o_hellenbach: Sorry, I don't buy it. Hanukkah is an expression of religious/tribal/national/"racial" solidarity. That's why it's not a Muslim or Hindu holiday, though presumably self-government and religious liberty (at least in a collective sense) should be equally prized by Muslims and Hindus and just about anybody else. The essential point is not any high-sounding principles that actually arise out of Enlightenment thought, but that once again, God saved His own special people because they returned to be faithful to Him.
Merely because I did not specifically mention in my argument that Hanukkah's message is primarily a Jewish does not render that contention false. I think you and I would find ourselves in agreement on that.
