Put that Chanukia down and back away from that Christmas Tree.
It happens every year at this time: some call it the war on Christmas, but it’s not really…it’s battle of political correctness.
When a community puts up a Christmas tree, one of two things happens. Either there is a battle to take it down, or someone fights to get a Chanukkiyah (that’s its real name, not Menorah), Kwanzaa candles, or a symbol of some other religion’s holiday placed right next to it. Then Fox News follows by running stories about the latest battle in the “war against Christmas,” and the ACLU starts a legal action against any town whose mayor or council member once drove near a church, mosque, and/or synagogue.
Hey, ACLU: Give it up. America is a Majority Christian country. The First Amendment isn’t supposed to stop Christians from celebrating their faith, its supposed to stop the majority from crapping on the other faiths, and stop the government from blocking our freedom of religion.
People who see December as an opportune time for the celebration of politically correct multicultural nonsense have to stop! I understand that people are trying to be fair, but it’s idiotic and ruins the meaning of my holiday.
I can’t speak for the other holidays, but I can tell you that as Jewish holidays go, Chanukah is among the least important, unlike the “big ones holidays” like Passover, Sukkot, or Shavuot you can work, drive, etc.
Only one part of the story was the Maccabees fight for getting the Syrian-Greeks out of Israel, and the cleansing and dedication of the Temple. The Hanukkah Story about a civil war amongst the Jews. Judah Maccabee and the boys were fighting other Jews who had turned away from their faith by combining it with Greek/Hellenistic practices. The resulting assimilation caused a loss of Jewish faith and tradition, and eventually laws against practicing Jewish ritual.
Hanukkah is a holiday about Jews fighting against assimilation, but the ACLU-progressive-liberal-types would have us celebrate it by assimilating.
We appreciate the thought but it’s sacrilegious. Nothing goes against the true meaning of Chanukah more than placing a Chanukkiyah (Menorah) near a “holiday tree” or using a Magen David (Jewish star) as a tree ornament. The true meaning of Chanukah is the exact opposite of that multicultural rubbish.
Every year Sirius/XM runs and 8 day Radio Hanukkah special. In between the music “celebrity Jews” talk about how they celebrate the holiday. Some of their stories are totally contra to the meaning of the holiday—such as DNC Chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz who describes how she celebrates Hanukkah by taking her kids over to her Christian friend’s house to help them celebrate Christmas.
Let me suggest that if Matthias and his sons were alive today, they would be fighting every Jew who wanted a six-foot menorah next to a Christmas tree, a star of David next to a cross, or even the massive multi-holiday Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus and Winter Solstice display, with the perpetual sound of Bing Crosby singing the Irving Bailen’s “White Christmas” (Irving Berlin’s real last name was Bailen).
America is not supposed to be a melting-pot its more like a gumbo where all the elements are in the same pot, existing together, but maintaining its original form.
As Americans, we are all different and we must celebrate those differences, not merge them into one hodgepodge of progressive mediocrity celebrating everything at the same time, while the truth is it celebrating absolutely nothing.
I would also suggest that Jewish people who celebrate both holidays “have a Christmas Tree for the kids,” a Hanukkah Bush, or talk about Hanukkah Harry are also missing the meaning of Chanukah. The Maccabees were horrified when an idol was placed in the Holy Temple. Rather than trying to fit with “modern” culture, they wanted to make sure that the House of God was a Jewish household. To remember the Maccabees, we should do the same with ours. In other words, when you sit on the top of the fence, your arse starts hurting.
The Rabbis tell us that we are not to use the Chanukah candles for reading or seeing, as we would with a regular candle or a light bulb. The Chanukkiyah is supposed to be placed near a window so the light of God and his miracles will shine outward into the world. Mixing up Chanukah with other people’s traditions diminishes the light and message of Chanukah as well as the holiday traditions of others.
To my Christian friends: Please don’t go get assimilated on me either. That tree in the mall, town square, or your living room is a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree. Santa is not a secular character; he is Saint Nick. You have a nice tradition, “Keep the Christ in Christmas.” Don’t try to make it politically correct by taking away its religious nature. And don’t take away the religious nature of Christmas by forcing a Chanukiah down the collective throats of the three wise men in a public Christmas display.
America is a great country. It is great not because everyone celebrates the same, but because we can all celebrate our differences.
Let’s celebrate and learn from each other