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We need a do-over for the last 2 months. Hanukkah is made for the moment.
(JTA) — We need a do-over for the last two months since Oct. 7.
Of course we’d all love a time machine to take us back to that morning, to avert the horrors that would unfold in Israel. But that’s not what I mean. Let me explain.
In the book of 2 Maccabees — one of the main texts about the events leading to Hanukkah — we read a letter of Judah the Maccabee. In it, he says that, because the Greeks desecrated the Temple before Sukkot, the Jews were not able to celebrate Sukkot that year. But now since reclaiming the Temple, he says, we are going to celebrate Sukkot in Kislev. Basically: the Greeks forced us to reschedule Sukkot to December.
Hanukkah — which means dedication, and refers to a dedication of the Temple that traditionally happens on Sukkot — is the holiday of do-overs.
Later in history, in the early modern period, Hasidic writers would say that Hanukkah represents the real closing of the gates at the end of the High Holidays. Not Hoshanah Rabbah (which this year was Oct. 6), but Hanukkah represents the end of the High Holiday period.
For me, the attacks of Oct. 7, occurring at the very end of the High Holiday period, served to displace the ending of that period. There was no ending — we just went forward into a horrifying future. Many people have reported that in places like Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Beeri, there are still Sukkot standing — also in other places in Israel — there was no pause at the end of this holiday season.
Hanukkah is a holiday specifically designed to give the Jews a “do-over” in a year when our Sukkot and end-of-holiday feeling was ruined by a war. It is, honestly, strangely and perfectly resonant right now.
And as we start Hanukkah, I want to suggest some ways that we can experience this holiday as a bit of a “do-over” — that we can “celebrate Sukkot in Kislev.”
First, we can allow ourselves to detach from the news in one way or another. Maybe deleting Twitter from your phone, maybe turning off the TV, maybe maybe using your phone’s settings to limit the amount of time it lets you spend on a given app.
Second, we can allow ourselves to feel joy. We need to feel joy. We need to feel a sense of celebration. It’s not a betrayal of memory or of what is going on — it’s actually a way of connecting, a way of saying, “We Jews feel joy even in a time of stress, we bring light even in a time of darkness.”
Third, we can be proud and not afraid. The core mitzvah of Hanukkah is lighting a menorah in front of one’s house so that we can “publicize the miracle.” So put a menorah in your front window and proudly express your Judaism. Don’t be deterred by Jew hatred to cower. Hanukkah represents precisely the creation of a space to bring light despite the many fears and challenges around doing so. Celebrate it proudly.
May this Hanukkah, two months to the day since Oct. 7, be a holiday in which we fill our lives with light.
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The post We need a do-over for the last 2 months. Hanukkah is made for the moment. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.