No Hanukkah, No Christmas!
Growing Up with Hanukkah in a Christmas Neighborhood
Growing up in Brooklyn as a Jewish boy, it was easy to look at Hanukkah as the Jewish Christmas. I was always a little jealous of all the Gentiles in my neighborhood on Christmas day. Living in an apartment, I even remember checking the fire escape outside of my living room window for any signs of Santa’s presence. Well at least we got eight days of gifts instead of just one, even if they were small presents. We would also light the menorah with the center candle called the shamash (translated “servant”) for eight days. We would play dreidel (“turn”), a game created during the Maccabean conflict to hide the fact that studying Torah was illegal. The four-sided spinning top had a Hebrew letter on each side which stood for the acronym, "A great miracle happened there”. Sadly like many other Jewish people, I did not know the real story of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah Sets the Stage for Messiah
The truth is without Hanukkah, there can be no Christmas. The misunderstanding of these two holidays has led many to not see the importance of the connection between Hanukkah and Christmas. It is one thing to look at the similarities of both in December (Hebrew month of Kislev), bringing families together, giving gifts, chocolate coins to the children, charity to those less fortunate, and lastly, indulging with much food. Well it is quite another to know that without the Rededication of the Temple, the Messiah could not be born.
In case you are unaware, Hanukkah is not one of the seven Biblical feasts but is still an important one. You can find it in the first Book of Maccabees which is found in the Apocrypha. Most know of the oil that was enough to last one day but miraculously lasted for eight (the time it took to press and create more oil) but fewer know of the story behind the miracle. You can also read the prophecy of the Hanukkah story in Daniel 8 and of its antagonist, Antiochus Epiphanes (“the little horn”), who ransacked the Temple and defiled it by setting up idols and sacrificing a pig on the altar.
There was a three-year struggle led by Mattathias and his son Judah, along with his four brothers, and the Jewish army who were nicknamed the Maccabees which means “hammer”. Finally in 165 B.C., the Intertestamental or silent period, between the Old and New Testaments, the small Maccabee army defeated Antiochus Epiphanes and the Seleucid army. Then after cleaning up the Temple to rededicate it, they found that one small jar of oil and thus the eight-day miracle of Hanukkah.
Come Messiah Come
Even though there were the four-hundred silent years between Malachi (approx. 420 B.C.) to John the Baptist (approx. 30 A.D.), GOD was still on the move as His plan continued to unfold. In Malachi, GOD lets the people know that even though they disobeyed, Israel will always be His and that He will never break His covenant with them.
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.” (Malachi 3:6–9)
Before His exhortation GOD let’s Israel know that He will send His messenger and the Messiah will immediately follow.
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” (Malachi 3:1)
In the Gospels John fulfills his mission by proclaiming the Messiah is here.
“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”” (Matthew 3:1–2) “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”…He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said”…The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”” (John 1:19, 23, 29)
Jesus Celebrates Hanukkah
Not only did Jesus celebrate Hanukkah but He also told the Jewish leaders that He is Messiah at the Temple on this feast. Jesus even equated Himself with God and the Jewish leaders knew it.
“At that time the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) took place at Jerusalem…So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me...I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”” (John 10:22, 24-25,30–33)
Hanukkah and Christmas, a Celebration for All!
Hanukkah not only opened the door for Christmas, but the birth of the Messiah should truly be one the greatest days in Jewish history. In short, pray that all people, both Jewish and Gentiles celebrate the birth of the Messiah.
An unbelieving Jewish scholar wrote, “the light is kindled to give inspiration, for the light of Messiah must burn brightly in our hearts” (Chanukah, Mesorah Publications, Bklyn, 1981, p. 104).
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14)
God Bless and Shalom!
~Mitch Tepper
