Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Chanukkah: Festival of Lights

When I went to Oxford and studied the Old Testament under Kevin Bywater, I realised that I needed to learn the Hebrew language and Jewish culture in order to understand the Bible better. Another desire to learn Hebrew arose from watching the Maccabeats perform their [much better] rendition/parody of 'Dynamite', called 'Candlelight'.



Seeing the above video piqued my interest in Jewish culture and history. Since my return from England I have taken a very basic crash course in Hebrew, learning the aleph bet. In the Spring I have the opportunity to take a Jewish history/culture class. And since I didn't know much about Chanukkah (aside from the above video), I looked up the history HERE. It is neat to understand other cultures, their holidays, why certain things are sacred or important, and so forth.

Happy Chanukkah!

~ Johanna



4 comments:

  1. Haha, I thought so. They have some pretty neat videos on their YouTube channel. :)

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  2. Yay Jody! I spent three years taking Hebrew at ASU and I LOVED it. It is so amazing to be able to read the Old Testament in its original form. Kudos! :)

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  3. Haha, Hannah, I had great plans to write you a letter and tell you about my Hebrew class - I knew you would get excited with me. ;)

    Hm, maybe January will be cold and lend itself to writing letters... *Smile*

    Hope you had a lovely Christmas, dear!
    ~ Jody

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