CHAPTER 8.
The Feast of Rededication
The feast of Hanukkah ("KHAN-oo-ka"), which means "dedication" or "rededication", is one of the traditional Hebrew festivals not commanded in Scripture. In fact, because it was instituted after the division of the Kingdom into Judah and Israel, it is one of the few holidays described in this book that can truthfully be called a "Jewish" festival, unlike the rest, which are often called that but which really belong to the Israelite people as a whole, and are once again being celebrated by all of Israel. (Purim is the other major one that falls in this category.) But it is based on and justified by the standing command to build YHWH a sanctuary so that He might dwell among His people. (Exodus 25:8)
This is because what Hanukkah celebrates is the rededication of the Temple three years to the day after it was desecrated by Hellenistic Syrians under the Greek general/dictator Antiochus IV in 165 B.C.E., who was trying to force Greek culture on all of his subjects.
Antiochus wanted all of his subjects to express loyalty to his regime. He did not require much at first--just that they sacrifice a pig to an idol in each city, just as they were doing in all the rest of his empire. Many Jewish cities did so just to keep the Greeks from demanding more, or so they thought. A priest named Matithyahu in the town of Modiin, west of Jerusalem, refused to do so. A younger priest was about to comply, so Matithyahu killed him, then killed the soldier who had brought the demand.
Immediately they called on the people of Judah to join them and to start the march of liberation to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which Antiochus had occupied, saying, "Those who are with YHWH will come with me!" Their main goal was to destroy the abominable idol which he had placed in the Holy of Holies, to purify the Temple, and to renew the pure worship of YHWH. When they forced the high priest appointed by Antiochus out of the Temple, he retaliated and attacked on the Sabbath, when he assumed the Jews would not fight back. Thousands were killed, so they decided they would defend themselves if attacked on the Sabbath again. The Greeks cracked down and forbade many things the Torah commanded, like circumcising their baby boys. But the Jews knew the terrain well and used it to their advantage, setting many ambushes in the mountains in an early example of guerrilla warfare. They defeated tens of thousands of Seleucid soldiers armed with all their strong weapons, including war elephants.
This part of the war took three years. By this time Matithyahu had died, and his sons had taken up his campaign, Yehudah being the leader among them. He was nicknamed "the Maccabee"--the hammer. After the Temple was rededicated, it was almost 30 years before the yoke of the pagans was finally thrown off completely and the Maccabees' descendants became not only the priests of Yehudah, but the kings as well. The Books of Maccabees give the details. It was a victory of a small minority against a strong majority. They could feel the presence of YHWH in all their battles, and they recognized that only with the Elohim of Israel had they became the victors. Hanukkah was instituted in commemoration.
According to tradition, when the Temple was ready to be reopened after being cleaned up and the altar replaced, there was only enough of the regulation oil to last one day, and it would take eight days to render more of the special mixture holy. But the authorities decided to go ahead and light the menorah anyway because the standing command was that it should always be lit. And, lo and behold, the day's supply of oil lasted the whole eight days! Therefore, we light candles for eight nights in a row on the anniversary, the 25th day of the ninth month; hence also the nickname "festival of lights".
This last story is not even apocryphal in the specialized sense. (Except for a brief mention that the celebration lasted eight days, it does not even appear in the Books of Maccabees, which are part of the Apocrypha, a collection of historical writings and legends that were not judged to be quite of the caliber of "holy writ"--except, ironically, by Roman Catholics--but are worthy of special note because of their instructional value.) The more likely reason the festival lasts eight days is that the people were celebrating the Feast of Sukkoth (which also lasts eight days) as soon as they could after the Temple was purified, since they had not been able to do it some two months earlier when it was actually prescribed.
Stones cannot normally become ritually unclean, but because a pig had been slaughtered on the altar, this "reproach of the Gentiles" was too powerful in the people's memory for them to be able to consider it clean again. Since it was something set apart to YHWH, they could not simply discard its stones, so they stored them in a special room designated for this purpose, and said that when a great prophet came, he would tell them what to do with them. This is alluded to in Yochanan (John) chapter 10, when we are told that at he was walking in the Temple courts during Hanukkah (the winter Feast of Dedication--for Sukkoth is also called the Feast of Dedication since Solomon's Temple was dedicated at that feast). It was at this time that the religious leaders asked him very directly whether he was that prophet or not. Because of their attitude, the only answer he gave was, in essence, "You should already know by now."
Themes:
Hanukkah is celebrated in such light-hearted ways today that often its real significance is lost even on those who celebrate it. It is about standing firm against those who would want us to assimilate or adopt--or even tolerate--their pagan ways. It symbolizes the faithfulness of the Israelite nation to the Elohim of Israel and to His House in Jerusalem. It also celebrates the deliverance YHWH provided to those who had confidence in Him and did the right thing even though they were overwhelmingly outnumbered.
Jewish Traditions:
Technically the only religious observance of these days is to light candles. A special menorah called a hanukkiah ("hah-noo-KEE-ah"), with eight branches instead of six, is used only at this festival. It is emphasized that candles used for ordinary purposes like light or warmth should not be used. There is now a standardized size for these candles, but some use oil lamps and there are even electric versions available. There is an additional candle, placed higher than the others, usually in the center, which is used to light all the others. It is called the shammash ("servant"). It is lit every night and used to light the others. On the first night, only one of the regular eight candles is lit, then two on the second night, and so on until all are lit on the eighth night. Like written Hebrew, they are lighted from right to left. The candles are allowed to burn out on their own after burning for a minimum of half an hour.
Because when the Greeks forbade the Jews to study the Torah, it was done secretly, and if Greek officials or soldiers came near, the scrolls would quickly be secreted away and a gamepiece called a dreydel and coins brought out as a ruse that they were just gambling. The dreydel is just a specialized spinning top with four sides, with the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hey, and shiin on each side respectively. They stand for the phrase "Nes gadol hayah sham" ("A great miracle took place there"). In the Land of Israel, the letter pey is substituted for the shiin, since it stands for po, which means "here". The dreydel game remains a popular part of the Hanukkah celebration today, though most people play for candy rather than real money.
Because of the prominence of oil in the relighting of the Temple menorah, it is traditional to eat foods fried in a lot of oil, such as latkes (patties made of shredded potatoes, which originated among Ashkenazic Jews) and sufganiyot (jelly-filled doughnuts topped with powdered sugar). Based on the opinion of some that the events in the apocryphal book of Judith took place during the same Greek occupation, dairy foods are eaten, especially cheese, which featured prominently in that story.
Since Hanukkah often falls close to a major Christian holiday, some have adopted the custom of giving gifts to the children at this time. Some limit this to dreydels and chocolate gelt (coins) which actually bear some relation to the festival; others give gifts on each of the eight nights so they have no reason to envy non-Jewish neighbors.
At Beth Lechem, nearly every night during Hanukkah we meet and eat in the home of someone in the congregation who hosts us all. Since we have more homes than available nights, we draw lots to decide who will be the hosts. Each of us brings his or her own (often homemade) hanukkiah each night. The congregational leader lights his candle first, then passes the light on to the next person, who in turn passes it to the next until everyone has lit his shammash, and from it, the other candle(s) designated for that night. When the person receiving the flame tilts his candle toward the one giving it, he says, "He is the light of the world", referring to Yahshua, the "servant" who has lighted the lamp of each of the "lost sheep of the House of Israel". We have a special song based on that verse, which we sing several times throughout Hanukkah. The final night we have a party with games and contests that is open to visitors who wish to learn more about the holiday. Of course the light is at its fullest at this time.
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11. The Added Fasts
An Introduction to the Hebrew Calendar
