Great song by the Yehiva Boys Choir:
Nights of Chanukah
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Great song by the Yehiva Boys Choir:
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I don’t mean to be the Grinch of Hanuka and wonder if it’s just the fact that I watch this from my home in Israel but the messages of this video and song resonated negatively with me. My immediate thoughts on watching this video and listening to this song for the first time are how the American yeshivish experience has transformed Hanuka into a commercialized Jewish version of Christmas with the emphasis on gifts and family gatherings. While certainly Hanuka is rooted in the home as the basic obligation is on the household (ner ish u’beito), the primary focus of the holiday is to publicize the miracle of the Hasmonean victory over the Syrian-Greeks and the rededication of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem; accordingly, the candles are to be lit outdoors in order to publicly broadcast the miracles of the holiday, and only due to subsequent anti-semitism was the practice outside of Israel changed to light the candles indoors. The song clearly picks up on this revised practice and IMHO reduces the holiday to a celebration of family memories and utterly foregoes the primary messages that are not domestic but deeply religious and proud on a nationalistic level steeped in the love of the Land of Israel, God and His Torah.