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Much more than the "Jewish alternative" to Christmas, Hanukkah, which means "dedication", recalls a dark time in the history of our Jewish people, and our miraculous deliverance from that darkness. This eight-day holiday commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the army of Antiochus Epiphanes, a time when God preserved and protected his people through the heroic act of a small band of Jewish guerilla fighters.

In the Jewish religion, bar mitzvah—"son of the commandment"—refers to a boy who has reached 13 years of age. At this time, he is considered a man in the sense of being responsible to take on the religious obligations of Jewish life. The term bar mitzvah is also commonly used for the ceremony itself, the rite of passage during which the young man reads in Hebrew the portion of the Torah (five books of Moses) prescribed for that week and chants the Haftarah (corresponding portion from the Prophets for that week).