This is Hanukkah: Truth and Spirituality Versus Traditions of the Rabbis.

 

As I’m recording this installment of the Messianic Torah Observer’s Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections, depending on which calendar you’re using, many Jews and Messianics around the world are celebrating or observing the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

 

Now, if you’re new to our Faith Community, Hanukkah is not a mandated feast of Yehovah. As you will come to learn in our discussion here today, it is a celebration that was put into place by one of the Maccabean leaders to honor the re-dedication of the Temple in Yerushalayim after Antiochus Epiphanes had defiled it.

 

Since that time, Hanukkah has been a holiday practiced by mainstream and orthodox Jews. And all indications are that Yahoshua even celebrated this holiday (Joh. 10:22-23).

 

Now, I realize there are many within our Faith Community who are strongly opposed to Yah’s set-apart people having anything to do with Hanukkah. And to a slight extent I agree with them. However, I believe the argument against Hanukkah observance by Yah’s set-apart people should not be an argument against the keeping of a manmade, traditional, national holiday, as opposed to the celebrating of a Jewish holiday that has been terribly twisted by traditions and falsehoods. That I can certainly understand, because there are a lot of falsities and errors associated with Hanukkah that are not corrected by Judaism but are rather fostered and encouraged by the religion. Unfortunately, some folks within our Faith Community, wanting to be more Jewish than being a disciple of Yahoshua, play fully into the frivolity and errors and misinformation of this holiday as opposed to recognizing the true meaning behind this fascinating and important Jewish holiday observance.

 

It is my goal today to bring to the surface a little bit of truth and spirituality that is associated with the true observance and meaning of Hanukkah.

 

Hanukkah Traditions:

 

1. Hanging the Menorah on the Wall or Adjacent to the Mezuzah (Ashkenazi). Some Chabad Jews follow this practice following the tradition as recorded in Shabbat 22a. The instruction is for the menorah to be placed “on the left so that the Hanukkah lamp will be on the left and the mezuzah on the right. Then, one who enters the house will be surrounded by mitzvot.”
2. Neighborhood Wine Tastings
3. Lighting a hanukkiah for each of the 8-nights of Hanukkah.
4. Jelly-Filled donuts
5. Playing Dreidel
6. Exchanging gifts, especially for children

 

Referred to traditionally by Jews as the “festival of lights.” It is generally kept 8-consecutive nights of menorah or hanukkia lighting, special prayers and fried foods.

 

The Hebrew term “hanukkah” (also chanukah) in English means “dedication.” It is aptly named in joyous acknowledgment and memory of the rededication of the Temple during the times of the Maccabees.

 

Hanukkah begins on the eve of the 25th of the 9th biblical month, which rabbinically speaking is the Month of Kislev. This year, according to the calculated Jewish calendar, it runs from 11/28 through 12/6.

 

I’d like to share with you a few verses from 1 Maccabees that I found to be powerful and spiritually significant, and that I believe best underscores the true meaning of Hanukkah. Along the line of my reading these to you, I’ll add commentary accordingly.

 

1 Maccabees 1-4 (Cepher).

 

As you may or may not recognize, the story of Hanukkah is tightly embedded in the story of the Maccabees. However, much of the Truth of Hanukkah has been lost to Rabbinic tradition that took liberty with recorded history and sought to spice up that history somewhat. For according to the Rabbis, when the Maccabees went to resurrect the Temple and light the Temple’s Menorah, they were only able to locate a “single cruse of olive oil” that qualified to be used to light the lamps. Beside that single cruse of oil that the Maccabees recorded, the rest of the oil supply had been contaminated or profaned by the occupying Greeks.

 

As the story goes, however, that single cruse of oil burned miraculously for 8-days until such time that sacred oil could be prepared and used according to Torah. And thus, the Rabbis take responsibility of creating this Jewish holiday or festival to commemorate, what we’ll find out here in short order, as erroneous miracles.

 

As I mentioned earlier, the story of Hanukkah is tightly embedded in the story of the Maccabees. And that story of the Maccabees is recorded in the Books of the Maccabees or the Sefer Hamakabim.

 

There are some 8-books that bear the title Maccabees that can be found in various canons of the Bible:

 

1. 1 Maccabees–Originally written in Hebrew, the only extant copies are in Greek. It records the history of the Maccabees from 175 to 134 BCE.
2. 2 Maccabees–a Greek “abridgment” written by Jason of Cyrene records the history of the Maccabees from 176 to 161 BCE. It’s main focus is on the leader Judas Maccabaeus.
3. 3 Maccabees–a Greek narrative that provides an historical accounting of Egyptians Jews that were delivered from martyrdom at the hands of Ptolemy IV. Philopator.
4. 4 Maccabees–a philosophical work using as its backdrop, the Maccabean martyrs.
5. 5 Maccabees–an Arabic-language history from 186-6 BCE.
6. 6 Maccabees–a Syriac poem.
7. 7 Maccabees–a Syriac that is based on the speeches of the Maccabean Martyrs.
8. 8 Maccabees–drawing on Seleucid sources, this book provides a brief account of the Maccabean Revolt.

 

1 and 2 Maccabees are considered canonical by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, which the remaining 6 books are considered apocryphal books.

 

The miracle of the cruse of oil for the menorah of the temple that supposedly last for 8-days is a rabbinic invention (Shabbat 21b).  There is no record of such a miracle to be found in the Cepher of Maccabees account.

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Themes and Spiritual Concepts 

 

A time of reflection, planning, affirmation, resolve, dedication, zeal, covenant, courage in the midst of an overwhelming enemy, trusting faith in the delivering power of the Elohim of Avraham, Yischaq and Yaachov, Torah-keeping even in the midst of overwhelming persecution among several other things.

 

It’s a time for consideration of what we’re gonna do when they come for you.

 

Indeed, we are living, in a great many ways, in the days of the Maccabees.

 

We see today how the so-called Christian leaders and their organizations have happily gone over to the side of the pagan government of this nation to promote and use their influence to coerce would be people of God to severely compromise the very tenets of their faith: homosexuality, vaccinations, watering down the Word so as to not offend, pledge allegiance to the primacy and sovereignty of the government, promote the dissolution of the family, promote poverty in their communities as a means of encouraging and forcing dependence on the government, and so many more spiritual crimes.

 

We are all called to be as Maccabean Warriors. Our warfare, however, is not like that of Mattithyahu Ben Shimon (or Mattathias, son of John, son of Simeon) and Yahudah Maccabees (or Judas called Maccabeus). For our warfare is not against flesh and blood beloved, as Shaul taught that our warfare, unlike that of the Maccabees. Instead, it is against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12).

 

• And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen 3:15 NKJ)

 

• So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jam 4:7 NLT)

 

• Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. (1Pe 5:8 NET)

 

• And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children– all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus. (Rev 12:17 NLT)

 

Our fight must begin against our own flesh:

 

• But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. (Rom 7:23 NLT)

 

• Self-denial–²⁵ And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. ²⁶ I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: ²⁷ But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1Co 9:25-27 KJV)

 

• The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. (Gal 5:17 NLT)

 

• Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. (1Pe 2:11 NLT)

 

• With confidence– The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ² When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. ³ Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be (Psa 27:1-3 KJV)

 

• Without personal baggage to bog us down– Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. (2Ti 2:4 NLT)

 

The Captain of our Warfare is Mashiyach and we fight under the banner of Yehovah our Elohim.

 

Our primary weapon that we take into battle must be our faith: 1 Tim. 1:18-19.

 

We conduct our warfare primarily through prayer: Psa. 35:1-3; 6:18.

 

We must fight with all earnestness: Jud. 1:3.

 

We must be watchful: 1 Cor. 16:13; 1 Pet. 5:8.

 

We must be sober at all times: 1 The. 5:6.

 

We must realize that this war requires endurance: 2 Tim. 2:3, 10.

 

3:25–Does the enemy know who we are and what we’re capable of such that they dread us?  So dreadful became the comparatively small forces of Yahudah to Antiochus that he sent greater and greater number of forces to war against Yahudah.

 

In chapter 4 we have the rededication of the overrun, defiled Temple, that the Maccabees rebuilt and purified. Hanukkah is also about the profane and the holy: Discerning the difference between the profane and the holy. Are we in a place in our walk with Mashiyach that were are capable of discerning the difference between the two? There is a stark difference indeed. And Yehovah’s people are called to not only discern between the two, but to also do something about those things in their lives that are profane and to guard those things that are holy.

 

And we also realize that these bodies of ours have replaced the physical temple. And so, we must treat our bodies–our whole self–as holy. And anything that may potentially defile it must be purged and in some cases, we must rededicate our bodies, hearts and minds for service, just as the Maccabees rebuilt and rededicated the temple in Yerushalayim.

 

 

So, I would suggest that Hanukkah, despite it not being numbered among the Feasts of Yehovah, and especially as it falls here upon us in 2021, is more of an annual reminder of that which we have in our covenant walk with Messiah that can so quickly and even violently be taken from us if we’re not careful. If we compromise in anyway in our walk with Messiah we run the very real risk of having the mantle of anointing, power and authority that Abba has placed over our individual, family and worship lives removed from us. And so, Hanukkah must become more than a silly, drummed up tale of menorah lamps miraculously burning for 8 days on a single cruse of oil. Anyone who chooses to focus on that lie or tale, and then teach one’s child these falsehoods is only asking for continued blindness to the lessons and instructions that Abba desires for His children to receive from the things He has allowed to happen to Yisra’el. For us, Hanukkah must serve as a life and spiritual lesson; a memorial; a confirmation and affirmation of that which is most important to all of humanity: The establishing and maintaining of a trusting Covenant Relationship we possess and enjoy with our heavenly Father.

 

The Maccabean Warriors recognized from the very beginning, when they were being told by the enemy that if they would simply compromise their faith, they would be on good terms with the Antiochus government, that any level of compromise meant their lives were over. You see, they recognized that their entire existence was their Faith; the covenant they possessed with Yehovah. And so, they fought without fear of losing their lives because compromise meant death for them anyway. So, they had little to lose, but everything to gain.

 

As we see played throughout the whole of Scripture, Yah’s people are always called to take the path less traveled; to abhor the paths of least resistance; to declare through our living and through our words that “if serving Yehovah is not your thing, simply choose whom you will serve; be it the gods of this world and the land in which we dwell, but as for me and my house we will serve Yehovah (Jos. 24:15).

 

We must have that Maccabean mindset in our walk with Messiah today. If Hanukkah offers us any true meaning and significance, it must be this one thing: What do I have to do in order that I maintain my covenant relationship with Yehovah, because to compromise means my covenant relationship will summarily end the second I say yes to compromise.

 

However, you are led to memorialize Hanukkah, I say do so from a perspective of Spirit and Truth. Yah saw fit that the Maccabean story be passed down to us for a reason. As Yah’s set-apart people, we are not called to find ourselves hung-up and practicing the traditions of men that only cause us to take our eyes off of our Elohim, but instead, place them on men. So then, instead, let us take Hanukkah for the life and spiritual lessons it offers us as we fight the good fight; work the fields while it is still day; and await our Master’s soon return.

 

Shabbat Shalom and if you are so inclined, have a blessed and meaningful Hanukkah season.