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Hanukkah

There are many different religions practiced throughout the world that carry many different beliefs, traditions and views on how they perceive God. Judaism, one of the more highly practiced religions, celebrates a tradition known as Hanukkah. Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of rededication, is an eight day holiday celebrating the rededication of the Holy Temple. It is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev and is one of the most known Jewish holidays, because of how it close it is to Christmas. Hanukkah is considered to be the Christmas of Judaism, because it shares some of the same traditions, such as giving gifts and decorating. Though it is considered like Christmas, there is much more to Hanukkah than giving gifts. The origin of Hanukkah began back in 338 B.C.E. when Philip of Macedon invaded Greece. A few years later Philip died and his son took the throne. This was know as the reign of Alexander the Great.[1] He conquered the lands of Syria, Egypt and Palestine, and at the time allowed people to still practice their own religions. With him Alexander brought Hellenism to Jerusalem and the Jewish people, but the Jews weren’t in any hurry to begin adopting the Hellenistic culture on their own. After Alexander died his empire was split between his generals: Antiochus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy.[2] Antiochus ruled Macedonia and Greece; Seleucus ruled Babylonia, Persia, and Syria; and Ptolemy rule Egypt and Israel. In 175 B.C.E. when Seleucus died his brother Antiochus claimed his throne.[3] After Antiochus assumed the throne he appointed a Hellenized Judean priest, Jason, to be the highest priest in the Jewish temples. In 172 B.C.E he replaced Jason with his brother Menelaus[4] who was more prepared to carry out the Hellenization of Judea so Jason fled to Transjordan.[5] A few years later in 169 B.C.E. Antiochus went to conquer Egypt. While he was there, Jason heard rumors that the king had died. Jason then went back to Jerusalem, reclaimed it, and killed all supporters of Menelaus.[6] When Antiochus returned from Egypt, he took Jerusalem and turned it back into a Seleucid fortress, killed thousands of Jews, and sold more into slavery. After this the Hellenization of the Jews reached its peak and he was forbidding people to practice the Jewish religion, ordering them to worship Greek gods,[7] and violating the temples by using the alters to sacrifice pigs.[8] One day in 167 B.C.E. Greek forces arrived at the house of Mattityahu, who was an elder Jewish priest of the Hasmonean Family. The Greeks told him to make a sacrifice on an alter, he refused but another villager offered to do it. Mattityahu became outraged killed the man then he and his sons killed the soldiers and fled to the mountains.[9] While in the mountains many other villagers followed. Led by Mattityahus son, Judas Maccabeus, a small group of soldiers started a guerilla war against the Syrians and reclaimed the Jewish Temple in 165 B.C.E. After reclaiming the Temples, Judas ordered a cleansing and restoration of the Temple. It was purified and a new alter was built and when they were finished they decided to have a rededication ceremony.[10] This ceremony took place on the 25th of Kislev. When they rededicated the alter, Judas only found a small jar of oil that had not been defiled by Antiochus. The jar only had enough oil to burn for one day but instead it burned for eight days, which was the amount of time needed to get more oil.[11] This is why Hanukkah is celebrated on the 25th of Kislev and lasts for eight days. The celebration of Hanukkah consists of traditional and non traditional customs. The most important of all the customs is the lighting of the menorah. The menorah holds nine candles, one for each night that the oil burned and one more the shammus[12] which is used to light all the other candles. There are two beliefs in the way the menorah should be lit. One way is to place a candle into the far right of the menorah and recite the three blessings; l'hadlik neir (a general prayer over candles), she-asah nisim (a prayer thanking God for performing miracles for our ancestors at this time), and she-hekhianu (a general prayer thanking G-d for allowing us to reach this time of year[13]) then to light the candle. Each night after a candle is put in right to left and lit left to right. The other way to light the menorah is to light all the candles the first night and remove one every night till you have just one. Usually the menorah is lit outside of the house but now it is discouraged because it may be misinterpreted by non- jews, but in modern Israel it is not uncommon to fin menorahs on the tops of buildings and synagogues. Hanukkah is a time to study the scripture of the torah and almsgiving. This festival is more spiritual than some of the other holidays. The torah is read every day of the festival and recitation of some of the Psalms, almsgiving, and singing of a special hymn. Along with the daily prayers, thanks are offered to God for delivering “the strong into the hands of the weak and the evil into the hands of the good.”[14] On the Sabbath of Hanukkah there is a prophetic reading from the vision of the menorah seen by Zechariah (Zec. 2). There are also a few other traditional and non traditional customs that may take place. Some Jewish families cook many different fried foods such as potato pancakes or donuts because of the significance of the oil to the holiday. Gift giving is a non traditional part of Hanukkah but is more customary these days in parts where Christmas is a widely celebrated holiday. Children will also play a very popular jewish game with a spinning top called dreidle. On each side of the top there is a letter. Each letter is an initial letter of Hebrew words in a sentence meaning “A Great Miracle Happened There”.[15] Even though Hanukkah is only a religious holiday there to celebrate a miracle of the oil lasting eight days and isn’t a major Jewish Holiday, it still has a lot of history in its background. The one thing that stands out or the most important message that may come from Hanukkah is the actual meaning of the word: dedication. It definitely shows how Jews have dedicated themselves to their religion when they spend the time and effort in having eight day long festivals to remember the miracle of the burning oil. This is why Judaism is a strong and remains a widely practiced religion.
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[1] "Judaism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010 .
[2] "Alexander the Great." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010 .
[3] http://virtualreligion.net/iho/antiochus_4.html
[4] "Judaism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010 .
[5] Klausner, Bayit Sheni, index; Schuerer, Gesch, 1 (1901), 175 ff
[6] http://virtualreligion.net/iho/antiochus_4.html
[7] http://www.history.com/content/hanukkah/history-of-hanukkah
[8] http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday7.htm
[9] "Mattathias." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010 .
[10] "Hanukkah." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010 .
[11] Source Citation
Jacobs, Louis. "$-anukkah." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 3774-3775. Gale Viouis. "Ḥanukkah." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 3774-3775. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Feb. 2010.
[12] "Hanukkah." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010 .
[13] http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday7.htm
[14] "Hanukkah." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010

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