Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics:
Chassidus Applied to Chanukah
- How does Chanukah personify eternity?
- What is Chanukah’s message for us today?
- Which miracle is greater – winning the war against the Greeks or discovering the oil?
- Why is the number eight so significant to Chanukah? Would the miracle be less if the flames burned, say, for six days?
- Why is the Menorah on the left side?
- What is a short synopsis of the Alter Rebbes maamar Ki Ner Mitzah in Torah Ohr where he explains why we put the mezuzah on the right and the menorah on the left?
- Why do we light the Menorah facing outside and after sundown, unlike the Menorah in the Temple?
- Why don’t we light a flame every day?
- Why can’t we use bulbs for the Chanukah lights?
- Is Yud Tes Kislev connected with Chanukah?
- Is there a connection between Chanukah and the yeshiva students of Tomchei Temimim being called lamplighters?
- How do we apply the lessons of Chanukah in the winter to the Southern Hemisphere?
- Are women included in the mitzvah of Chanukah?
- What is the concept of the shamesh of the menorah according to chassidus?
- Why don't we have a shamesh for shabbos candles?
- Are we allowed to read the book of the maccabees?
- Why are we allowed to use a dreidel considering that its origins are from a spinning top, called a teetotum, used in a pagan gambling game?
- Is there a significance that the letters on a dreidel nun gimmel hey shin are gematria 358 which is the same gematria as Moshiach?
- Can spinning a dreidel for fun somehow make Moshiach come faster?
- How can eating a meal be an offering to G-d?
- How do I keep my eye on a destination which I don’t know?
- Follow-up: Why do I ask irreverent questions?
- Vayeishev: Were the ten martyrs punished for Joseph’s ten brothers selling him into slavery?
