have any literature on children's influence on religion in general?
generally I understand that Victorian parents of wealth (idle kids) outside of tutoring, created the modern concept of childhood and all the things that it entails, like buying stuff! And how pure they are, and how we need to ban stuff to protect them! Tied up in other trends too.
Depending on the translation as per usual, some translations of second Maccabees 1:9 call this Feast the Feast of Sukkot. My understanding is because they could not keep the original Sukkot they decided to honor it therefore carrying Hanukkah or Feast of dedication yearly. According to Maccabees they weren't keeping it because of "the miracle" (which I believe a lot that happened were miracles without having to add to them) but of the rededication of the Temple and the eight days because they missed Sukkot
i watch all your videos..its great. Theres alot of interesting topics that you can do...sumerians, moloch, or some pagan beliefs. Thx for making these videos for us,i found it very usefull. Cheers
Speaking of Christmas counter balance…“Love Lights Hanukkah” is a great Hallmark movie! “Mistletoe & Menorah” if one wants a blend! …not Hallmark but basically the same thing.
That was fascinating. The dynamic relationship between "culture" and "religion" is such a complex and difficult issue to discuss. The terminology itself is necessarily contested and that contest occurs on the border of both what is cultural and what is religious. It seems to me that the metaphysical philosophical tradition hoped to overcome the over reliance or even the priority of tradition on human behaviour in favour of what became the Platonic Good or The One. Now the exchange between Judaism and the Greek philosophical tradition is itself highly contentious but it might be being claimed that with this event, the philosophical turn, tradition was being given a lower status than, at that time, philosophy. Later, of course, Greek philosohy will influence both Christianity and Judiasm. Indeed, Christianity adopts uncritically the idea that the good, as a matter of faith, was accessed through reason or logos often associated with the person of Christ. An early criticism of Christianity as it spread through the Roman Empire was that it did not respect tradition. So a kind of ossified practice, like Christmas, might be seen as antiethical to the Graeco-Christian tradition with its demand to be responsive to The Good. If this is so, then is not that true culture, that which functions outside of human intentional behaviour or, to say the same thing, outside of power, is the true domain of Christianity? In turn, can we even contrast the interactions between religion and culture if such is the case? What you are observing in this video is not so much the influence of culture on Jewish ceremonial practices but a strategic response to a potential threat to Judaism. Culture, which might be understood as an experience of the good, is playing no part in Jewish decision making here but fear of assimilation. I suggest that what you are really exploring here is the relationship between power and religion not culture and religion. But, of cousre, this conclusion opens up what is the main discussion, is there such a thing as culture outside of power? This does my head in. Thank you so much for all your excellent videos.
It would be probably worth mentioning that the war that the Maccabees won was primary a civil war between the two Jewish factions in Jerusalem, and not really a war against the occupation, though Seleucids surely participated in it as well. For example one of the main charges against the ruling hellenistic faction of the Jerusalem temple was the fact that they supported restoring of the circumcised foreskin by employing a specially designed device, thanks to the fact that at that time the circumcision was not as irreversible as it became after the Maccabean revolt, as a direct response to this foreskin restoration practice.
In our family we are not Jewish at all. We are gentiles etc.. This year my wife bought a menorah and candles so we celebrated the ritual nightly and learned more about Judaism, traditions and other Jewish holidays etc.. We found the lighting of candles and blessings to be very spiritual and just a nice ritual. We are secular celebrators now!
Latkes actually seem to originate in Sephadic communities as cheese latkes, combining the 2 customs of eating dairy and fried food. They got to Europe by the 14th century, with potato latkes not taking root till the 19th century, when potatoes reached Eastern Europe 🥞
Re: Sufgayiyot. I've always have heard that they are a Ashkenaz adaptation of a food eaten on Chanukah by Sefardim and Mizrachim who lived in close contact with post-inquisition Sephardim. Also, Re: Judith. For context, I would have brought up the fact that while the Apocryphal Judith says it was an Assyrian king, Judaism has placed the story in the context of the Maccabean revolt, and that the Book of Judith was written when things were unclear that it would be safe for a certain population that wrote the book to write a book celebrating a victory over Antiochus IV.
@oaktree_ What I've heard is that they were never a major Chanukah food among Ashkenazim until after the the 40s and we were exposed to Sephardi and Mizrachi culture, so we took their Chanukah sponge cake idea to use pontshke/sufganiyot as a Chanukah food.
Regardless of where sufganiot came from this video was slightly implying that associating eating a sufgania on Hanukkah is a form of ashkenormativity while ignoring the fact that today most sephardim and mizrahim eat it as part of their hanukkah tradition. This by itself is sort of ashkenormativity...
0:50 actually, the jewish calendar is a Lunisolar Calendar (depended on both the moon and the sun). In this kind of calendar, instead of a leap day - there exists a leap month. Hanukkah does in fact shift from year to year on the Gregorian Calendar, but on the Hebrew Calendar it doesn't. Further information about these topics: Lunisolar Calendar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar Hebrew Calendar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar
You've covered a few fictional religions in the past and I would love for you to cover the Mandalorian warrior-faith from Star Wars if you ever get the chance.
Actually, the sci-fi that rally dealt with religion the best was Babylon 5. And I don't mean the Minbari caste thing. I mean real in-universe things like Dr. Franklin's Foundationalism,, Brother Edward's cyber-Catholicism, or Ivanova's relationship to her Jewish roots. Only the Narns have a well developed alien religion in the series JMS tried, but he got it right only with the Narns. Yep, scribes gotta splash coffee on their texts or they are not real. Coffee stains make their third testament real.
What other topics would you like to see on RFB? Join our Patreon community here: www.patreon.com/religionforbreakfast
More dharmic less abrahamic :)
@@brandancase3852 I recommend a series of interviews with Prof KD Irani to understand Zoroastrianism. Also Jenny Rose's book Zoroastrianism, an introduction is good. Wrt prototheyising, centuries of persecution led to zoroastrianism developing into more of a ethno-cultural minority religion. In India, the Parsi's essentially formed their own caste and slotted in to India's social system easily, due to India's longstanding religious toleration.
I would like to see a video on the social gospel movement, in Canada and around the world, if it happened. Tommy Douglas, a Saskatchewan premier was a big proponent. He inspired Canadian politicians to enact our universal healthcare system. A system that has served us well during this pandemic. I wonder why it was not a force in the USA.
Stay safe, stay sane, be well
@@chendaforest More gomutra?
@@alangervasis I don't know what u mean
My Sephardic Jewish family is originally from Venice, Italy, and they barely celebrated Hanukah until it became big in the US. Personally I learnt what latkes are when I was a teenager. Thank you for the wonderful explanation!
Your family sounds Italkim rather than Sephardic. Although italkim are usually from Rome.
@@greenmachine5600 their ancestors probably relocated to Venice after the Jews were expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabela in 1492.
Greedy haughty chosen people
How does this channel not have at least a couple million subscribers?
A+ Content
Especially for remaining respectfully neutral on topics.
Unfortunately it's likely because the implied taboo of talking about religion in general. I can't say I blame people for wanting to avoid a channel solely about discussing religion a deeply polarizing topic. I do however of course think they're missing out, but c'est la vie.
@@airysama8812 yeah...that annoys me. It's like if you mention even one thing. People try to change the topic. So I just stay on forums with like minded people who like reading on religion and myth. :)
@@airysama8812 ya, it couldn't be that he uses Jewish intellectuals understanding of some aspects of Christianity to explain Christianity.... does this with many religions, just saw it on his "when Judaism and Christianity became seperate religions." Didn't quote a single Bible verse, just said we are to privileged to understand. The problem with this is he doesn't get the info from the people who actually believe in the faith he's talking about. Of course he's bias, we all are, but he's arrogant in thinking he's unbiased.
@@isaacgriffin5690 People who actually believe in the faith he's talking about are the ones least likely to be unbiased.
Great video. I'm happy you adressed "Ashkenormativity" and I'm looking forward to your video on it. Thanks.
Yes!! Same!! People need to know Jews come in all flavors.
Unfortunately People lump all groups they're not familiar with into simple categories, a human thing to do but all the more reason to research
Me too
@Storm D Thank you for saying what is so correct. The dumbest people in the world will try to emphasize these very small issues and they are the same ones who wouldn't know halacha if they had 100 years to learn it.
@Yose Kojima bruh it was just spelling errors
a couple years ago when anti-semitic graffiti and hate crimes were spiking, i noticed that most of my jewish neighbors put up a lot more hanukkah decorations than usual. seems very in the spirit of hanukkah’s origins to me.
Are there Hanukkah decoration? I thought it was just the Hanukkiah (Menorah)...
@@Pingwn there are! at least where i live, blue string lights are for hanukkah. if you want to get a little more elaborate then there’s big light-up (often inflatable) menorahs, dreidels, and stars of david, plus some less overtly “christmas” winter decorations (snow men, blue and white presents, etc.)
@@Lucy-fn9rj guess it might be influenced by Christmas
Anti-semitism was rising? :/
@@tech6hutch Semitic doesn't mean just Jewish there are semites of Islam and Christianity that term is like saying that if You don't like Germans that You're anti European
I guess most of us are already used to the high quality of the content on this channel. However, I would like to praise one more thing: the very good pronounciation of the Polish "pączki"! Such a small detail, but very appreciated.
My thoughts exactly, you can actually hear the nasal vowel!
I had a friend ask me if I knew a good Chanukah video for beginners and I didn’t, but, Baruch HaShem, my favorite channel is here to help.
Perfect timing!
That does "Baruch HaShem" mean?
@@amy_pieterse literally: "Blessed is The Name".
In context, "HaShem" means G-d.
@@yusheitslv100 thanks for translating
@@amy_pieterse ur welcome. Glad to help!
Happy holidays!
I remember In kindergarten our class had a 'holidays of our class' party where my dad dressed as sinter Klaus and made olie bollen and my friends parents taught us how to make latkes and play dreidel. We also had a family teach us about Diwali and anyways this just reminded me of how exciting it was to be a kid learning about Hanukkah. Great video and I hope you do more about Jewish holidays!!
My coworkers when I'm not at work for any other Jewish holiday: *silence*
Them when December starts: HAPPY HANUKKAH! I hope you enjoy your most important Jewish holiday!
Me: 🤦♀️
@Catch545 dusty Great detective work
😂 i know
Yup. But hopefully we only have to explain it once.
I guess they are not Christian either. They would know what Passover is. Either that, or the power of the media has won over their own Pascha celebrations lol.
@@MP-tj5xv Most Christians regard Christmas as most important christian holiday, possibly, beacuse it contains more days off than Passover.
Hope you’re having a great time in Cairo! Sounds so exciting can’t wait to see some updates from there!
Lol my partner is Jewish, celebrates all major Jewish holidays and his family are relatively religious. Hanukkah 🕎 barely matters to him lol. Most years he doesn’t even realize it’s here. “Oooh? Is Hanukkah going on right now...eh whatever.” Now this makes sense 😆
Yeah, from what I had gathered from my middle school religious studies class was that it was basically just a holiday for kids (kinda like Halloween for Christians). This video definitely expanded on that, but also confirmed my understanding.
In high school they had some religious leaders come to the school and speak with us. If I remeber correctly it was a priest, a rabbi, and an imam. It might've been a Jew, Catholic, and Protestant though.
I remember the rabbi joking that Hanukkah was a minor holiday that they'd put more focus on over the years so the Jewish kids wouldn't feel left out during Christmas.
@@whydidimakethischannel5545 also why many Jewish musicians wrote "Christmas" songs without being about Christ.
These comments seem pretty racist
@@jesspete4530
How? No, seriously, how are these comments racist?
I always thought it is “jewish Christmas” and the most important jewish holiday. So I think I can’t thank you enough for this video. There is another topic I would like to see on your channel. It’s something I’m thinking about it for quite a while and that is “Disney as a religion”. It would make me so happy to see a video about that.
Not just Disney. Star Wars, the MCU -- secular mythologies for a materialist age.
Another interesting point is that long before Hanukah came into competition with Christmas, the Rabbis of the Talmud compared it to its Roman competitor (and Christmas's forebear), Saturnalia. (BT Avodah Zarah 8a)
Great video. It’s rare to find accurate comprehensive material about Judaism here
Thank you for this Informative piece.
As "rededication" on a personal spiritual level, chanukah can be thought of as rededication of our lives to God. Some folks consider the human body as a "temple" where God resides within.
lshulman58 exactly! I thought that too! I rededicate the temple of my body to my Lord and saviour 'Yeshua Hamasciach' may His Holy Spirit dwell in me fully and completely, Amen.
Always interesting looking at our holidays from the outside. Thank you.
Major Kudos for the Great Hebrew pronunciations.
@Catch545 dusty Thank You
He is Jewish so it should not be too surprising.
"Great Hebrew pronunciation"? He literally can't even prononce the name of the holiday correctly! 😂
@@jonahs92 lol I think we American Jews are the one doing it wrong like all the Hebrew words have been so Americanized by our accents
Really impressive
Fantastic as always.
You should do more interviews with various religious leaders and priests. A "Religious Scholar talks with a ______" series.
Great idea. Pose the same set of questions to each. don't make the interview videos too long. Maybe instead of each video being an interview with ONE person, make each video focused on one QUESTION editing together how several different people of different religions answer the same question.
Hey Great video! I really appreciate your willingness to discuss the complexity of the cultural differences surrounding Hanukkah. Just wanted to add also I'm a Sephardic Jew living in the US and if at any point you find yourself looking for any first hand accounts on the topic I'd be glad to share some of my experiences!
I think Hannukah would be hugely popular with more non-Jewish Americans. A holiday dedicated to oil fried food? Sign me up! 8 days? Who needs Christmas Eve when you can have 8 "Eve"s! Holiday lights? Oh yeah, these ones are supposed to be publicly viewable for those outside to see!
Welcome to Africa. Your videos have been very helpful in understanding a lot of religious stuff. Be blessed buddy.
love your channel brother, Im majoring in History at UC Berkeley, love your videos, your content has had a massive affect on my studies, your videos are always intriguing and interesting, best history/religious content on youtube!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait hello fellow cal student. I'm an eng major but love taking history classes, do you have any recs for religious studies classes? I'm going into my senior year and just want to take as many interesting classes as humanly possible before I leave haha
Loved this video. Andrew, you're the best. Thanks for sharing!
My wonderful father, when asked by me; "Why doesn't Santa visit me when I'm just as good as my friends?", stated: oh no, good Jewish girls get gifts from Max, the Chanukah Man!
That’s hilarious 😆
😊 Was your father called Max?
Nope, just some quick thinking. His name is Charles.
@@shelgeetar Even better! Chag chanukkah sameach to you and Charles!
What? What happened to the Holiday Armadillo?
Absolutely fascinating; you're research and presentation is absolutely fantastic! Thank you for your work.
I'm a non - Jew, but I know the miracle story, at least in highlights. My take on this is that the Jews were able to reclaim and rededicate and re - consecrate their temple. That they could reestablish their temple and go on living their culture instead of losing it to conquest. To me, that is the miracle: the strength of Jewish culture.
I have no words to describe how your channel fills my day with knowledge and satisfaction.
Thank you...
Very interesting video! I was raised Lutheran and learning about Judaism is incredibly fascinating.
Thank you for sharing!
Congrats on your move! Excited for you. Wonderful content as always
All the best in your postdoctoral research. 🌹🌸🌺
Orthodox Christians and especially Greeks call the Epiphany with the nickname of "Φώτα", is this name historically connected????
@@LiveAtEs I mean I know that but is there any connection between Hanukkah and Epiphany in order to have the same second name???
@@LiveAtEs no connection to hanukkah. Epiphany celebrates when the wise men brought gifts to the newborn Christ child. They followed the star in the east - the LIGHT - to find him! That is likely why "light" - refers to the nativity star.
Though Jesus is also called the "light that shines in the darkness".
Happy days .ua-cam.com/video/RR7MCRtR8hQ/v-deo.html
Hannukah is the day Jesus was born equivalen with 25 December 5 BC. Some early Christian celebrate Christmas on Hannukkah, 25 Kislev. Some follow the Roman and coptic Calendar.
@@melissalisaandrean6803 The date of Hanukah may have historic roots. The date of Christmas was invented a few hundred years after the fact possibly to draw Christians away from pagan winter holidays like Saturnalia. There were sheep in the fields at night not in the sheep folds. That only happens during lambing season in spring. The shepherds around Bethlehem still do the same.
We had a wooden blue and white free-standing Star Of David that we would decorate with paper chains and blue and white lights. Also we put our gifts under it. One gift was opened each night, though sometimes two. I have never seen one of these wooden "Chanukah bushes" before or since. It always felt like we had the only one ever made!
Thank you and your team, love light, joy and blessings to everyone always.
Thank you for this. I'm an Israel born and raised jew, and I was surprised by how much I learned from this video.
I took a couple of Jewish studies class for my Religious Studies minor. I came across an article about how Hanukkah in Israel was/is pumped up to be a cultural/ national holiday.
I notice that Joy is repeated theme in Hanukkah, It's interesting that you find it in the text of Maccabees.
I learned about Maccabee from “Rugrats” as a kid! Haha
Lol me too
Good luck in your new post, and thanks for taking the time to produce this very informative vid at the same time!
Very excited for you and your time in Cairo! I long hope to go there for archaeological work one day; even currently learning the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. Keep up the great work and مبروك!
Good luck with this new chapter in your life. The sound and video quality were actually quite good for not having all your equipment.
Glad to hear it. I figured it was better to film and publish than wait another year until next Hanukkah.
@@ReligionForBreakfast Glad you did.
Great video, well done and timely.
Thanks!
Congrats on the move!! Your channel is fascinating!
Great episode. Thank you for that.
From a devout Copt who enjoys your videos, enjoy the Om el donia and stay safe!
Congrats on the new post-doc position! Best wishes!
Thank you so much for talking about Judaism!! That was lovely! Would love to see more!
Love the videos! Good luck on the new adventure in Cairo!
Congrats on the move, and good luck with your studies!
Welcome ♥️
I'm watching from Egypt
Yay! As a Sephardi Jew thank you 🙏
happy Hanukkah :)
great and informational video! I'd love to hear more about jewish celebrations and life, you always have such well-rounded and educational videos!
Thank you for this wonderful video! Yes, you must talk about the Ashkenazi dominance in Judaism. I’ve been working on converting for years, and this was something I noticed for sure. I personally relate more to Sephardic customs, because I am from a converso family (another topic you should talk about!) but everyone is made to follow Ashkenazi customs, even if both customs are perfectly acceptable according to Jewish law. I often had to defend myself not just within the community but even to outsiders to prove I was in fact following the customs just fine. But because I wasn’t a black hat, I wasn’t considered to be doing things correctly. I think this is something more people need to be aware of. Plus it’s a fascinating topic!
Even post-holocaust the majority of Jews are Ashkenazi, in the US it is the supermajority.
If you look at what Sephardi authorities say about whether a non-sefardi should follow sephardi customs they nearly all say they should. Its a two way street with both sephardi and ashkenazi rabbis thinking that their customs should be adopted by all.
Good content as always
Hanukkah is my favorite holiday due to it being about fighting adversity. Which as a poc means a lot to me.
I've never heard about the money-related part of Dreidel playing but it seems to make historical sense. Overall great video! As and ex-religious Israeli Jew I can say to the best of my knowledge this is all very accurate and even educating.
I always love watching your videos :) Best of luck on your research fellowship!
I have to apply for post-doc stuff soon so your last bit made me anxious.
I think you should have mentioned the connection between Christmas and Hannukah, both occurring in winter and coinciding with shorter daylight hours in the northern hemisphere, hence celebrated with lights as a sign that daylight hours will begin to increase again. The Hindu Diwali festival also seems connected to this.
I once heard that the date of Hannukah as the festival for the re-dedication of the temple is connected to the prophecy of Haggai who talks about the day the temple was founded as the 24th day of the ninth month (one day prior to the 25th of Kislev), see Haggai 2:18.
I enjoyed this video and would love to see more videos about Jewish holidays, especially the major ones.
Your channel is awesome. I bought a ticket for your Roman magic lectures but then got busy and missed it! I'll buy another ticket if you do another on magic! I'm really interested in the topic. Good luck in Egypt!
My mother's half of the family is Jewish; my father's half is Catholic. I have shared this with both halves. I hope you don't mind.
You are a Jew
I also have a Jewish mother and a catholic father :)
@@leannaparsons9990 Well, then you are jewish my friend!
Swing by the Kotel some time. Pop in a yeshiva
@@eligedzelman5127, nope. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, I’m tis since I attended Catholic school, got the Catholic catechism, took Catholic rites, etc. in the eyes of Jewish tradition, I’m tis by birthright.
In point of fact, I am neither. I became a member of Eckankar some forty years ago and am a priest in the ECK teachings. So ECK claims me.
Funny how everyone claims everyone else, isn’t it?
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all, oh yeah
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby, don't cry - Don't cry
- Paul Simon
Just to clarify when people say that Chanukah is a "minor" Jewish holiday, it is very misleading. Chanukah is not as important a holiday as the Shalosh Regalim to be sure nor is it as significant as any of the Holy Days that come from the Torah because they are all God given holidays. You cannot put yourself on the same level as God. The rabbis have the right to institute holidays when they believe it is important enough. Both Chanukah and Purim are Rabbinic holidays or commemorations. Even Jesus would have known these days as they pre-dated him. As you pointed out, some holidays change culturally over time. The only reason we eat latkes or donuts on Chanukah is to remember the oil that lasted for 8 days. It is not a law, just a custom. A person could eat French fries if he wanted. The same goes for the dreidel or sivivon. These are nothing more than cultural traditions that go with the holiday the way carolers go with Christmas. People used to just bake cookies for Christmas and now it is the time of year that keeps most businesses in the Black. As far as the "competition" between Christmas and Chanukah, it may be technically true but it is also misleading. Anytime you have a minority group living in a majority culture it is a struggle not to assimilate and disappear. I would argue that Chanukah is not so much a matter of being a minor holiday as much as the gift giving has become exaggerated in order to compensate for Christmas. When your kids see everyone else getting nice toys for a holiday , you adopt by giving gifts in your own holiday that "miraculously" coincides with that of the dominant culture. Giving gifts on Chanukah is just another aspect of Jewish survival when you are living among people of a dominant religion. But , this should never be confused with Chanukah being a non important holiday. It is older than Christmas and has been celebrated without interruption for over 2000 years. Chanukah has not changed culturally any more than Christmas has.
Stay safe, good luck in Cairo. Love your videos
Welcome to Egypt, hope you like it here! Shalom salam peace
I'm a big fan of you I'm so excited you moved to my city! I hope you find it good! P.s: there's more to cairo than the traffic and noise. :D
Cairo is full of religious monuments, you should totally check out el-moez street and the surrounding mamluk old cairo which still retains most of it's buildings from when they were built 500 years ago!
Hannukah was definitely a big holiday when I was a kid, but as we grew older the whole gift-giving thing was definitely minimized. I remember my mom once told me that Purim was usually the party/gift giving holiday. Wonder if there's any history to that?
My family doesn’t really give gifts and I learned that it’s only practiced by American Jews. Basically kids were jealous of the Christian kids getting gifts, so eventually it was eased into Jewish custom but it really shouldn’t have been
I know this is an old video, but my neighbor has a 8 foot Menorah in his yard and I actually really love seeing it every year, plus it helps because the lighting on that street is mid at best.
good luck in Egypt!! thank you for the content
Great video. I had never known the reason for hanukkah
Only one thing, the Jewish calendar is actually a lunisolar calendar
An example of an actual lunar calendar would be the Islamic calendar
As an israeli jews - we dont have days off in hanukkah ( thease are just regular days work) and there is no practice of gift giving like in america.
Good one addressing ashkenormativity. Hanukkah is my favorite for the story, about radical resistance to assimilation-which ironically makes people think I’m SUPER assimilated...because it’s only seen as important today for the wrong reasons (capitalism and assimilation). Double... mayhaps triple irony...lol
Also I thought mizrahi was originally kind of offensive... most MENA Jews fell into Sephardi or Ethiopian or Yemenite to my knowledge. But, I know many people call themselves mizrahi now. I just thought it originated in a way that kind of meant something to the effect of “oriental”
I would also amend that ashkenazim were just IN Europe, “roots” is a term I have qualms with.
I’m nitpicking now, but it’s only because your videos make me think, haha. Great vid :)
Great video!
I hope you'll do a video about all the various Jewish movements that emerged after the fall of the 2nd temple, such as Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai in Yavneh.
Thanks!!
I actually never knew Hanukkah bushes were a thing, I thought it was something just from The Goldbergs, love the show, they specifically had an episode where the mom didn’t want her kids to feel left out and wanted them to enjoy Hanukkah more
Nice to know you are in Cairo. My best wishes.
congrats on your post-doc. Happy researching!
Good luck on your doctorate!!
I know so little Jews in my community who really celebrate Chanukah. Literally most Jewish holidays are more important then Chanukah. But, I also have a suspicion that the reason people assume it’s a big thing is because it happens around Christmas, and because Christmas is important, then Chanukah must be important too. And then I have to explain that no it’s not Jewish Christmas.
Chanukah is a very celebrated holiday. We just don’t need to stop regular lives for it, since it is a minor holiday. All we actually have to do is light the menorah every night, but the celebrations and the food are all complimentary. I love Chanukah but yeah I wish people would recognize our more major holidays more
One thing I find cool is that here in Sweden we put seven handed light holders (nowadays electric) in our windows during christmas time. I do not know if there is a correlation but I think it is a cool similarity.
Interesting how children play a role in the rise of Christmas and Hanukkah! Does anyone have any literature on children's influence on religion in general?
generally I understand that Victorian parents of wealth (idle kids) outside of tutoring, created the modern concept of childhood and all the things that it entails, like buying stuff! And how pure they are, and how we need to ban stuff to protect them! Tied up in other trends too.
Awesome video! 👍 This channel never disappoints.
Happy Hanukkah from the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Literally everything I thought I knew about Hanukkah is wrong. Thank you for enlightening me!
Happy Holidays
Great video...Thank you for sharing kowledge
Depending on the translation as per usual, some translations of second Maccabees 1:9 call this Feast the Feast of Sukkot. My understanding is because they could not keep the original Sukkot they decided to honor it therefore carrying Hanukkah or Feast of dedication yearly. According to Maccabees they weren't keeping it because of "the miracle" (which I believe a lot that happened were miracles without having to add to them) but of the rededication of the Temple and the eight days because they missed Sukkot
i watch all your videos..its great. Theres alot of interesting topics that you can do...sumerians, moloch, or some pagan beliefs. Thx for making these videos for us,i found it very usefull. Cheers
Speaking of Christmas counter balance…“Love Lights Hanukkah” is a great Hallmark movie! “Mistletoe & Menorah” if one wants a blend! …not Hallmark but basically the same thing.
Wave across to Morocco for me! I lived in Alexandria for a while.
That was fascinating. The dynamic relationship between "culture" and "religion" is such a complex and difficult issue to discuss. The terminology itself is necessarily contested and that contest occurs on the border of both what is cultural and what is religious. It seems to me that the metaphysical philosophical tradition hoped to overcome the over reliance or even the priority of tradition on human behaviour in favour of what became the Platonic Good or The One. Now the exchange between Judaism and the Greek philosophical tradition is itself highly contentious but it might be being claimed that with this event, the philosophical turn, tradition was being given a lower status than, at that time, philosophy. Later, of course, Greek philosohy will influence both Christianity and Judiasm. Indeed, Christianity adopts uncritically the idea that the good, as a matter of faith, was accessed through reason or logos often associated with the person of Christ. An early criticism of Christianity as it spread through the Roman Empire was that it did not respect tradition. So a kind of ossified practice, like Christmas, might be seen as antiethical to the Graeco-Christian tradition with its demand to be responsive to The Good. If this is so, then is not that true culture, that which functions outside of human intentional behaviour or, to say the same thing, outside of power, is the true domain of Christianity? In turn, can we even contrast the interactions between religion and culture if such is the case? What you are observing in this video is not so much the influence of culture on Jewish ceremonial practices but a strategic response to a potential threat to Judaism. Culture, which might be understood as an experience of the good, is playing no part in Jewish decision making here but fear of assimilation. I suggest that what you are really exploring here is the relationship between power and religion not culture and religion. But, of cousre, this conclusion opens up what is the main discussion, is there such a thing as culture outside of power? This does my head in. Thank you so much for all your excellent videos.
Thank you great one. I hope you enjoy Cairo and hope you can study Coptic Orthodox Church
It would be probably worth mentioning that the war that the Maccabees won was primary a civil war between the two Jewish factions in Jerusalem, and not really a war against the occupation, though Seleucids surely participated in it as well. For example one of the main charges against the ruling hellenistic faction of the Jerusalem temple was the fact that they supported restoring of the circumcised foreskin by employing a specially designed device, thanks to the fact that at that time the circumcision was not as irreversible as it became after the Maccabean revolt, as a direct response to this foreskin restoration practice.
25th Kislev more or less marks the start of the olive harvest, and it takes a little over a week to process the first harvest into olive oil.
Welcome to Egypt man !
I'm a fan of yours from Alexandria , Egypt
Happy Hanukah everyone!
Happy first day of Hanukkah
In our family we are not Jewish at all. We are gentiles etc.. This year my wife bought a menorah and candles so we celebrated the ritual nightly and learned more about Judaism, traditions and other Jewish holidays etc.. We found the lighting of candles and blessings to be very spiritual and just a nice ritual. We are secular celebrators now!
Latkes actually seem to originate in Sephadic communities as cheese latkes, combining the 2 customs of eating dairy and fried food. They got to Europe by the 14th century, with potato latkes not taking root till the 19th century, when potatoes reached Eastern Europe 🥞
may you have a blessed and happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish people from your Muslim brother
Re: Sufgayiyot. I've always have heard that they are a Ashkenaz adaptation of a food eaten on Chanukah by Sefardim and Mizrachim who lived in close contact with post-inquisition Sephardim.
Also, Re: Judith. For context, I would have brought up the fact that while the Apocryphal Judith says it was an Assyrian king, Judaism has placed the story in the context of the Maccabean revolt, and that the Book of Judith was written when things were unclear that it would be safe for a certain population that wrote the book to write a book celebrating a victory over Antiochus IV.
@oaktree_ What I've heard is that they were never a major Chanukah food among Ashkenazim until after the the 40s and we were exposed to Sephardi and Mizrachi culture, so we took their Chanukah sponge cake idea to use pontshke/sufganiyot as a Chanukah food.
Regardless of where sufganiot came from this video was slightly implying that associating eating a sufgania on Hanukkah is a form of ashkenormativity while ignoring the fact that today most sephardim and mizrahim eat it as part of their hanukkah tradition. This by itself is sort of ashkenormativity...
0:50 actually, the jewish calendar is a Lunisolar Calendar (depended on both the moon and the sun). In this kind of calendar, instead of a leap day - there exists a leap month. Hanukkah does in fact shift from year to year on the Gregorian Calendar, but on the Hebrew Calendar it doesn't.
Further information about these topics:
Lunisolar Calendar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar
Hebrew Calendar: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar
You've covered a few fictional religions in the past and I would love for you to cover the Mandalorian warrior-faith from Star Wars if you ever get the chance.
Actually, the sci-fi that rally dealt with religion the best was Babylon 5. And I don't mean the Minbari caste thing. I mean real in-universe things like Dr. Franklin's Foundationalism,, Brother Edward's cyber-Catholicism, or Ivanova's relationship to her Jewish roots.
Only the Narns have a well developed alien religion in the series JMS tried, but he got it right only with the Narns. Yep, scribes gotta splash coffee on their texts or they are not real. Coffee stains make their third testament real.