"What you need to know about Hanukkah"

Franklin Raff has an interesting piece here:

Hanukkah is a time for lighting the menorah, for playing games, giving gifts and celebrating G-d's historical blessings and miracles. But it is also a time for sober remembrance, a holiday that calls upon all of us to rededicate ourselves to Him, and to muster and redeploy our prayers, efforts, and assets in the fight against government tyranny, cultural assimilation and secularization.

At Hanukkah we celebrate the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. It was desecrated by the forces of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who was obsessed with de-Judaizing the Land of Israel (then part of his Greco-Syrian empire). . . .