Chanukah and Jewish Holidays – Why do we celebrate it?
Something bothers me about Chanukah, which is not really specific to Chanukah but to all the holidays, (just being December I have Chanukah on my mind at the moment). I understand that winning against the Greeks back then was probably a very big deal to the Jews of that time, and I’m sure they were pretty amazed that the oil burned longer than it was supposed to. But that was a very long time ago and the Syrian Greeks mean nothing to us now; they are long gone; I don’t really get why we need to celebrate an isolated incident that happened so long ago and has nothing to do with us today. More so, it’s hard to see how someone like me should really be “happy” about those ancient occurrences that make no difference any more. I’m rambling now, but this has bothered me for a long time and I finally have the chutzpah to express it.