blank_970_500 blank_345_230
blank_970_500 blank_345_230
December 12, 2016

Light against Darkness: The Miraculous Survival of the Holiday of Chanukkah

Dr. Shai Secunda

Dr. Shai Secunda

Shai Secunda occupies the Jacob Neusner chair in Judaism at Bard College and is a core faculty member at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. He is the author of The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Sasanian Iran (Philadelphia, 2014), and writes regularly for the Jewish Review of Books on Jewish scholarship and culture.

icon Audio
icon Sources

The holiday of Chanukkah was one of many celebrations connected to the Hasmoneans, and virtually the only one to have survived antiquity. How can we explain the curious survival of Chanukkah – a holiday that celebrates the re-dedication of a temple later destroyed? Why did Chanukkah’s flickering lights continue to outshine the darkness?

This Renee and Alexander Bohm Memorial Lecture, taught by Dr. Shai Secunda, is sponsored by Elissa Shay Ordan and Daniel J. Ordan in honor of their grandparents, Renee and Alexander Bohm z”l.

It was originally recorded on 12/12/2016.

- 12/12/2016
Click to open source sheet
Download Source Sheet