NEW LIGHT NEWS
November – December 2018 Cheshvan – Kislev – Tevet 5779
THE JEWS WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS
Hanukkah’s modern revival happened in the early 1900s, largely to combat a feeling of lack in Jews amid the rampant pageantry and warmth of Christmas, and to kindle in Jewish youth (and adults) a love for their own heritage.1 There is no better place to stoke that fire than in the home, and no one better to tend it than the family. It clearly worked, as Hanukkah has survived and prospered since then. Though its revival is due in part to rivalry with Christmas, unfortunately it’s not well known that Christmas was only possible because of Hanukkah.2
Hanukkah commemorates and celebrates the Maccabees, who revolted against the Seleucid dynasty of Antiochus IV (whose title, theos epiphanes, means “god manifest”). Circumcision, kosher laws, study of Torah, and Shabbat all were outlawed during Antiochus’s reign, as was the entirety of the Temple service. Instead he erected an idol of Zeus in the Temple and sacrificed pigs to it, mandating that all Jews should do the same, as was done throughout the rest of his dominion. Antiochus sought to forge his lands into a nation of uniformity, with him as father, king and deity.3
The prohibitions and mandated idolatry paint a picture of Greece, not of Israel. This was exactly the desired effect, to force the Jews to conform to Greek ways of life, and hoping that over time they would be transformed permanently, forgetting the Torah and their G-d. Had these changes stuck, there’d be no little town of Bethlehem (at least not as we knew it), no care for a recorded Davidic lineage, no Torah scholars with whom Yeshua would discuss and debate, and no crowds of people to remember the concept of Messiah, let alone await one’s arrival. A Hellenized Israel, seeing Yeshua’s miracles and hearing his teachings, might attribute his divinity to the Greek gods, and not to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This very thing happened to Rav Sha’ul (the Apostle Paul) in Iconium, where the people thought that his teaching and divine power were of Zeus, and that “the gods have come down in the form of men.”4
In order to receive the Messiah, Israel would have to be faithful to G-d through Torah, and would need to expect his arrival as Messiah, not as a foreign god. The Maccabees’ love of G-d, his Torah and his Temple roused a flame which ignited a fire throughout Israel. Their bravery and faith restored the nation to faithfulness and the Temple to holiness. As a lamp properly cleaned and filled with oil is ready to be lit, so an Israel properly observant to Torah is ready to receive the flame of Messiah. The Maccabees dressed not only the lamp of the Temple, but also the lamp of the Jewish people. Without their sacrifice we would all be lost.
– Matthew Lilly
- 1 Dr. Michael Feldberg, How Christmas Transformed Hanukkah in America, myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah-american-style/
- 2 Credit and many thanks to Dr. Patrice Fischer, for this and countless other invaluable insights.
- 3 For more, see Rabbi Dr. S. M. Lehrman, A Guide to Hanukkah & Purim, Jewish Chronicle Publications, London.
- 4 Acts 14:11
