Almond, you are wrong. The true meaning of a holiday is contained in how and what is celebrated. Chanukkah is as much a celebration of suicide murdering as Thanksgiving is a celebration of the genocide of the American Indians. Some people might celebrate the genocide of the Indians at their Thanksgiving dinners (ala Robert Jensen) but to most people it is a holiday that honors generosity, gratitude and charity. If you and your wife celebrate Chanukkah by revering the brutality of war and the murder of innocents you are free to do so but it's clear that your wife missed some crucial ideas in her conversion process and that you learned nothing about Judaism when you were raised. Note also that when you are basing conclusions about Judaism and its beliefs you should actually use Jewish sources.

One crucial bit that she (and you) should know is that not everybody's actions in the Bible are considered to be moral. Another bit is that Judaism is a progressive religion and that means that as we move forward in time we learn more and more on how to behave morally. The moral code of the past seems brutal by today's standards. Hopefully it will always be so. The one thing you may have right is that the moral code of Osama and his lackeys is about two millenia behind our own.

To the editors of Jewcy: This ignoramus makes some suggestions that are just disgusting. You should be above publishing them. For example, the allegation that Channuka is a celebration of brutality and murder that is intentionally misrepresented to the world is typical of the drivel you would find in the protocols of the elders of zion. I like Jewcy but if I see more of this crap you'll have lost a devoted reader.