“Deliberately Diverse” represents the individual thoughts and opinions of a group of Taylor friends who almost never completely agree about anything but are gratified by the opportunity to stimulate deliberately diverse discussions in our beloved community.
Today’s column represents the thoughts and opinions of Francis Sorrow, NOT the Taylor Press.
We Jews sometimes hear our winter festival referred to as the ‘Jewish Christmas.’
While it generally falls close to Christmas, it’s backstory is closer to the American Revolution. In both revolutions, under armed, underfed and unpaid soldiers defeated the largest and most powerful armies of their times.
Hanukkah is also known as the “Festival of Lights.” This year, it begins at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 18, and lasts for eight days.
Why did the Jews revolt? When Alexander the Great conquered Persia, Judah became part of his empire.
Alexander and his successors generally allowed religious freedom. But in 175 BCE (Before the Common Era), Antiochus IV became king over Syria and Judah.
Antiochus enforced a policy of Hellenization, and only allowed worship of Greek gods and placed idols in the Temple.
Some Jews accepted his decree. However, in 167 BCE, Mattathias, a priest, refused, to accept the decree, and when a Jew sacrificed to idols, Mattathias killed the man. He then shouted, “Although nations consent to the king’s commandments, I and my sons, and our brethren, will obey the Torah of our fathers!” (The Five Books of Moses).
Mattathias and his followers fled to the hills and gathered an army. Mattathias died soon after, leaving leadership to his son Judah Maccabee. After three years of intense fighting, Judah and his soldiers reclaimed the Temple. They cleansed and rededicated it on the 25th of Kislev. Judah then ordered a belated celebration of the eighthday festival of Sukkoth or Booths.
The story usually ends here. But there were 22 more years of bitter fighting before independence was won. In those 22 years, 4 of Matthias’ 5 sons were killed.
Judah, then Eleazar, then John, and finally Jonathan. Only Simon was left to finally established an independent nation in 142 BCE. His descendants would rule Judah until Herod the Great usurped the throne over 100 years later.
So, in memory of the rededication, we light candles for eight nights of Hanukkah and honor the efforts and sacrifices of Judah and his troops. The celebration also retells the legend of the jar of sacred oil that miraculously burned for eight days instead of one.
During Hanukkah, special blessings are said, then candles are lit in a stand called a menorah. We begin with one candle on the first night, plus an extra called used to light the other candles. An extra candle is added each night so that by the last night, there are nine candles burning. While they burn, we celebrate with food and songs.
We play games with a four-sided top called a dreidel, inscribed with Hebrew letters since when Antiochus forbade teaching Torah, students would play with dreidels until the soldiers departed.
