Reply To: Feeling the Chanukah Spirit

I think Raphael Kaufman got it right when he suggested that “Chanukah spirit” is an assimilated cousin of Xmas spirit. If you look at the treatment of Chanukah in Jewish writings prior to about 1850 (or, if you prefer, 5611), you will not see much about Chanukah, and certainly nothing about “Chanukah spirit.” There is no denying it: the “spirit” of the gentile culture has rubbed off on, and infected, frum culture.