 What is Hanukkah? (1 views)
From:  David (DavidABrown)    12/9/2001 9:52 am  
To:  ALL    
 
  286.1  
 
Hanukkah the Jewish Holiday Festival of Lights begins Tonight Dec. 9, 2001.

 

Background:

The Jewish Nation began with Abraham being called out from among the Nations by God. Abraham answered the call of God, the call to a relationship with God, and God led Abraham to the Promise land [Israel]. Abraham had a son named Isaac, Isaac then had Abrahams Grandson, Jacob. Jacob then had Abrahams 12 Great Grandchildren. One of the 12 great grandchildren was Joseph who was rejected by his 11 brothers, as Prophecy of the future event of the Jews rejecting of their brother Jesus, for a time. Jacob was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. God allowed a huge famine to engulf the Middle East, requiring the brothers of Joseph to search for food in Egypt, where they were reunited with their brother Joseph. The entire family 70 people in all, all descendants of Abraham, left the Promise Land [Israel] and came to live in Egypt where the food was available.

 

In Egypt the Jews remained separated from the Egyptians and vastly grew in numbers as a growing family. Later they were forced into slavery by an evil Pharaoh [President of Egypt]. God then delivered the family [descendants] of Abraham from Egypt, by using Many Miracles and a descendant of Abraham, a man named Moses.

 

The family of Abraham entered Egypt as a small family but God delivered them from Egypt as a Nation of many people. Moses then led the New Nation of Israel out into the desert. The desert is a place for the people to get to know the God who just rescued them from the slavery and cruelty. God explained to the Jewish Nation just who He is by giving His 10 Commandments and the Laws for the people to follow so they could live, loving, respectful lives, and be similar in character to the Living, Loving, God who rescued them.

 

Moses was not allowed to lead the Nation back into the Promise Land [Israel] that God had given to their ancestor Abraham. The leading of the people across the Jordan River and into Israel would be for their new leader Jesus [Joshua]. Jesus is the New Testament Greek name of the same Old Testament Hebrew name Joshua.

 

After many years in the Promise Land [Israel], long after the days of King David and his son King Solomon, the Jewish nation was defeated and taken captive this time to the nation of Babylon [Iraq]. Daniel of Daniel and the Lions Den was one of the Jewish boys taken in captivity to Babylon [Iraq]. As Prophesied by the Jewish Prophet Jeremiah, the captivity in Babylon [Iraq] lasted for 70 years. At the end of 70 years Babylon was defeated by Persia [Iran] and the Jews were allowed to go back to their Promise Land [Israel] that God had given them so long ago.

 

The Jews although they lived back in their own country of Israel they were under the Government of the Persians [Iranians]. The Jews had to pay taxes to Persia [Iran]. In the battles and politics of the day Persia was eventually defeated by the Nation of Greece. The Greeks then took control of Israel and Ruled Israel for some 400 years. Later the Romans would defeat the Greeks and they would take control of Israel. It was during this time of Roman control of Israel that Jesus was Born. The Romans had control of Israel for about 60 years before the birth of Jesus.

 

It was during the time of the Greek control of Israel that the Hanukkah Celebration came into being. The Greeks were viciously trying to stamp out Judaism and the Jewish Religious practices that went with Judaism. The Greeks were trying to make the Jews into Greeks and in doing so the Greeks were attempting to disrupt the Jewish Temple sacrifices. One aspect of the Temple Sacrifices is to keep a Lamp Continually Lit and burning using a special Holy Religious Oil that took days to prepare. A Jewish family named the Maccabees revolted against the Greek army. During the revolt the supply of oil in the Temple was down to a one day supply. God again Miraculously intervened into the History of Israel and God kept the Light burning for Eight days until New Oil could be processed. God signified that He is the Light of Israel and that He will keep Israel going as a Nation.

 

The Hanukkah Festival of Light, the lighting of eight candles to represent the eight Miraculous days, has been continuing every since. Jesus even participated in the Hanukkah festival John 10:22. It was at this feast that Jesus declared that it is His works (Miracles) that witness that He is God from God.



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
 
From:  David (DavidABrown)    12/9/2001 9:55 am  
To:  ALL    
 
    
 
Source www.Jpost.com

24 Kislev 5762  14:13 Sunday December 9, 2001  

 

Preparing for Hanukka in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem. 

Different strokes for different folks

By Emily J. Shapiro

 

(December 9) - The meaning of Hanukka has changed since the early days 

of statehood, especially as it is taught and celebrated in schools. 

 

The festival of lights is nearly upon us. Yet apart from overstocked toy stores and boxes of candles on the supermarket racks, one hardly notices. 

 

Is that because the festivities this year are overshadowed by the continuing and ever-intensifying terrorism around us? Or has the significance of Hanukka changed over the last few years, and we have been too busy with weightier issues to discuss it? 

 

Maybe it's a little of both. 

 

Or maybe the holiday has come to mean such different things depending not only on whether you're secular or religious, but on which school you go to or in which neighborhood you live. 

 

Once upon a time, Hanukka enjoyed a lot of vitality and spirit, because of the clear associations between the rise of statehood and the accomplishments of the ancient Maccabees. 

 

The early Zionists identified with the Maccabees and reinterpreted their ancient triumph as a vehicle for secular nationalist sentiment. In the Maccabees, the secular Zionists saw the beginning of a revolt that was not only nationalist, but also secularist in its reliance on human effort to redeem the nation. 

 

In 1911, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi commented that "the glory and the educational value of the Hasmoneans is that their example revived the nation to be its own redeemer and the determiner of its own future." 

 

The traditional candles were still lit but reinterpreted to betoken the light of national deliverance, not of the miracle of the oil. The ceremony of lighting the candles became a public assembly. Speeches, parades, and song fests took the place of blessings. 

 

A popular song became "No miracle befell us, no cruse of oil did we find." Another song altered the biblical verse "Who can recount the mighty acts of the Lord?" (Psalms 106:2) to "Who can recount the exploits of Israel?" 

 

In fact, the Zionists' usurping, so to speak, of the holiday was sharply criticized in some Orthodox and haredi circles. Hanukka, in effect, became yet another battlefield for disputes between the religious and the secular. 

 

Some observers discern a gradual decline in the holiday's overall appeal, at least to non-observant Israelis. 

 

Udi Prawer, principal of the Rehavia Gymnasia in Jerusalem, says there has been a "deterioration of the festival." 

 

"Hanukka was once the big Zionist holiday. However, it has lost its power. Its cultural significance is not relevant today. Today, our sovereignty is not so interesting. It is a fact. It is trivial and basic," Prawer says. 

 

He feels the emotions once stirred by Hanukka are more evoked nowadays by national holidays, such as Independence Day and Remembrance Day. 

 

"The depth isn't there. It used to be the day to honor our heroes. Now, there are other days on the calendar for that. Now, this is not the main topic of Hanukka. The whole story is different now. Independence is known, accepted. These students' grandfathers saw the establishment of the state," Prawer says. "The more relevant issue is the Americanization of Hanukka as a form of Hellenization." 

 

Another teacher remarks how Hollywood seems to have elbowed in on Hanukka this year. 

 

"I went into the stores to find Hanukka stuff for our nursery school, and all I found was Harry Potter stuff everywhere. Where is everything for Hanukka? I couldn't find anything!" says Caryn Schaffel, a teacher at Gan Discovery, an English-speaking preschool in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood. 

 

However, that does not mean Hanukka is no longer an excuse to celebrate - and this year a welcome relief from the violence - particularly since pupils get nearly an entire week off from school in its honor. 

 

Even at Prawer's school, some festivities are planned. "We will deal with the holiday the day before. We will light the candles," he says. 

 

A disco party is also in the works. Other secular schools are also planning dance parties, and one tried to organize a casino-style carnival using Hanukka gelt, but the plan didn't work out. 

 

Not every educator agrees with Prawer's perspective. Principals at other schools are giving the holiday more emphasis. They are busily planning a variety of Hanukka celebrations, whether by having pupils bring gifts to hospitals and the needy or holding assemblies, candle-lighting ceremonies, and parties. Teachers at the Hayovel School in Givat Masua, Jerusalem, are planning to take their pupils out to view different styles of hanukkiot displayed in the capital. 

 

At the Charles Smith High School for the Arts, a secular middle and high school in Jerusalem, Hanukka celebrations are taking on more of a cultural and nostalgic flavor. 

 

Program coordinator Noah Charpak says a candle-lighting ceremony is being planned alongside the presentation of a play and at least one other work by the late national poet, Natan Alterman. 

 

The works of Alterman, who was something of a literary spokesman for the Zionist movement, express a longing for independence; indeed, some of his lyrics, censored by the British during the Mandate, became anthems of the struggle for statehood. Later he became a supporter of the Greater Land of Israel Movement. Some of his work also bluntly, sometimes harshly, confronts the country's political issues. 

 

One of Alterman's poems to be recited at Charles Smith is "The Silver Platter," which deals with the issue of miracles and maintains that they happen as a result of human endeavor, not divine intervention. 

 

Heartsick, but still living, a people stands by to greet the uniqueness of the miracle 

Then, soon, 

A girl and boy step forward, 

And slowly walk before the waiting nation; 

In work garb and heavy-shod 

Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime 

Of aching day and fire-filled night 

Through wondering tears, the people stare. 

"Who are you, the silent two?" 

And they reply: "We are the silver platter 

Upon which the Jewish state was served to you." 

 

Likewise, in the classroom, teachers plan to focus on what Charles Smith middle-school teacher Miri Navon calls "the light of the individual and the nation." 

 

"We focus on the relevant themes of Hanukka which are bravery and light. We focus on the bravery of the Jews in the Holocaust and in the IDF," she says. 

 

The Keshet School in Jerusalem has a mixed religious and secular population, which poses a challenge in teaching the messages of Hanukka. While all the pupils learn about general aspects of the holiday together, religious and secular pupils are subsequently split into separate groups. 

 

The religious pupils learn about the laws and prayers of Hanukka. In the secular curriculum, however, "we address the struggle for independence and sovereignty. We stress the importance of human endeavor. We cannot wait for God, but we have to take strength into our own hands," explains principal Ruthi Lehavi. 

 

"Hellenization is not the same as secularism. One can be secular without losing his or her Jewish identity. This is a very relevant message at Keshet." 

 

Lehavi says the secular pupils learn Shammai's halachic opinion that candles should be lit in descending order from eight to one. Although this opinion was rejected in the tradition, it was adopted by many Hashomer Hatza'ir kibbutzim. It signifies "a more realistic, pessimistic approach which signifies that the light will not last forever. We have to be active to preserve it," Lehavi maintains. 

 

Teachers at other secular schools say they use the theme of Hanukka, and the issue of Hellenization - adopting Greek culture, which the Maccabees deplored - to compare Israel with other cultures and religions. 

 

In the state-religious and haredi schools, the approach to Hanukka is completely different. 

 

Summing up her presentation of the holiday at a chain of haredi schools for Russian immigrants, Bracha Weinberg says: 

 

"Nothing is attributed to human strength. God is running the show. We were small in numbers; we were weak. He made a miracle and that is what gave us the strength to win. It is not logical any other way - unless you want to distort things." 

 

"The fact is that the Maccabees were haredim," continues Weinberg, the educational director of the 21 Shuvu schools. "They were staunch and proud Jews who wouldn't give up their religion for anything. It was an idealistic fight, not a physical one. The Greeks wanted to get to the Jewish soul." 

 

Rabbi Hillel Waxman, a sixth-grade teacher at Jerusalem's Hafetz Haim heder, agrees that "the irony of Hanukka in today's contemporary world is that Judah Maccabee's might and strength is celebrated. In Israel, the Maccabees are associated with a good sporting event, a good basketball team. They celebrate the victory of the Jews and reject Judaism." 

 

In Waxman's view, the concepts of "self-governing and independent pioneering are the opposite of the message of Hanukka." 

 

Actually, says Waxman, "[The Maccabees] were not warriors. They did not rely on their own strength. They had no choice but to fight in order to sanctify God's name and fulfill His commandments. In the end, God came through for them. The message of Hanukka is that we are entirely dependent on God." 

 

When teaching children from the the former Soviet Union, Weinberg compares the Greek decrees prohibiting Torah study, circumcision, and holiday observance to the anti-Semitic practices of the communist regime. 

 

"It's not just an Israeli holiday. It's not something new. It's the story of old," Weinberg says. 

 

It is the synthesis of these competing themes - independence versus reliance, physicality versus spirituality - which characterizes the celebration of Hanukka in the state-religious school system. 

 

Michael Fredman, principal of Ohr Etzion, a religious elementary school, says that "when we speak of heroism, it is both physical and spiritual. There was the battle, and there was the miracle. Both are pointed out to create the full picture." 

 

Ohr Etzion, in Efrat, is perfectly located to link the holiday with the importance attached by the community to settlement activity. Fredman notes that in the Judean Hills, children have the perfect opportunity to reexperience the events of Hanukka. 

 

"Right across from Efrat is the community of Elazar, named for Elazar the Maccabee. We just look out the window and we have the story of old. That brings it to life," Fredman says. 

 

Hanukka also gives Gershon Bar-Kochba, a third-grade teacher at Ohr Etzion, who is also a lieutenant-colonel in the IDF, an opportunity to teach some of his favorite military history lessons, taking students "all the way back in time," Fredman says. 

 

Fredman also feels the holiday gives his pupils a chance during difficult days "to let our hair down, to celebrate with singing and dancing and music." 

 

While the dancing at Ohr Etzion will be hassidic in style, secular schools are planning disco parties for the first night of Hanukka. 

 

Despite these differences, Lehavi of Charles Smith concludes that Hanukka is still the one day in which "everyone can participate and everyone can connect." 

 

For every Jew, "there is a need now more than ever for a holiday of light in a time of darkness," Lehavi says. 

 

Indeed, lacking the restrictions of Yom Kippur and the rituals of Pessah, Hanukka seems to be an opportunity to unite the religious and secular. 

 

What they share in common is a symbol: the glow of the hanukkia. The interpretation and meaning behind that shared symbol, however, is what divides them. There is no unanimity when it comes to what is being celebrated and what values are being represented by lighting the candles. 

 

"The Jews share the events, texts, and rituals of their collective past, but each sub-community of Jews carves out its own particular interpretation of that past. Just as in families, each member experiences and remembers common events from his or her own unique perspective," writes Noam Zion of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, in his introduction to a recent book he edited called A Different Light: The Big Book of Hanukkah. 

 

Zion believes that Hanukka, in particular, has been subjected to multiple and even radically opposing interpretations which represent competing Jewish ways of life. 

 

"Hanukka has become a crucial test for the self-understanding of various groups of Jews. Precisely because Hanukka lacks an agreed narrative, yet celebrates a Jewish ideological civil war, it becomes a kind of Rorschach test for the self-projection and self-creation of Jewish communities," says Zion.

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       Of the 500 elected delegates to represent World Jewish communities at the 34th World Zionist Congress in June, twenty-nine percent will be elected directly by Americans. More...

And for the first time in Zionist history, you can register to vote on the Internet.

 

Internet access will make the registration process more easily available than ever. But you must register by December 14th.

 

Registration forms are available now. Call 1-888-874-2411 or log on to www.azm.org

 

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David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
 
