Chanukah started Sunday night and goes through Christmas day.
Christmas is the birth of Christ and Christianity; Chanukah, however, is viewed as a means for Jews to be part of the December season, an annual ritual of lighting the menorah for eight nights, eating oily foods like latkes and opening gifts! Some Jews even decorate their homes with blue and white lights.
In reality, Jewish News Syndicate columnist Jonathan Tobin writes that the REAL meaning of Chanukah “is pretty much the opposite of the modern secular celebration of Christmas that most [American Jews] celebrate. Rather than an expression of peace, the revolt of the Maccabees was a battle against foreign oppression and a bloody civil war.”
Tobin explains that the revolt in 167 BCE led by the priest Mattathias and his five sons, led by Judah Maccabean, was a battle against not just the Greco-Syrian (Seleucid) leader, Antiochus IV, but also the “assimilated Jews who had embraced the Hellenistic practices of their overlords.” Antiochus banned Jewish practices, Jerusalem was placed under direct Seleucid control, and the Second Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Pagan-Jewish cult.
As the legend goes, when the Maccabees secured control of the defiled temple to restore it to perform the Torah-prescribed rituals (like animal sacrifice), only one flask of oil was found to light the Menorah (Chanukiah) and it lasted eight days, not just one. So, we Jews since then light a candle on the menorah each of the 8 days of the Chanukah celebration.
In addition, Tobin writes, “most American Jews probably have a lot more in common with the [Hellenists] — who were embracing a universalist culture and rejecting the narrow, parochial beliefs of the rebels—than the heroic Judah Maccabee.”
Since becoming more observant in my Judaism over the last 25 years I have been intrigued by the parallels between the Maccabean revolt and the modern conflict between traditional values and secular humanism. In fact, the Hellenistic and traditional Torah Jews back in the 2nd Century BCE also conflicted over homosexuality, which was tolerated in Greek culture, but labeled an “abomination” in the Torah.
Just so you know, I am not homophobic and have come to accept same-sex marriage and have no qualms with adults who want to pay for sex-change operations. But no governmental entity should thwart the right of any church, mosque or my Orthodox synagogue from shunning homosexuality and transgenderism.
The other significance of the Maccabean revolt is that it saved Judaism – and thus paved the way for Christianity.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, an author of 15 books about Judaism and modernity, told a conference I attended in New York in 2019 that Hellenism “was a greater threat than all previous and future massacres and exiles leading up to the Nazi holocaust.”
Telushkin reasoned that while Jews suffered at the hands of numerous oppressors over the centuries, the religion was never wiped out completely. Had the Maccabees lost, he said, chances are Judaism could have died – much like other ancient religions that fell out of favor or which were absorbed into the larger culture.
So, with that, would there have been a Jesus Christ and Christianity just 160 years later? Maybe not.
As such, any religious person, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or otherwise, who cherishes religious freedom and their constitutional right to practice their religion without government interference, should be celebrating Chanukah, too.
Chanukah is an inspiration for those who are fighting what seems to be an ever-losing battle for freedom and liberty against a socialist-inspired movement, acting in the name of “progressivism,” that seeks to tear down and remold the institutions of our society with a leftist social justice mission.
The Democratic Party, today, has become a home for pressure groups who have injected wild leftist academic ideas of allowing youngsters to change their sex, have drag queens read to children, and even tolerate pedophilia as “age fluidity.”
Conservative administrations in Washington have stood by foolishly as the neo-Marxist “Long March through the Institutions,” as one German radical once called it, infiltrated not just academia and the media, but K-12 education, Wall Street, the military, professional sports, museums, public libraries and even Disney World. And, we Republicans are just as guilty of enabling idol worship, such as Donald Trump as liberals create who turn thugs like George Floyd into martyrs.
Conservative religious groups, conservative media, plus the free enterprise system, are the only forces left to preserve freedom over collectivist tyranny, and Republicans and conservative action groups, like 2A defenders, are akin to modern Maccabees.
Be a Maccabee, not a bystander. Get involved to help our candidates in a serious way – not just vote, put out signs and post on social media.
But do put a menorah in your window (as many Jews do) and light some candles for religious freedom and our traditional values.
Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and have a great New Year!
