Yeshua's Light

“Dreidel spin, ’round and ’round. Makes a merry whirling sound Chanukah brings good joys to every little girls and boys. One by one we light the candles at this very time of year after that we spin the dreidel Chanukah brings good cheer.”

Antiochus felt the only way to have a united kingdom was for all to believe in the same way. So he made a decree requiring every one to believe as the Greeks did and many jumped at this offer (some possibly out of fear). And then the persecution started and those who maintained their faith fled into hiding hoping this would all pass them by. One day the king’s army entered the town of Modein and demanded the leader of that town a Levite, Mattathias, to give a sacrifice to the Greek god, but Mattathias, being a priest of YHVH, firmly refused. However another man stepped forward to give this sacrifice and this enraged Mattathias so greatly that he struck him dead along with the king’s officer and then called out to all those in the city that were around him “Let every one who is zealous for the Law and supports the covenant come with me!” 2.27.

This is what began the war in 167 CE/BC (it ended in 165 CE/BC). These men zealously rushed into the surrounding mountains and started a gorilla war against the strongest army at that time. And what was miraculous was that even though they were greatly outnumber and out armed they still were able to defeat the great forces of the enemy and push them out. There are three stories coming from that time we feel are worthy of mention. The first happened soon into the war when the Greeks attacked a group of this army on the Sabbath. The people being Orthodox Jews, that is highly devoted to the letter of the Law refused to fight on account that it was Shabbos. What resulted was a massacre and when Mattathias heard of this he mourned greatly and then taught the people of the true Spirit of the Law. He told them that if attacked on Shabbos they are to fight, which fits well with the statement that Yeshua gave that “Shabbos was made for man and not man for Shabbos”. This showed to all that this wasn’t Orthodoxy fighting modernism, but faith fighting totally G-dlessness.

The next story is about the miracle of the lights and is explained in Talmud. We are told that when Maccebees regained the Temple and cleansed it from the abominations that the Greeks had inflicted upon it, they found only a single bottle of the sacred oil that was undefiled, which was enough for one day and it would take a week to get the more. Yet despite the fact that they had only one day’s offering they kindled the lights anyway and left the rest in the hands of G-d, who blessed their faith by keeping the light burning until the oil arrived eight days later. This second story is the origin of the Chanukiah (the Chanukah menorah with eight branches plus the servants branch) and why we light the Chanukiah for the eight nights of Chanukah.

The last story is for the origin of the dreidel. Tradition tells us that when Antiochus took Israel and demanded obedience to the Greek ways, his servants would seek out those keeping or studying Torah and kill them violently. This drove the students (often depicted as young children but most likely young adults or older adolescents) into the caves of the hillsides to study but this didn’t last long before the soldiers figured out where they were hiding. Exactly how they came upon this trick is not given by the sages, but all we know is that someone very wise saw the Greeks love of gambling and decided to use this addiction to help in the war against the Greeks.

So tradition teaches us they did put one boy as a lookout while the others did their studies. When the lookout called out a warning the scrolls they studied from where quickly hidden and replaced with tops, much like the ones our children play with at Chanukah but the letter they had on them are unknown. Anyway they would toss the coins around to make it look as if the game had been going for a long time and make the noises of the game while they were still hiding their “bounty” and setting up the farce. In this way the game would appear to be in full swing and be full of excitement when the soldier came into the cave. And of course the lads let the soldier join the fun and in the process they pulled these fools away from their original target and kept them from searching the caves. In this way the students continued to learn and love their faith despite the times of extreme persecution; and tradition tells us the Greeks never caught on.

Little Succos:

The kindling of these eight lights are not as some may suppose the reason Chanukah is called the festival of lights, but rather because Chanukah (during Maccebees’ day) was actually a late celebration of the Festival of Booths. Antiochus took our land on the 25th of Kislev and he lost our land exactly two years later, so our fathers had no way during those two years to celebrate Succos (actually their lives were a Succos), including the great Temple lighting ceremonies. Rather than forgo this beloved celebration for an entire year they simply had the lighting ceremony and sacrifices after the cleansing of the Temple and lit the great menorah of the Temple on the 25th of Kislev. Thus Chanukah bears another name called “little Succos” and this seems no strange wonder given what would later happen at this time.

We say this because it very likely from what we have gleaned from the Word that Yeshua was born on (or very near to) Succos. Knowing the gestation period of 40 weeks, we counted back to (by no strange coincidence) Chanukah. Therefore we see Chanukah as little Succos, not only because Ruach HaKadosh led the Maccebees to celebrate Succos at this later date but also because the infant Yeshua was most likely conceived on the 25th of Kislev as well. We also feel it is no strange coincidence that our own Church fathers decided to set the celebration of Yeshua’s birth on the 25th of December because Church tradition teaches that this date was chosen from Biblical reasons, now lost. Logic tells us that they did not perfectly see, for if they had they would have chosen the season of autumn for this celebration of Yeshua’s birth when shepherds would actually be out in the field and not in winter. Yet reading the exact same Bible, they concluded in winter when Judah kindled the lights of a great miracle that happened long ago.

In fact the 25th of Kislev does sometimes fall exactly on the 25th of Christmas. And on these days (December 23-25) darkness reaches its peak and starts to be overwhelmed by the growing light. Thus the people who are walking in darkness are now seeing the new light of growing hope of the spring as the night now begins to recede and day now grows in length. We reference Is.9 here in our explanation because this is one of the passages we strongly suspect the early Church fathers used when choosing December 25th for the Christian feast of Moshiach’s manifestation. Thus, we do not believe that the Catholic Church was wrong in choosing this day but rather she did not fully understand its significance because she saw only a part of the picture, which was enough for the last two thousand years.

Perhaps the proof of Yeshua’s birth that many have fallen upon in that last ten years or so (all near simultaneously, so what is the probability of this?) is for a very important reason. After all, the abortion issue has grown greatly in the years after Roe verses Wade. Currently, we have totally diminished the sanctity of life by questioning when life begins and we are now facing the added scourge of euthanasia upon the elderly and the handicapped at the middle and end of life. Even more horrifying than this is that Hitler’s euthanasia of Judah began with the killing of those nor longer considered “worthy of life”, that is their ability to have a good life was questioned and answered by a panel of experts who would then determine it insignificant. Therefore, the first victim of the Holocaust was a seven-year-old handicapped child. And now in this generation YHVH may have very well have appointed a new group of theologians to see two small details in Luke that seemed extraneous to the text, yet their Jewish thinking and studying caused them to wonder why YHVH had provided this Remez (hint) here and started to dig for the answers.

And when they did, they found that HaMoshiach was very likely conceived (the angelic visitation) during this month of December (Kislev) on the very day we celebrate Chanukah all over the earth. And the scholar commissioned by our Church saw the 25th of December as the day HaMoshiach’s presence became manifest to the earth. So was the Catholic scholar wrong in his conclusion or did he seize an opportunity to join in a pagan feast to prolong our pagan roots? Or did he really see something important in his studies which, when added to these later studies, gives His Church a powerful pro-life message for a world in a great need for just this message. And if so, which we suspect, it means another miracle happened again! Chanukah itself possesses a similar lesson within its own teachings when we find that another atrocity of Antiochus was delivered upon mothers and newborns. If a family followed the ways of Moshe and had their child circumcised, the mother would be hung from a nearby tree and the circumcised boy would be hung from her neck! Even Antiochus started with the weakest and most helpless before advancing upon greater numbers.

However, as we have explained, we see good reasons why Hebrew Catholics might again want to kindle the lights of Chanukah, however what is the value of spinning dreidels for those under grace? Judah sees the desolate sacrilege spoken by the prophet Daniel as that figure of Zeus, yet HaMoshiach tells us clearly in Matt.24.15 (and Saint Paul in 2Thess.2.3-4) that this prophecy in Daniel hasn’t yet happened. Thus the history of Maccebees and the evil Antiochus foreshadows another time, a time of the coming of the antichrist; and nowhere in Catholic doctrine are we taught that we have a get out of tribulation free card. Our Church teaches that to die for Him, to literally take up our own cross, is to give Him glory and to bring others to Yeshua in faith. Thus we in our movement honor Saint Edith Stein, a follower of Yeshua who showed us during the most evil time in 20th century what faith really means.

The game of dreidel was not given to sages for the adults whose faith should already be strong; it was given to children because during persecution they needed to creatively learn about their faith. This will certainly be true when the antichrist comes into power and exults himself above all gods including our own and takes his seat in same spot Zeus once stood within the Holy Temple of our G-d.

So, if the celebration of Chanukah was so beneficial, why didn’t the Ruach create a similar holiday for the grafted-in (those not being called back to Torah)? We strongly suspect He did do so in hearts of the sages, but the Catholic Menorah was lost to a “modern innovation” and the Catholic dreidel is frequently misunderstood as a pagan song. You can find all this information in our posting, “Following the Light of Bethlehem” which we hope to get up on this site very soon. Now that we have given you the history, traditions and connections that we and understand, here are the actual ways to keep this holiday in your home.

Kindling Ceremony How to:

On the first day anyone can light the first candle and it is especially important to include children here if possible. We light first the Shamash and while holding it we say three blessings (we are not blessing the shamash here but the other candles):

Barukh atah, YHVH (Ad-nai) El-heinu, Melekh Haolam, asher kid’shanu be’mizvotav, v’taivanu l’hadlik ner shel Chanukah.

Blessed are you YHVH our G-d, King of the Universe, Who sanctifies us with Thy Commandments and calls our to light the Light of Chanukah.

Barukh atah YHVH (Ad-nai) El-heinu, Melekh Haolam she’asah L’avoteinu, b’yamim baz’man hazeh

Blessed are You, YHVH Our G-d, King of the Universe, Who made miracles for our forefathers in those days at this time.

Barukh atah, YHVH El-heinu, Melekh Haolam, shehekheyanu, v’kiyamanu v’higgiyanu lazman hazen.

Blessed are You YHVH our G-d, King of the Universe, Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.

After we sing traditional songs, we then eat the traditional foods very heavy in fat but as this comes once year we figure the weight gain and cholesterol is safe enough for most of us. We do this to commemorate the miracle of the Temple lights, although certain low fat versions of our favorites have risen in recent years because of health concerns. Among these foods are latkes with applesauce or sour cream, Tzimmes (the simpler form of sugar or honey and cut carrots; they represent the Chanukah geld) and sufganoit (jelly doughnuts) though once during the eight days we have old-fashioned doughnuts. Some also serve fish complete with the head as an omen for good fortune, but we resist this tradition and serve either fish patties or fried chicken (we just never got comfortable with our dinner looking back at us as we eat).

Dreidel 101:

So how does one play dreidel? The dreidel is marked with four letters Nun, Gimel, Hay, and Shin where each letter comes from the four words Nes Gadol Haya Sham or “a great miracle happen there” (in Israel the last word is “po” which means “here” not “there” for obvious reasons; so they have the letter Pey instead of Hay). Each child puts into the center before each turn. Then the children spin moving in a clockwise direction. If the dreidel lands on Nun you get nothing. If it lands on Gimel you get everything in the pot. If it land on Hay you take half and if it lands on Shin you share by placing one of your pieces of geld into the pot. This is continued until a winner emerges, but in our house we then split the proceeds to all who partook, otherwise we teach the wrong lesson (after all, Torah says true gambling is a sin).

So as to keep within the spirit of this game we simulate the story of the studying of Torah and hiding the evidence from the soldiers. The parents are the soldiers and our children are students of Torah. Our oldest likes the authority she has in leading a Bible study and the younger ones have learned that if they are too uncooperative they give their position away to the enemy (Mom and Dad), so they tend to be very cooperative. Their job is to keep an eye out for us and if we try sneaking in to catch them, they need to hide their scriptures (they make Torah scrolls on the first day) and look like they were playing a game before we physically enter the room. If successful, the soldiers enter into the game and we all play dreidel. If the soldiers are successful in catching them, something happens like no more dreidel for the rest of the day, or they lose half their booty before continuing play. It’s usually agreed upon before we start which helps make all parties willing to cooperate. Afterwards, when the game is completely done, all share in the “booty”, although there may be a few questions about what they taught or learned. One method we have worked out to save some of the geld is to have the children “purchase” other Chanukah treats with their geld, and then we reuse this geld for more games until the eight days are done. We don’t play the formal game more than a few times because each year the kids have to work out some details and their parents are not always up to “ferreting them out” especially on the first night, but usually by the end of Chanukah we’ve played it as a family at least two or three times.

Some recipes can be found in our recipe section. Also there are some excellent children’s books available these days. Some of our favorites are:

Latkes and Apple Sauce, a Hanukkah Story by Fran Manushkin, Scholastic Inc. NY, ©1990 {This is a enduring tale of a poor family who finds themselves during the season of Chanukah beset by a great snow storm that buries their harvest and so they meet the great feasting holiday with little. Yet two guests show up in their home unexpectedly, a small orange cat and a stray dog and even though they have little enough for themselves they take these poor creatures into the warmth of their home and in the process experience their own miracle of Chanukah. This is a beloved story that our children all enjoy and we are sure yours will too.}

The Chanukkah Guest by Eric A. Kimmel, Scholastic Inc. NY, ©1988 {Bubba Brayna not only is near blind but also quite deaf, yet this does not stop her from cooking the best latkes in all the town and being a very welcome and loving hostess. Still it is not the rabbi she expects that shows on her doorstep on the first night of Chanukah but a surprisingly hairy and hungry guest. This is an extremely funny book that will keep the younger ones on the edge of their seats until the end. Well recommended.}

Grandma’s Latkes by Malka Drucker, A Trumpet Club Special Edition, NY, © 1992, {we have many children stories that tell the history of this holiday but this one is made extra special because it is told through the love of a grandmother for her grandchild while also teaching this child how to make latkes. What does latkes have to do with Mattathias, Judas Maccebees and the cleansing of the Great Temple of Solomon? You’ll have to get this book if you want to find out.}

About 150 years before the angel of G-d would visit Miriam, a man rose who sought to stop our Moshiach’s advent by wiping out any who had a faith in YHVH. Why are we called to keep this feast? The actual Mitzvah is found in 1Macc.7.49 and 2Macc.15.36 however this Mitzvah is to remember the military victory and not the miracle of either the Temple or among the Yeshiva students. Yet the Talmud doesn’t say this fact because our sages couldn’t speak of military victories as Rome was reading the Talmud looking for subversion in even innocent thoughts. Yet our wise sages also wisely knew that with Zionism rising around them and Rome’s greater interest in the Holy Land and concern over these movements meant the people were very likely about to face a threat as great as Antiochus once was. So they pushed instead the Miracle of the Temple, for indeed Maccebees and all those who joined him saw the light of G-d growing within the temple of their hearts. And they resurfaced the dreidel game, a harmless game of gambling to teach the children to be wise as foxes in persecution and the faith of Judah survived.

Antiochus has risen once more and until Yeshua returns he will raise again. In fact if you count from Pharaoh to Hitler you find there has been a total of seven antichrists that have sought to wipe out either Israel, Judah, E’phraim, or the grafted-in. At the time John wrote Revelations he said: “They are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen (Pharaoh, Assyria, Babylon, Haman, Antiochus), one is (Rome existed when John wrote this), the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must remain only a little while (we see Hitler here). As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to perdition (the antichrist)” Rev.17.10. At the time John wrote this spirit of antichrist wasn’t but was. That is he had existed but wasn’t in existence at the time of John’s writing (“is not”). Only twice are we called to remember our early times of suffering in the Canon (at least in the Catholic Canon): Pesach, and Chanukah. Thus from this we surmised the future antichrist will either resemble closely Pharaoh or Antiochus. Yet, as we have already explained, it was Antiochus who took the seat in Solomon’s Temple when he put Zeus in the place where the antichrist will one day dwell.

To the sages Chanukah is a minor holiday but to us this isn’t true. Still we do not give gifts on this day but only treats to teach the faith for those who seek to learn the tale. Once a year we are called to light our homes with the simple faith that Miriam had and to return again to a forgotten time that will one day return. With all this in mind have a Happy Chanukah and a Merry Christmas (Moshiachmas?). Shalom, C & C