CHANNUKAH

Channukah is probably one of the best known Jewish holidays, not because of any great religious significance, but because of its proximity to Christmas. Many non-Jews (and even many assimilated Jews!) think of this holiday as the Jewish Christmas, adopting many of the Christmas customs, such as elaborate gift-giving and decoration. It is bitterly ironic that this holiday, which has its roots in a revolution against assimilation and suppression of Jewish religion, has become the most assimilated, secular holiday on our calendar.

Controdictary to Christian tradition, and agreeing with scriptural evidence, Channukah was actually the time period of the year when Yeshua haMoshiach was concieved, then he was born 9 mos later at Sukkos (feast of booths)when the sheep would have still been out in the fields. In Hebrew the booth is called a “sukkah”, and in Greek it is called “mangeros”. In The GreekISH (my own word here..”Greekish”) English translation of The B'ris Chadasha (ReNEWed Covenant) another passage says…He “tabernacled” with us.

The story of Channukah begins in the reign of Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered Syria, Egypt and Eretz Yisroel (The Land of Yisroel, which some people still annoyingly call "Palestine" after the Philistine nation), but allowed the lands under his control to continue observing their own religions and retain a certain degree of autonomy. Under this relatively benevolent rule, many Jews assimilated much of Hellenistic culture, adopting the language, the customs, the dress, etc., in much the same way that Jews in America blend into the secular American society and Churches today.

More than a century later, a successor of Alexander, Antiochus IV was in control of the region. He began to oppress the Jews severely, placing a Hellenistic priest in the Temple, massacring Jews, prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion (Torah observance), and desecrating the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs (a non-kosher animal, i.e. non-food animal, unclean) on the altar. Two groups opposed Antiochus: a basically nationalistic group led by Mattathias the Hasmonean and his son Judah Maccabee, and a religious traditionalist group known as the Chosid'eem, the forerunners of the Pharisees (no direct connection to the modern movement known as Chosidism). They joined forces in a revolt against both the assimilation of the Hellenistic Jews and oppression by the Selucid Greek government. The revolution succeeded and the Temple was rededicated. Antiochus’ Father, The King of The south, is mentioned in Daniel 11:5-6 . Antiochus’ sister was Cleopatra who was given to The King of The south by her own Father for hopes of making strong political bonds between the two nations.

The story of the events of Channukah are related in the book of Maccabbees, which Jews do not accept as scripture.

According to tradition as recorded in the Talmud, at the time of the rededication, there was very little oil left that had not been defiled by the Greeks. Oil was needed for the menorah (candelabrum) in the Temple, which was supposed to burn throughout the night every night. There was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days. An eight day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle. Note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory: Jews do not glorify war.

Channukah is not considered a very important religious holiday. The holiday's religious significance is far less than that of Rosh Hasahana, Yom Kippur, Sukkos (Feast of Booths, when we dwell in sukkas, i.e. “mangeros” in Greek), Pesach (Passover), and Shavu’os (Known as Pentecost in Greek). It is roughly equivalent to Purim in significance, and you won't find many non-Jews who have even heard of Purim!

Channukah is mentioned in Jewish scripture in Yonason 10:22 (i.e. John 10:22) where it reads… "Then came Channukah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo's Colonade. So some of the Jews surrounded him and said to him, 'How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are Moshiach, tell us publicly!

The only religious observance related to the holiday is the lighting of oil or candles. The oil cups or candles are arranged in a candelabrum called a menorah that holds nine flames: one for each night, plus a shammish (servant) at a different height. On the first night, one candle is placed at the far right. The shammish candle is lit and three boruchos (blessings) are recited: l'hadlik neir (a general prayer over candles), she-asah nisim (a prayer thanking G-d for performing miracles for our ancestors at this time), and she'hekhianu (a general prayer thanking HASHEM/G-d for allowing us to reach this time of year). The first candle is then lit using the shammish candle, and the shammish candle is placed in its holder. The candles are allowed to burn out on their own after a minimum of 1/2 hour. Each night, another candle is added from right to left (like the Hebrew language). The oil cups, or candles are lit from left to right (because you pay honor to the newer thing first).

Why the shammish candle? The Channukah candles are for pleasure of the mitzvo (commandment) only; we are not allowed to use them for any productive purpose. We keep an extra one around (the shammish), so that if we need to do something useful with a candle, we don't accidentally use the Channukah candles. The shammish candle is at a different height so that it is easily identified as the shammish (servant). Yeshua haMoshiach said "I am the light of the world"

It is traditional to eat fried foods on this holiday, because of the significance of oil to the holiday. Among Ashkenazic Jews, this usually includes latkes (pronounced "lot-kuhs" or "lot-keys" depending on where your grandmother comes from. "potato pancakes".)

Gift-giving is not a traditional part of the holiday, but has been added in places where Jews have a lot of contact with Christians, as a way of dealing with our children's jealousy of their Christian friends. The only traditional gift of the holiday is "gelt," small amounts of money. When I was a young boychick (Yiddish word, means something like “whipper-snapper), I wanted to get eight days of presents (Haha!..Greedy kid, wasin’t I?).

Another minhog (tradition) of the holiday is playing dreidel, a gambling game played with a square top, this comes from when Torah study was banned by The Greeks and we kept small bits of Torah text inside the dreidels to make the Greek soldiers think we were merely gambling when we were really studying. Most people play for, pennies, candy, or chocolate coins (look for kosher ones, they can be found at just about any grocery, or super convienence stores in the galus, K-mart, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Win Dixie…ect). A dreidel, which should also be as readily available as the chocolate gelt (loot, coins) is marked with the following four Hebrew Letters: Nun, Gimmel, Heh and Shin.

This supposedly stands for the Hebrew phrase "nes gadol hayah sham", a great miracle happened there. Actually, it stands for the Yiddish words “nit” (nothing), “gantz” (all), “halb” (half) and “shtell” (put), which is the rules of the game! There are some variations in the way people play the game, but the way I learned it, everyone puts in one coin. A person spins the dreidel. On Nun, nothing happens; on Gimmel, you get the whole pot; on Heh, you get half of the pot; and on Shin, you put one in. When the pot is empty, everybody puts one in. Keep playing until one person has everything. Then redivide it, because nobody likes a poor winner.

A traditional song of this holiday is Maoz Tzur, better known to Christians as Rock of Ages (the tune is the same as one of the more popular ones; the Christian translation takes substantial liberties).

List of Dates