[This was first posted December 2012. Shortly after we transitioned from our former Christ-centered faith, we continued to celebrate Hanukkah with Jewry, having been formerly Messianics accused of being Jew-wannabe’s. We had not yet delineated the line between what’s Jewish and what’s biblical. In 2014, Hanukkah 5775 —we decided we still wanted to celebrate this Jewish festival, but in our own way with our own liturgy. We focused on the symbolism of “light” and how the God of Israel manifested visually as “Light.” Be sure to greet your Jewish friends a ‘Happy Hanukkah’ during this 8-day festival starting December 12 this year 2017; and follow their wonderful tradition of lighting one candle on the 9-stem menorah called “hanukkiah” for each day covering the 8-days, ending December 20, 2017. Why? This post explains.—Admin1].
————————————-
Image from catchmyparty.com
Every year, we receive not a few inquiries about the Jewish feast celebrated at this time of the year called Chanukah/Hanukkah.
In general, the inquiry is:
- Should gentiles celebrate it,
- and specifically, does our Sinai 6000 community celebrate it?
As far as we know, Leviticus 23 where the Feasts of YHWH are commanded does not include Hanukkah. Why? Because the reason for this particular celebration occurred much later after the canon of the TNK was decided upon and closed. It is therefore a uniquely Jewish festival, part of Jewish history—
“a lesser Jewish festival, lasting eight days from the 25th day of Kislev (in December) and commemorating the rededication of the Temple in 165 bc by the Maccabees after its desecration by the Syrians. It is marked by the successive kindling of eight lights.” [dictionary definition]
hanukiah
That said, Sinaites have nevertheless opted to celebrate it with the Jewish people because for one, it is a reminder of the faithfulness of the God of Israel to His chosen nation as well as His acceptance of any seeker who embraces the Jewish people and ultimately acknowledges Him, YHWH, as the One True Elohiym. For another, Hanukkah is such a joyous and festive season, full of symbolism in its 8-day observance. Also called “the festival of Lights” it reminds us Sinaites that—
- it is YHWH Himself Who manifests as LIGHT (burning bush, pillar of fire, the consuming fire),
- the Sinai Revelation, YHWH’s TORAH is the true light for darkened minds in this darkened world;
- the 9-stem Menorah is lit one candle each day from ‘the servant’ candle at the center as a reminder of the miracle of YHWH’s provision for the sanctified oil of the Temple Menorah which lasted for 8 days when originally, there was only enough oil to last one day.
- We gentile believers in YHWH are like lamps whose lives are lit up by TORAH and in effect, receive our light from Israel (the ‘servant’ in Isaiah). We love Israel and are grateful that the chosen people have recorded the Sinai Revelation for all to discover the One True God and His Way.
- ” . . . the sublime mission of Israel . . . [is] to be His witness before all peoples, to be ‘a light to the nations’, and to point the way of righteousness and salvation to all the children of men.” (Pentateuch and Haftorah)
That calls for a celebration, don’t you think? Of course there is much more historical background behind this festival, that is why it is good to celebrate and use it as a springboard for teaching, that others might learn about a significant time in Jewish history and how one could relate to it..
The Jewish websites provide so many interesting articles about this festival. We have opted to feature two Jewish websites [aish.com and chabad.org] to help gentiles like ourselves understand Hanukkah. There are so many more Jewish websites, please go to our links to read more.
Note this: “Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas” (aish.com).
The article of our choice is reproduced at the end, please don’t fail to scroll all the way there!
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default_cdo/jewish/Hanukkah.htm http://www.aish.com/h/c/ Why Hanukkah is the perfect festival for religious freedom http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2a91b54e856e0e4ee78b585d2&id=e5593145f4&e=6db799fe1a
————————–
Chanukah this year is Saturday evening December 8 – Sunday, December 16.
Chanukah — the eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev — celebrates the triumph of lightover darkness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality.
More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel. Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G-d.
When they sought to light the Temple’s menorah (the seven branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks; miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.
To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah. At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah (candelabrum) lighting: a single flame on the first night, two on the second evening, and so on till the eighth night of Chanukah, when all eight lights are kindled.
On Chanukah we also add the Hallel and Al HaNissim in our daily prayers to offer praise and thanksgiving to G-d for “delivering the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few… the wicked into the hands of the righteous.”
Chanukah customs include eating foods fried in oil — latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot (doughnuts); playing with the dreidel (a spinning top on which are inscribed the Hebrew letters nun, gimmel, heiand shin, an acronym for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, “a great miracle happened there”); and the giving of Chanukah gelt, gifts of money, to children.
Click here for a comprehensive “How To” guide for the observances and customs of Chanukah
Click here to visit www.Chanukah.org
A free, 20-page user-friendly compendium of thought-provoking essays.
By far the most interesting perspective is the following, recommended by Rabbi Kalman Packouz in his Shabbat Shalom Weekly, written by his friend and colleague Rabbi Nachum Braverman, Aish HaTorah Los Angeles.
Insights into life, personal growth and Torah.View online:http://www.aish.com/tp/ss/ssw/ 182724811.html
WHAT WERE THE MACCABEES FIGHTING FOR?
It is ironic that Hanukkah is so widely observed in America, because it’s not clear that Jews today would side with the Maccabees. The Jews didn’t battle the Greeks for political independence and Hanukkah can’t be recast as an early-day version of Israel against the Arabs. Hanukkah commemorates a religious war.
The Greeks were benevolent rulers bringing civilization and progress wherever they conquered. They were ecumenical and tolerant, creating a pantheon of gods into which they accepted the deities of all their subjects. Their only demand was acculturation into the melting pot of Greek civilization and religion.
The Jewish community was divided in response to this appeal. Some believed assimilation as a positive and modernizing influence and they welcomed the release from Jewish parochialism. Led by Judah Maccabee was a small group opposed to the Greek ideal, and prepared to fight and die to preserve the exclusive worship of Judaism. (The name “Maccabee” is an acronym for the Torah verse “Who is like You amongst the gods, Almighty.”)
This was no war for abstract principles of religious tolerance. It was a battle against ecumenicism fought by people to whom Torah was their life and breath. Would we have stood with the Maccabees or would we too have thought assimilation was the path of the future? Would we fight for Judaism today, prepared to die to learn Torah and to keep Shabbat?
Today we face a crisis of identity as serious as the one confronted 2,500 years ago. Will we survive this century as a religious community or merely as a flavor in the American melting pot? Hanukkah calls to us to combat assimilation and to fight for our heritage.
Besides those who actively supported assimilation there were many who passively acquiesced. What is the use in opposing the force of history, they reasoned. We can’t halt assimilation any more than we can stop the tides or the passage of the seasons. Who would be so foolish as to oppose the inevitable? Today, too, there is paralysis before the apparently inevitable progress of assimilation. What chance do we have of convincing our children not to intermarry? Jewish particularism is a past value swept away on the tides of liberalism. With the barriers of anti-Semitism down and the land of opportunity beckoning, the day of cohesive Jewish community seems gone. It’s with resignation that we accept the spiraling intermarriage rate which spells our destruction as a people. Not so the approach of the Maccabees.
Remember the end of the story? Finally triumphant, Jews captured Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple. (The word Hanukkah means dedication and refers to this act.) They found just one flask of oil but the flame which should have lasted one day burned for eight as if to testify that our determination was enhanced by some ineffable power suffusing our efforts with transcendent glow and power. Light the candles, says the holiday to us. Act vigorously, teach, reach, courageously and with determination, and God will invest our efforts with a power, a permanence, and a glow, far beyond our capacity to convey.
A HANUKKAH STORY
I heard the following story years ago when I lived in Israel and to the best of my knowledge it is true. Before the USSR let the Jews leave for Israel, Jews used to hire a guide to smuggle them out of Russia. One Hanukkah a group of Jews were playing “cat and mouse” with a Soviet army patrol as they approached the border. When the guide thought they had lost the patrol, he announced an half-hour break before continuing the trek. One of the escapees, hearing the “magic” number of “one-half hour” — the minimum time a Hanukkah candle must be lit to fulfill the mitzvah — pulls out his menorah, sets up the candles, says the blessing and starts to light the candles. The other escapees immediately pounce upon him and the menorah to put out the candles — when the Soviet patrol moves in and completely encircles them.
The head of the army patrol speaks: “We were just about to open fire and wipe you out when I saw that man lighting the Hanukkah candles. I was overcome with emotion; I remember my zaideh (grandfather) lighting Hanukkah candles …. I have decided to let you go in peace.”
There is a verse in the Book of Psalms, (chapter 116, verse 6), “The Almighty protects fools.” Should he have lit the candle? NO! The Talmud tells us (Ta’anis 20b), “One should not put himself in a place of danger saying, ‘Let a miracle happen.’ ” So, while the story is one of action, adventure, suspense … the real lesson is not to rely upon a miracle to save you from danger … but to be thankful if the Almighty performs one to save you!
S6K: AMEIN!!!
Reader Comments