Victory Of Light - Part 2

"Inside Outside"

With Rabbi Ari Sollish

(Recorded live at Atlanta on November 10, 2013)

Victory of Light is an exposition on the deeper significance of Chanukah, viewed through the lens of Chabad Chasidic teachings.

The war of the Greeks was a spiritual one, aimed at eradicating the notion that Torah and mitzvot are holy, G-d given and Divine. The hellenistic Greeks wished to secularize Judaism, to turn it from a suprarational "faith" into a very rational system of philosophy and moral conduct. And in this sense the Greek Empire is very much alive: there still exist forces -- from both without and within -- that wish us to forget that Judaism is G-dly.

The victory of the Jews over the Greeks represents the victory of the suprarational over the rational, the G-dly over the secular. We therefore immortalize Chanukah by lighting fiery lamps against the darkness of night, celebrating the Victory of Light.