Hanukkah at the Arch of Titus

YU NEWS: Hanukkah at the Arch of Titus. Professor Steven Fine Reflects on Jewish View of Menorah Depicted on the Arch of Titus Through the Ages.

Where the miracle and hope of Hanukkah celebrates the ascending lights of the menorah, a new lamp set ablaze each night (a process that is paralleled in the heavens as the days begin to lengthen with the winter solstice, roughly during Hanukkah), the Arch of Titus menorah is dark, carried by reveling heathen soldiers in a triumphal parade and into a triumphal museum built by Titus’ father, the emperor Vespasian. In truly Orwellian language, this museum was called the “Temple of Peace.”

Yet looking up at the menorah of the Arch of Titus, our ancestors have often conjured a far more positive image, one that bears a positive lesson for us today.

Lots more on the Arch of Titus here and just keep following those links.