The Light entered the world.
He is the Way, the Light and the Truth.
b'shem Y'shua
Posted on 12/25/2005 5:23:39 PM PST by Zionist Conspirator
Well, with tonight's nightfall the festival of Chanukkah is finally here. And it is because of this, and because of the peculiarly savage nature of the "chr*stmas wars" this year, that I wish to share my thoughts with my fellow FReepers.
In our current climate Chanukkah is simply the first of the rival "artificial" holidays that the forces of secularism have adopted to destroy chr*stmas and the piety it represents. Since I am not a Jew (and am a former chr*stian) this misunderstanding (not only by conservative chr*stians, but by liberals as well) is very painful to me, because I gave up chr*stmas and chose to focus on Chanukkah instead not because "it is my tradition" or because I champion dissent or "freethought" or enjoy poking a finger in the eyes of "bumpkins" (seeing as how I am a bumpkin myself). I know this will be very hard for people to understand in today's ideological mileu, but it was for the sake of G-d and piety that I made this change in my life. This is what I seek to explain.
First of all, unlike some other "holidays" we could mention, Chanukkah is not a recent artificial invention. It is in fact older than chr*stmas and is in fact mentioned by name somewhere in the Gospel of St. John ("and it was the feast of dedication, and it was winter").
And second of all, the true meaning of Chanukkah is 100% opposed to what most people have been told. Let's look at the facts. It celebrates a military victory. Since when to liberals celebrate military victories? And the military struggle of which this victory was a part was not against "bigots" or "intolerant" people; in fact, it took place in a Theocratic context very different from the world that has existed since the 18th century "enlightenment." It was actually a struggle against "enlightened" liberals who sought to change and adulterate the Old Ways. And the liberals were the bad guys! How many times have you heard this before?
Thirdly, the victory of Chanukkah was against the arch-rationalist ideology of Hellenism. The ancient Greeks and those in their orbit (thanks to Alexander's conquering of the world) were the most "open-minded," "scientific," and "enlightened" people in history. They did not begin with an Absolute Truth given as a Divine Revelation but instead began with the obvious and reasoned outward in order to discover "truth." In fact, Hellenistic philosophy was a negation of the deeper Truths that lie beneath the surface in favor of the shallowest levels of reality--in the words of Chassidut, the "garment" in which G-d has hidden Himself and in which He bids us to search for Him. For the Hellenists (as for certain unhappy FReepers who have nothing to live for other than lowering their taxes), this "garment" was the whole of reality. Nothing else existed, or if it did, it was not very important. It is (they argued) the things most obvious to everyone that are the most sure. Any deeper meaning is pure speculation. So alien from the authentic Jewish outlook is this that the Holy Sages compared this Greek reductionism to the very primordial darkness that existed before G-d said "Let there be light!"
And now we come to the heart of Chanukkah, the reason it was instituted by the ancient (and decidedly pious and Theocratic) Sages: the miracle. Does anyone out there know what the miracle of Chanukkah was? The one we hear most about is the miracle of the oil (often by hypocrites who don't even believe it happened), and this was indeed a true miracle, a manifestation of the supernatural. But there was another miracle at that time, and it is this other miracle that is memorialized in the `Al Ha Nissim prayer for Chanukkah inserted in the `Amidah and in the prayers after eating: "You delivered the mighty into the hands of the week, the many into the hands of the many, . . . the wicked into the hands of the righteous." In other words, if the Hellenistic philosophy were true, the Hellenizers would have won and crushed Torah for all time. It is not natural for the few and the week to defeat the many and the strong. That this happened is nothing other than a supernatural miracle that attests that there is a G-d and a spiritual reality beneath what our senses can perceive, and this is the greater part of reality.
Just as Purim celebrates and teaches that, however hidden G-d may be, He is the one Who is always at work in nature and history, so Chanukkah teaches that there is a G-d and that the mere laws of nature which He Himself created cannot but serve him. The Sages teach us that in the coming Messianic era the world will be so inundated with holiness that the holiness of the festivals which G-d established will be swallowed up. But the holiness of the two festivals established by the Sages, Purim and Chanukkah, cannot and will not be swallowed up.
Over the years the meaning of Chanukkah has been ever more twisted and presented as a celebration of ideals little different from those of the French Revolution, G-d forbid. It has in effect become the holiday of the village atheist. How totally opposed to reality this is!
The chr*stians among you understand the duty to "witness." I pray that however much you may disagree with me and my beliefs you will at least bear witness that I am proof that it is possible to so associate simple belief in the True G-d with the Jews and the Torah that one can feel compelled to give up chr*stmas and cleave to Chanukkah instead. However strange this may seem in the confusion of the modern world, it is nevertheless true and I am proof of it.
I do not live anywhere near a Jewish community. Those of you who do, when you see a chanukkiyyah in a window, by a door, or in a public park or mall, please do me one favor. When you look at it, don't think about Thomas Jefferson or the First Amendment or how the sufferings of the Jewish People have taught the world that we can no longer afford Fundamentalist religious beliefs. Instead think of the True G-d, the Unchanging Torah, and the supernatural miracles that have confirmed this in those days, at this time, and acknowledge G-d.
May the flame of the chanukkiyyah illuminate us with G-d's True Light and fill us with piety, reverence, fear of Heaven, fear of sin, and the confidence to trust that whatever may happen, G-d, the True and Living G-d, will in the end win out over all falsehood and all creation will acknowledge him (First Amendment or no First Amendment)!
Chag Chanukkah sameach veqadosh to you all.
The "chr*stmas wars" have been particularly hard for me this year, with chr*stmas supposedly representing piety and the "old ways" and Chanukkah (G-d forbid) irreverence and modernity. I have tried very hard to show that this is not the case. I don't know if I have succeeded, but I hope this poor effort of mine will fine grace in your eyes and of the community of Israel.
Very impressive...thank you.
No; thank you!
Concerning the Christmas Wars many Protestant groups (that are generally unknown to the public at large) avoid Christmas itself because of its association with "Santa Claus".
In my research into how the Sa'ami came to America, and how their Little Red Man concept seems to have become very much a part of the Santa Claus image, I finally realized that the Anti-Christmas fundamentalist Chrisitan groups were mostly Scandinavian in origin, and it really was Little Red Man, Herb Woman and Reindeer Man they were rejecting ~ in part because it was a recent part of their people's own fairly recent pagan past, but also because of the old religion's association with the use of amanita muscaria, a red hallucinogenic mushroom with white spots, much beloved of Sa'ami shamen as well as reindeer.
The secularists, however, seem to be the sort of folk who highly prise unregulated recreational use of hallucinogenic drugs, so their war on Christmas seems a tad mysterious, and possibly simply misinformed!
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
The Light entered the world.
He is the Way, the Light and the Truth.
b'shem Y'shua
The story is told in Maccabees, which is part of the Catholic Old Testament but for Protestants will be found in the Apocrypha.
Even though the Apocryphal books don't have the canonical authority of the Bible for Protestants, they are very much worth reading, especially Judith, Tobit, and 1 & 2 Maccabees.
I'll be honest, most of what you have written here is Japanese to me.
As a Christian, I fail miserably at memoriaing verses. I use a concordance VERY OFTEN! I also have a friend that I use- I call him the "Curtis Concordance." (LOL- many of us call him that.)
He spent over 6 years at a Jewish Messianic Temple, knows Hebrew very well, and is very well educated in the history of the Jewish traditions and celebrations, and their correlations to the Christian celebrations. He is an awesome teacher.
I have also done some of my own research on Jewish traditions, etc. I especially LOVE their written G-d as opposed to God, and the reasoning behind it. I have attended Messianic Jewish Temple myself as well, I love First Fridays the BEST!
Learning the TRUTH behind celebrations is amazing and very interesting to me. Theology is not a "passion" of mine, but it is an interest, per se.
I enjoy reading about other's beliefs, traditions, and reasons behind them. I learn so muc.
thank you for sharing this with us. It is truly a blessing.
May G-d Bless you....
Thank you for this beautiful post!
Interesting that you mentioned Purim and Chanukah together! The local Chabad magazine had an article based on an address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe back in the '50s which discussed this relationship! I'm going to reproduce it for you below:
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article.asp?AID=102967
Oil permeates the entire substance of a thing
Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 105:5
When wine enters, secret emerges
Talmud, Eruvin 65a
Oil is in. Oil shuns superficiality--you wont find it riding a fad or angling for a photo opportunity. When oil comes in contact with something, it saturates it to the core, permeating it in its entirety.
When set aglow, oil is the master of understatement. Soundlessly it burns--not for the oil lamp the vulgar cackling of firewood or even the faint sizzle of candlewax. Its light does not burst through the door and bulldoze the darkness away; instead, it gently coaxes the gloom to shimmer with a spiritual luminescence.
Wine is a tabloid reporter. Wine barges past the security guard of mind to loosen the lips, spill the guts and turn the heart inside out. Wine smears the most intimate secrets across the front pages of life.
Chanukah is oil, Purim is wine.
Chanukah is the triumph of the Jewish soul. The Greeks had no designs on the Jews body; it was the soul of Israel they coveted, seeking to indoctrinate her mind with their philosophy and tint her spirit with their culture. The Jew fought not for the freedom of his material self but to liberate his spiritual identity from Hellenist domination.
Haman and company did not bother with such subtleties. They had one simple goal: the physical destruction of every Jew on the face of the earth. Purim remembers the salvation of the Jews bodily existence.
Chanukah is commemorated with oil. Chanukah celebrates the innerness of the Jewish soul, the essence which permeates and sanctifies every nook and cranny of the Jews life. Chanukah celebrates the secret glow of the spirit, which, rather than confronting the darkness, infiltrates it and transforms it from within.
On Purim we pour out the wine. Purim is a noisy party, a showy parade, a costumed extravaganza. Purim celebrates the fact that the Jew is more than a soul--he is a body as well. Purim celebrates the fact that our Jewishness is not only an internal spirituality but also a palpable reality; that it not only permeates our beings from within, but also spills out into the externalities of our material lives.
Likkutei Sichot, vol. II, pp. 482-484
(ased on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe More articles... | RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
By Yanki Tauber; based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Yanki Tauber; based on an address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Chanukah 1955 (Likkutei Sichot, vol. II, pp. 482-484).)
But Machabeus, and they that were with him, by the protection of the Lord, recovered the temple and the city again. But he threw down the altars, which the heathens had set up in the streets, as also the temples of the idols. And having purified the temple, they made another altar: and taking fire out of the fiery stones, they offered sacrifices after two years, and set forth incense, and lamps, and the leaves of proposition. And when they had done these things, they besought the Lord, lying prostrate on the ground, that they might no more fall into such evils; but if they should at any time sin, that they might be chastised by him more gently, and not be delivered up to barbarians and blasphemous men. Now upon the same day that the temple had been polluted by the strangers, on the very same day it was cleansed again, to wit, on the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu.And they kept eight days with joy, after the manner of the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long before they had kept the feast of the tabernacles when they were in the mountains, and in dens like wild beasts. Therefore they now, carried boughs, and green branches, and palms for Him that had given them good success in cleansing his place. And they ordained by a common statute, and decree, that all the nation of the Jews should keep those days every year. And this was the end of Antiochus that was called the Illustrious. (II Maccabees 10:1-8)
Bump.
HaShem is the reason for the Chanukkah season!
But not to worry. As soon as 12/25 passes the reverent chr*stians go right back to dismissing the "old testament" as chr*stological allegory taken from pagan mythology (this doesn't apply to American-style "Bible chr*stians," thank G-d).
You might also find this of interest.
Hey, I want a Shavu`ot stamp, with the Ten Commandments and everything! And if I don't get it I'm going to claim this implies that America is a chr*stian theocracy and sue everyone!
On Purim we pour out the wine. Purim is a noisy party, a showy parade, a costumed extravaganza. Purim celebrates the fact that the Jew is more than a soul--he is a body as well. Purim celebrates the fact that our Jewishness is not only an internal spirituality but also a palpable reality; that it not only permeates our beings from within, but also spills out into the externalities of our material lives.
Interestingly, in contemporary America the exact opposite is true; Chanukkah is the "noisiest" Jewish holiday (the only one many Americans have ever heard of) and Purim is not only invisible, but has actually been removed from the calendar by liberal Jewish "denominations." Could there be something sinister to this exact reversal?
There was some idiotic movie called The Hebrew Hammer on Comedy Central this morning, in which a Jew and a hip Black guy join together to stop the evil son of Santa Claus from "eradicating" Chanukkah (and I suppose "kwanzaa" as well). Why isn't there a movie about the evil son of St. Patrick (or perhaps Louis Armstrong when it falls in feb)trying to eradicate Purim? Liberal Jews have already eradicated it!!!
Of course Shavu`ot is the most ignored and "embarrassing" Jewish holiday, though Simchat Torah will always be my own personal favorite.
Another intentional "mispelling," I see.
Merry Christmas
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