smoke, fire, hanukah, etc...

(aka, some content for a change...)
the following is based on a shiur i recently gave to undergrads at NYU as part of the conspiracy to keep dayschool graduats engaged with Judaism.

the background:
It all started when I somehow ended up at the Gush Hanukah mesibah during my "year in israel." I mean, it was awkward, because I was a seminary girl and suddenly found myself in a room full of boys. ahhh! (i was sitting in the couples corner, at least, because i was there visiting married friend...)
Anyhow, Rav Lichtenstein gave a neat sichah. The summary is here, at #39. By reading it you would never know he used the words "mysterium termendum" (tee hee), but otherwise i was very glad to find it so i didn't have to rely on memory for my shiur... (Actually, I sent something similar out in a yavneh email a few years ago (those were the dys...), based on memory. I had forgotten one of the sources until I looked it up in the Yavneh archives...)
Anyhow, the summary basically only cites pesukim, but I think a lot of rabinnic sources are on point too. (R'L might even have mentioned them. For sure some of them were in the back of his head, at least..>)
Anyway, that's all by long-winded way of introduction. Actually, I;m going to post the content in another post so it doesn't look to long...