On the evening of December 25, 2024 (which I am told is the same date as the holiday of a different faith), Jews worldwide will light the first candle to begin celebrating the eight nights of Chanukah.
Hanukkah has an important message which, IMHO, is defaced by what has become the “official” greeting of the season, “Happy Holidays.” That term is so wrong it makes my brain bleed. Years ago, the wokesters decided that Merry Christmas made Christianity look too dominant and insulted people of other faiths who had holidays around the same time. So gone went Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, and in came “Happy Holidays.”
Rubbish! I can’t speak for Christian theology and will never assert that I am a great scholar of my own Jewish faith, but I know enough that combining the two holidays into one generic term runs contrary to the meaning of Hanukkah, which commemorates a war against assimilation and to maintain control of their indigenous homeland now known as Israel.
Chanukkah is NOT the Jewish Christmas.
What many people (even Jews) know about Chanukah is totally wrong. The official version of the Hanukkah story commemorates the renewal of the holy Temple in Jerusalem after the Jews were booted out by the forces of Seleucid King Antiochus IV is accurate. But that is only a tiny part of the story.
The war that Matthias ben Johanan (Maccabee) led, and after he passed away a year later, his son Judah led, was a civil war against the Jews who turned away from their faith—a battle against assimilation. King Antiochus IV and his army intervened in the civil war but picked the wrong side to support.
Any combination of Hanukkah with a holiday of another faith, like “happy holidays,” runs counter to the anti-assimilation message of the Hanukkah holiday, no matter how small, benign, or well-meaning the intention.
The Chanukkah “uprising” began with Seleucid King Antiochus IV invading the Jewish State of Judea at the request of assimilated Hellenized Jews. They were expelled from Judea to Syria because they integrated Greek philosophy into their monotheistic faith. The exiled assimilated Jews lobbied King Antiochus IV to capture Judea’s capital, Jerusalem.
Antiochus IV captured Jerusalem. After the takeover, He banned Judaism and ordered a statue of Zeus to be built in the Second Temple. He also banned circumcision and ordered pigs to be sacrificed at the Temple altar.
The civil war began in the town of Modin. A government representative of Antiochus IV demanded that the local Jewish priest Mattathias offer sacrifices to the Greek gods. Mattathias not only refused to do so but killed the Jew who had stepped forward to offer to make that sacrifice. He then killed the government official who made the demand. An order to arrest Mattathias was made. So he went into the wilderness to hide, joined by his sons and others who heeded his call:
“Let everyone who has a zeal for the Law and who stands by the covenant follow me!”
From that wilderness hideout, they began the revolt, a guerilla war. The initial attacks weren’t against the army of Antiochus. They attacked the army of the assimilated Jews.
A year into the war, Mattathias had died, making his son Judah the leader. By the way, Maccabee was not Judah’s last name. His real last name was Hasmonean, which is why the period in which his family ruled Judea is known as the Hasmonean dynasty (a longer story). Maccabee started as a nickname Y’hudhah HamMakabi (Judah the Hammer), a nickname for Judah that spread to the other fighters. Along with the word “hammer,” Maccabee is an anagram for a Hebrew phrase that translates into “Who is like You among the heavenly powers, oh God?”
After over three Maccabees finally retook the Temple in the Hebrew month of Kislev (the war continued for years). On the 25th of Kislev, the Maccabees celebrated the rededication of the Temple with an observance of the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Huh? That was supposed to happen three months earlier.
Chapter 8 of the first book of Kings explained that it was during Sukkot when the first Temple built by King Solomon at the direction of G-d was first filled with its religious needs:
And they brought up the ark of the Lord, and the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy vessels which (were) in the tabernacle, and the priests and the Levites did bring them up.”
It made sense for the Maccabees’ rededication of the second temple to recognize that first ceremony.
There you have it. Happy Holidays, making Hanukkah the “Jewish Christmas” doesn’t make sense for an observance about fighting assimilation.
Oh, one more thing. While I believe that G-d can easily create the miracle of the oil, in my opinion, the story of the oil lasting eight days is nothing more than a nice story. Along with many others, my belief is that it never happened. It was never recorded in the books of Maccabees or any contemporary accounts of that first Chanukah celebration. Some readers strongly disagree. They correctly point out that the Talmud (Shabbat 22a) accounts for the one day of oil lasting eight days.
And there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the candelabrum from it eight days.
This, however, is not a contemporary account. The Talmud was compiled between 6 and 700 years after the Maccabee revolt. Either way, there is nothing wrong with telling a lovely story that ultimately teaches the power of our maker.
The term festival of lights was added by a Judean general named Josephus, who switched sides, becoming a traitor during the first revolt against the Romans about a century after the Maccabees. After switching sides, he became a respected purveyor of Jewish History.
Josephus added the Festival of Lights with this paragraph in his book of Jewish Antiquities.
And from that time to this we celebrate this, which we call the Festival of Lights, because, I imagine, beyond our hopes this right was brought to light, and so this name was placed on the festival.
Thanks to Josephus, Chanukkah is also called the Festival of Lights. However, that phrase took on a real meaning as it developed because Jews believe that G-d’s teachings bring his light into the world. The Chanukah festival was a re-dedication of the Temple and a re-dedication of Jews to the Torah and bringing the light of G-d into the world.
Neither Josephus nor the Book of Maccabees discusses any oil that lasts eight days (or sufganiyot, a round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel and around the world on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The doughnut is deep-fried, injected with jam, custard, or, my favorite, chocolate. After the injection, all sufganiyot are topped with powdered sugar. Greased+Sugar=diabetes).
Chanukah is a minor holiday, but it is one of my favorites, not because of the eight days of gifts (an American custom based on trying to one-up Christmas), not because of the greasy, clogged artery-inducing donuts and potato pancakes, but because Chanukah is a holiday about Jews fighting against assimilation and protecting their indigenous homeland then called Judea. That lesson needs to be reinforced over and over here in the Diaspora, and one I am trying to promote.
May you all have a Chag Chanukah Samayach and a happy Hanukkah holiday, and may the light of God soon radiate throughout the world and bring us peace. As the words said over and over during each and every Jewish prayer service wishes:
Oseh Shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu ve’al kol yisrael, ve’imru amen.
He who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel (especially in this time of war). Amen
