Hanukkah For Dummies

The Little Miracle That Christianity Forgot

Both history and tradition tells us that a long time ago during the Second Century BC, in a place called Jerusalem, a powerful Greek king named Antiochus Epiphanes invaded the land of Judea and he tried to force all of the Jewish people who lived there, that he didn’t kill, to worship gods that they didn't believe in. He did this by destroying their holy temple, spoiling all the sacred objects inside it and then to blaspheme their God, he sacrificed an unclean animal to the Jews, a pig, on their altar to his God in order to desecrate it and further humiliate them.

However, a small group of people called the Maccabees didn’t take to kindly to this insult. In spite of being greatly outnumbered, they rose up and fought against the king and his much larger, better equipped and well trained army and against all odds, they won. The Maccabees returned to Jerusalem and worked to cleanse, to restore and to rededicate their temple and the altar to Yehovah their God. But, they noticed that instead of the seven days worth of the oil that they needed to light the menorah and do this, they only had enough oil for one day. Well, they lit it anyway and instead of lasting for only one day, it burned brightly for eight whole days which they saw as a miracle from God. This is the story behind Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is a holy celebration for the Jewish people people. It commemorates the Jewish people's struggle for their religious freedom. Hanukkah is also known as the festival of lights and/or the festival of rededication. This celebration is held according to the Jewish calendar and usually occurs in late November or in December and just like the “miracle of the oil” lasts for eight days. To celebrate, people light a Hanukkiah in their home. It's a candelabra similar to the sacred menorah in the temple except that it has more candles and is only used during Hanukkah. As you can see, the Hanukkiah has eight main arms and a ninth which is taller than the rest. This ninth arm is called the Shamash and it's used to light the other eight candles, one for each day of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is a time for family, for friends, for lots of food and since the miracle of the oil is central to the celebration of Hanukkah, Jewish people typically celebrate this time with foods that are cooked in oil such as potato cakes called latkes. Just like many other celebrations around the world, one of the traditions of Hanukkah is the exchange of gifts. I also want to add that Hanukkah is not a Jewish substitute for Christmas. It's also not a man made festival like Kwanzaa designed to compete with Christmas nor is it something the marketers came up to appease Jewish kids with gift giving and make a little extra money, though these days, one could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. It's a very important remembrance of a victory over an oppressor against all odds and the rededication of the temple.

Now it must also be noted here that Hanukkah, is NOT one of the appointed times or “Feasts of the Lord” that Jews are required under the Torah to observe! So why do they observe it as though it were and why should we, as Christian’s, believers, followers of Messiah, disciples of the way, eleven long haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus or whatever you want to refer to us as, even care? Well, some scholars assert that the Gospel of John 8:12-10:42 is all about Hanukkah! But even more relevant is that Yeshua, Jesus, thought enough of it to celebrate it. If it was important enough for Him to observe it, maybe we ought to celebrate or, at a minimum, consider it important enough to at least acknowledge it too!

It's also important for the rest of us to understand that without the miracle of Hanukkah, if Satan had successfully, through the Greeks, wiped out the Jewish people or caused them to reject their God and assimilate into Greek culture, Yeshua might have never been born. Why? Because the prophets had told us that Yeshua, the Messiah, had to come through the Jewish people, through the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and through the descendants of David specifically, to fulfill God’s plan for redemption!

It’s been Satan’s plan since the Garden to thwart Yehovah’s plan to redeem mankind! It’s as though he was thinking that if he could just stop the Messiah from being born, he wouldn’t have to give up the kingdom he stole from Adam. He tried murdering them in Egypt with the slaughter of the Hebrew first born. He tried it again with Haman in Babylon. He tried it In Jerusalem through Antiochus Epiphanes and he tried it again with Herod slaughtering all the newborn in Bethlehem. But, each and every time, Yehovah who knows all even before we know it, was always one step ahead of him.

So, if you’re a gentile believer in Yeshua the Messiah, maybe this year, in addition to, or maybe even in lieu of, Christmas with all of the commercialism that’s taken it over and all the paganism that has been incorporated into it over the past two millennium, maybe we should all take a little time to remember a miracle that was important enough that even Yeshua celebrated it. By saying that do I mean you guys gotta go find a rabbi to get “snipped,” don a skull cap, study for your bar mitzvah, have the little lady fry up some latkes, buy a Hanukkiah and light it up? No! I mean you can if you really want to but, I think that instead, maybe we ought to just take a moment or two and thank God for a miracle.

Just saying. . .

Happy Hanukkah everyone!