Hanukkah and Christmas both fall on December 25 this year, but don’t even think about wishing me a Happy Holidays…. either say Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah! A holiday is a secular celebration like Labor Day or Veterans Day. While they are important, they are only holidays, and not holy days.
Christmas and Hanukkah are holy times that contain deep spiritual teachings for our souls and lessons for our entire life. To relegate them to the status of secular holidays is actually offensive to those of us who worship God through our faith tradition.
But maybe people have secularized these special times because they just don’t know how deep and important they are?
I will leave a detailed description of the meaning of Christmas to my Catholic and Christian friends who are more knowledgeable than I. But we all recognize that this holy day is a lot more than just giving gifts, having traditional foods, and decorating a tree. The day is celebrated as the physical birthday of God incarnate for Christians around the world. It is a celebration of the miracle of Jesus’ birth, and the love of God for humanity. It is a time to remember that it is God’s desire for us all to love and take care of each other; to remember the best of our values; and to bring peace into this physical world. It is truly a holy day, and should never be put in the same category as secular holidays.
But while most people know about the sacredness of Christmas, few people, including most Jews, understand the importance of Hanukkah. It too is a holy time, and carries valuable teachings that we all need to remember, especially in these challenging times.
Like most Jewish holidays, Hanukkah is “metahistorical,” meaning that it is both a remembrance of an historical event, as well as a time to teach our souls specific and important lessons that transcend time and are always applicable. In the case of Hanukkah, which literally translates to “dedication,” it actually remembers two different historical events, and contains extremely valuable lessons that we must all always keep in mind.
And those lessons are all about freedom, personal responsibility, and making our actions based on faith.
The first historical event is little known or recognized except to scholars or extremely observant Jews. In chapter 50 of the Book of Genesis we learn that Egypt mourns the death of Jacob for 70 days; Joseph then travels for a day to bury Jacob in the cave of Machpelah; and Joseph ordains a seven day festival of mourning for his father (50:10). Including the day of travel, this makes an 8-day memorial that is “ordained,” meaning that it is to be observed for all time. We know that Jacob was both born and died on the same day of the 15th of Tishrei in the Hebrew calendar (the first day of the holiday of Sukkot, the Festival of Tabernacles), so the mourning begins 70 days later, on the 25th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar: the first day of Hanukkah.
Jacob, who was also named Israel (Gen. 32:27), was the father of the Jewish people, and lived his life based upon his faith in God. Joseph ordained this festival on behalf of his father so that all Jews, and all humans, would always remember to act on faith, and to live with courage. It is also a reminder that Israel will always be the land of the Jewish people, as it is given to Jacob and his descendants by God (Gen. 35:9).
The second historical event is one that most people know, but do not fully understand. Most people think that it is about one day’s worth of sacred oil lasting for 8 days, but it is much, much more than that.
In the second century B.C.E., the Seleucid Greeks controlled Israel. Led by their King Antiochus, they wanted to truly control the people as well as the land. They had no desire to kill the Jews, but wanted them to all convert to their pagan religion. The Seleucids understood that if you can control people’s spirituality, you can totally control their lives. And so they made it the law that all Jews would need to convert to the Hellenistic form of life and worship. In 167 B.C.E. they dedicated the holy Temple un Jerusalem to Zeus, and banned Judaism.
This caused a revolt led by a Jewish priest named Mattathias and his five sons. Upon Mattathias’ death in 166 B.C.E., the mantle of leadership was taken up by his son Judah, who became known as Judah the Maccabee (“Judah the Hammer”). On the 25th of Kislev, 164 B.C.E., the Maccabees sealed their victory and recaptured the Temple, which had been desecrated by the Seleucids with all forms of idol worship; including the sacrifice of pigs, idols to Zeus, and other forms of pagan worship. The Maccabees needed to rededicate the Temple so that it could be used for its intended purpose of worshiping God. Part of that rededication meant lighting the Eternal Light (Ner Tamid), which could only use clean flasks of a special virgin olive oil. Given that it would take eight days to prepare new pure oil, it did not seem to the Maccabees that they would be able to keep the sacred lamp lit for more than one day.
But a miracle happened. The one flask of oil that should only have been able to stay lit for one day, lasted an entire 8 days until new oil had been produced. This eight day miracle began on the same day that the 8 day festival of mourning of Jacob also started, the 25th of Kislev. And so the Festival of Hanukkah was established, and we light candles each night for eight nights to commemorate the miracle.
But this second aspect, which is much more known than Jacob’s Memorial, is significantly more than just a commemoration of oil lasting longer than it should. The Seleucids were the greatest empire of their time in the world. The Maccabees and their soldiers were insignificant in terms of numbers and weaponry. On the surface it would seem they had no chance of revolting and recapturing the Temple and the land of Israel from the powerful Seleucid Greeks. But they acted upon their faith and their principles, and they were triumphant. It is here that we learn the deeper lesson and importance of the holiday of Hanukkah, and why it is so applicable in today’s world.
There is a war on religion going on in the world today. All religion. It is from the secular cultural Marxists, and embodied in the consistent actions of Obama, Biden, the Democratic Party, the globalists, and the ruling elite. We see it every day in our nation and in the world as values that are antithetical to religion are encouraged and proselytized, especially to our children. Gender dysphoria, secularization, taking God out of the schools and government, and more have become the values that are promulgated to society. Easter under Biden became a day for transsexuals; the supposedly Catholic Biden and Pelosi have repeatedly violated their own faith tradition in promoting even late term abortions; sports teams have degraded Catholicism with their honoring of anti-Catholic groups; male athletes are competing against actual women under the guise of that is how they identify; and whenever possible, there are attempts to replace religion with secular socialism. The God of the heavens is and has been attacked by a government and elite who believe that they are gods.
It doesn’t sound all that different from what the Maccabees had to deal with over 2,000 years ago.
But the Maccabees acted on faith, and against all odds beat off the enemies of God. Hanukkah is a holiday not only about the oil, but about the military victory itself. It is a reminder that when we are acting righteously and in harmony with God’s teachings, nothing can stop our victory. This is a lesson we need to all remember as we face the cultural Marxists and the woke culture who choose to attack religion. It may seem as if they outnumber of people of faith, but they don’t. It may seem as if they have all of the media, government, and educational institutions on their side. But the holiday of Hanukkah reminds us that with God on our side there is no battle that cannot be won. We are beginning to see this truth through the November elections, and with a president-elect who proudly and gratefully acknowledges the saving of his life to the Divine master.
The war on religion is continuing, and the enemies of faith are not going to rest or be defeated easily. But Hanukkah reminds us that they will be defeated. We need to act on our faith, and know that with God as our ally the modern day Seleucids represented by Obama, Biden, et al, will fade into history as long as we each do our part.
Christmas and Hanukkah both teach us about faith, fighting for freedom, and God. When we act upon the lessons of these days, they cease being holidays and become truly holy days.
So please don’t wish me Happy Holidays, as it is just an expression of those who seek to secularize religion. Instead, let us all celebrate our worship, and express the beautiful holiness of these sacred times.
Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! May the blessings of both of these sacred holidays inspire all of us to be right and righteous; filled with faith in our actions; committed to freedom and religious liberty, and respect each other and our faith with gratitude and love.
This Story originally came from humanevents.com