Chaim Strauchler profiles Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” which depicts a world where time, agency, and moral responsibility erode, symbolized by illicit gambling. Strauchler suggests that this culture of passivity mirrors today’s rise in youth gambling and reflects a broader loss of faith in cause-and-effect pathways to success. Jewish historical and contemporary parallels, from Haredi lotteries to R. Leon Modena’s Hanukka-season gambling, show how magical thinking emerges when predictable structures falter. Hanukka ultimately calls us back to courageous agency.