Chapter 1: Introduction to Hanukkah

amen okay so here we are at Hanukkah uh a presumably Jewish holiday and should or can Christians celebrate this holiday I know for a long time in my life growing up I was aware of Hanukkah of course I was always a friend someone or an acquaintance of someone that I knew or that was Jewish and they were celebrating Hanukkah I really didn’t know much about it other than um spitting the dreidel uh which you know I’m not sure I I completely understand even today but it’s one of the traditions of Hanukkah but I thought is is the season and it is the time for Hanukkah matter of fact it’s going

to be coming up on the 7th of December 7th to the 15th I believe so I thought it would be a good idea to uh explore this subject matter very briefly so we have an understanding of what it is and what our spiritual brothers and sisters celebrated for the last 2,000 years and why and so let’s get into it can or should Christians celebrate this holiday well the First question we have to ask as Believers is

Chapter 2: Biblical status and origin

Hanukkah commanded it’s also called the festival of light or the Feast of dedication is it a commanded Festival in the Bible and the simple answer is no it’s not the only commanded feasts in the Bible and we know them are Passover unleavened bread First fruits Pentecost trumpets atonement Tabernacles of course we can’t forget Shabbat all those things are commanded Hanukkah is not a commanded Festival however Just Like Us in America Israel has observances and holidays that have tremendous significance from their past July 4th or the Fourth of July that we celebrate isn’t commanded but is it sin and the simple answer to that question is no it’s not and the

reason behind it however is profoundly significant ific and it’s the reason why we celebrate it right because of what it represents Hanukkah is celebrated to commemorate the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the Miracle of the oil during the Maccabean Revolt in the 2N Century BCE this was for all intents and purposes very similar to a July 4th uh to Israel it’s it’s it has that same sense of significance and once you understand it you begin to understand just how profoundly significant it is and by the way um while I’m going through this lesson uh if if there’s something David that you want to chime in here and

and say regarding this or something that I missing please do so um it might surprise many of you you to realize that Yeshua celebrated this

Chapter 3: Jesus and the festival

holiday in John 10 and verse 22 it says it was the Feast of dedication that is the Festival of Hanukkah in Jerusalem and it was Winter kind like now and Jesus walked in the Temple in Solomon’s porch we can look at that word dedication and see that it’s meaning is about the Feast of rededication or Hanukkah and Yeshua was here present and celebrating this Festival of Lights there is a picture of Solomon’s porch in the Temple and that’s where they would have been celebrating this Festival this holiday and I got that beautiful gate marked because of a scripture in uh oops go back to that let me go back to

that sorry got nothing to do with Hanukkah but I thought it was interesting to see that the beautiful gate there um in the the picture of the Temple and I think this picture is uh probably that one of them David you can tell me because you you’re there all the time but um they have a a miniature replica of the Temple in replica of the whole uh area of Jerusalem it’s uh it’s currently right now near the uh the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and we’ve been there we visited it yeah yeah so that’s what we’re looking at here in this picture right impressive it’s pretty impressive yes it is yeah

well the beautiful gate there is mention mened in uh in Acts 36 it’s got nothing to do with Hanukkah I just thought it was interesting to point that out down there they knew who it was who who sat begging at the alms at the beautiful gate of the Temple it’s sometimes cool to have an image to some of the things that we read uh in scripture so that we can when we read them again this image pops into our brain thought that was fun but yes Yeshua celebrated

Chapter 4: The Maccabean Revolt

Hanukkah the Maccabean Revolt that’s really what this is all about I thought it would be good to kind of go through this during this course of this the discussion we will be looking at some excerpts from the book of First Maccabees uh and just before we go on Maccabees is not canon it is Canon for the Catholic church and some other smaller groups around the world uh but it’s not considered to be Canon uh in our Bible and for good reason the uh canalle if that’s a word errors that are in the the the books of First and Second Maccabees are too many to mention as to why they’re not

canon but they do provide some very interesting history the mavan Revolt happened during the silent period between the test the inter testimonial period uh between the the last time Malachi prophesied to the arrival of John the Baptist there was a 400-year silent period and the Maccabean Revolt happened during that time the Maccabean Revolt also known as the Maccabean uprising or the hasmonean Revolt was a Jewish Rebellion that occurred in the 2 Century B BCE from 167 to 60 The Vault the Revolt was primarily a response to the oppressive policies of King Antiochus Epiphanes of the cusd Empire he was a Greek king the cusd were a Greek Empire Antiochus sought

to impose helenistic or Greek culture and religion on the Jewish population he if you know the story he had recently kind of marched on Israel uh secretly it was a deceptive um approach to Israel and he took it over and wanted to impose these Greek cultures and religion on the Jewish people suppressing Jewish religious practices and traditions he desecrated the Second Temple in Jerusalem dedicated it to the worship of Greek gods and outlawed essential aspects of Jewish religious observance so here he is he comes in takes control starts outlawing things and telling the Jews that they can no longer do the things that they have done for thousands of years

in First mbes one we read then the king wrote to his whole Kingdom that all should be one people that each should give up his Customs all the Gentiles accepted the command of the king many even from Israel gladly adopted this his religion they sacrificed to idols and profane the Sabbath and the King sent Lads by Messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah he directed them to follow custom Customs strange to the land to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary to profane sabbaths and feasts to defile the sanctuary and the priests to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for Idols to sacrifice swine

and unclean animals and to have their sons to leave their sons uncircumcised they were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane so that they should forget the law and change all of the ordinances and whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die now we we’ve this sounds familiar from some of the stuff we read in the Bible when we think about Shadrach mesach and Abednego and Daniel and and others who were uh forced at sword point if you will to give up their faith and as a side note I think as American Believers we we find some comfort in thinking that that could never happen

here um and yet we’re we’re told it’s prophesied that it will happen here there will come a time uh before Yeshua returns when this type of thing will not only happen again in Jerusalem but it’ll happen around the world uh where somebody in in this case the Antichrist and his followers will put Believers to the sword if they don’t Embrace his teachings his laws his ways that time is coming and it’s a scary thought um and and we should be we should be humbled by it we should be quieted by it because there’s lessons to learn from this story story from the Hanukkah story uh that we can take with

us in our in our own

Chapter 5: Matathias and his legacy

life the Revolt began in the village of mine when a Jewish priest named Mattathias refused to comply with the king’s orders Mattathias killed a hellenized Jew and a sald official and subsequently fled to the hills with his sons so what happened here Mattathias took a stand and as he walked watched a Jew who had agreed to obey Antiochus walk over to the uh altar to make a sacrifice he like finus took a sword and killed that Jew for bending the knee and then killed the official who was standing there officiating if you will the sacrifice so this man man manias refused to comply in such a way that he acted

on God’s behalf and in defense of his honor Mattathias answered and said in a loud voice even if all the nations that live under the rule the king obey him and have chosen to do his Commandments departing each one from the faith of his fathers yet I and my sons and my brothers will live by the Covenant of our fathers far be it from us to Desert the law and the ordinances we will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our faith to the right hand of to the left when he had finished speaking these words the Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice

upon the altar of Modiin according to the King’s Command Mattathias saw it he burned with Zeal and his heart was stirred he gave vent to righteous anger he ran and killed him upon the altar at the same time he killed the king’s officer who was forcing them to sacrifice and he tore down the altar thus he burned with Zeal for the law as Phinehas did against zimy the son of Salo then Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice saying let everyone who is zealous for the law and supports the Covenant come out with me and he is in his sons fled to the hills and left all

that they had in the city after the death of ma Mattathias his son Judas Maccabeus from whom the book of Maccabees is written assumed leadership of the Rebellion under his command the Maccabean a group of Guerilla Fighters engaged in a series of successful military campaigns against the soloed forces chapter 2 of Maccabees now the days Drew near for Mattathias to die and he said to his sons arrogance and reproach have now become strong it is a time of Ruin and Furious anger now my children show Zeal for the law and give your lives for the Covenant of our fathers Judas Maccabeus had been a mighty warrior from his youth he

shall command the Army for you and fight the battle against the peoples you shall rally about you all who observe the law and Avenge the wrong done to our people pay back the Gentiles in full and heed with the law commands and he blessed them and was gathered to his fathers he died in the 146th year and was buried in the Tomb of his father madine at madine and all Israel mourned for him with great lamentation the rededication of the Temple and the rededication of the Temple is

Chapter 6: Rededication of the temple

Paramount to the Hanukkah celebration in 164 BCE after taking or retaking Jerusalem the Maccabees cleansed and rededicated the Des Second Temple this event is commemorated during the Festival of Hanukkah which celebrates the miracle of the oil that lasted for eight days we’re going to get into that a little bit more now when I say desecrated Second Temple historically the event depicts not just a Temple that’s in ruin but a Temple that had been ransacked all of its um special things on the interior of the Temple were taken from the menorah to the curtains everything was stripped there were Hogs and pigs sacrificed on the altar historically there was pornography written

on the walls or drawn on the walls of the Temple uh it was much of it was torn down I mean it was a sad sight to see the Temple in this condition First Maccabees 4 Judas and his brother said now that our enemies have been defeated let’s go to Jerusalem to purify the Temple and rededicate it so the whole Army was assembled and went up to Mount Zion there they found the Temple abandoned the altar profaned the gates burned down the courtyards grown up in a forest of weeds the priests rooms torn down and their sorrow they tore their clothes cried loudly threw ashes on their heads and and

fell face down to the ground when the signal was given on the trumpets everyone cried out to the Lord then Judas ordered some of his soldiers to attack the men in the fort while he purified the Temple he chose some priests who were qualified and who were devoted to the law uh qualified meaning that they were true Levites they purified the Temple took the stones that have been defiled and put them in an unclean place they discussed what should be done with the altar of burnt offerings which had been desecrated by the Gentiles and decided to tear it down so that would not stand there as a mon Monument to

their shame so they tore down the Altar and put the stones in a suitable place on the Temple Hill where they were to be kept until a prophet should appear and decide what to do with him then they took uncut Stones as the law of Moses required and built a new altar like the old one they repaired the Temple Temple inside and out and dedicated its Courtyards they made new utensils for worship and brought the lampstand the altar of incense a table for the bread into the Temple they burned incense on the altar put the lamps on the lampstand and there was light in the Temple for the First time

and the Lord knows how long they placed the loaves of bread on the table hung the curtains and completed all the work the 25th day of the ninth month the month of Kislev the year 148 was the anniversary of the day the Gentiles had desecrated the altar on that day a sacrifice was offered on the new altar in accordance with the law of Moses the new altar was dedicated and hymns were sung to the accompaniment of harps and loots and symbols all the people bowed down with their faces to the ground and worshiped and praised the Lord for giving them victory for 8 days days they celebrated the rededication of

the altar with great joy they brought burnt offerings and offered Fellowship offerings and thank offerings they decorated the front of the Temple with gold crowns and shields rebuilt the gates and the priest rooms and put doors on them now that the Jews had removed the shame which the Gentiles had brought they held a great celebration and Judas his brothers and the entire community of Israel decreed that the dedication of the altar should be celebrated with a festival of joy and gladness at the same time each year beginning on the 25th of the month of Kislev and Lasting for eight days and we’re going to get into the eight days issue

uh a little bit more here in a bit so let’s talk very briefly about the traditions of Hanukkah now that we’ve

Chapter 7: Traditions and symbolism

kind of seen the story and by the way if you ever have a chance you can read the book of First Second Maccabees um online Bible Gateway you can find it um it’s a great it’s a great read um to to a great bit of History to to understand uh this silent period so to speak but let’s look at some of these Traditions the traditions of Hanukkah what is this what am I looking at here what is this picture of yeah it’s hanukkiah yeah which is which is different from menorah that’s right it’s a hanukkiah it’s got eight candles with Central candle candle called the shamash the shamash is the

candle from which all other candles are lit many people would look at this and go oh that’s a menorah but as David correctly pointed out it’s different this is the biblical menorah what’s different about it well the hanukkiah has eight candles with a ninth called the shamash and the menorah has seven candles as described in Exodus 25 David did you want to say something NOP okay I thought I heard you chime in there the Hanukkah its purpose obviously is to commemorate the eight days of Hanukkah where the purpose of the menorah as described in Exodus 25 is to provide continual light for the holy place it was to always be

burning and I might be getting ahead of myself here but it sounds like a good time to just point this out one of the traditions of Hanukkah is that when they were rebuilding the Temple they only had enough oil to light the candle for a day because it took up to eight days to make oil and they only had enough to keep it lit for one day so they lit it and got to work on making more oil but tradition says that the candle or the the menorah burnt for eight days until they could make new oil even on one day’s source of oil now is is that true I

don’t know it’s tradition could it be true it could not be true sounds like a god thing to me God could still do Miracles that aren’t necessarily recorded in scripture and I I I personally believe this this could be one of them where he kept that those Flames burning on one day’s oil until they could make additional oil but that’s one of the traditions and celebrations of Hanukkah crucial aspect of this celebration is the miracle of a small Cruise of oil sufficient for only one day lasting miraculously for eight days this event is commemorated through the lighting of candles on the Hanukkah hanukkiah for eight nights symbolizing the increasing light

and representing the miraculous duration of oil in the Temple menorah I think there’s a great lesson here for Hanukkah that’s not centered around the miracle that may or may not have happened of the oil in the in the Hanukkah or the menorah rather that is a great story can’t prove that it actually happened but to me as I read this event as I read the story behind Hanukkah and why it’s celebrated I think for me the greatest lesson has more to do with Mattathias and Judas Maccabeus for what they did when they took a stand by saying even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king

obey him and have chosen to do his Commandments we will not we will not obey the king’s word by turning aside from our faith to the right hand or to the left I I think that’s the for me it’s a bigger story it’s it’s and I’m not saying that this isn’t celebrated in this in in Hanukkah but that’s moving to me one one man makes a stand for what he believes the courage and Faith of one man standing against the tides of the world’s Demands a man who would be willing to die for Yehovah’s honor and Truth a man man whose faith and resilience turned the Greek world upside down

in such a way that people still speak of him today more than 2,000 years later that’s an incredible story to me and for for education purposes I wanted to

Chapter 8: Spiritual lessons on faith

read Ezekiel 8 now Ezekiel 8 has nothing to do with Hanukkah it does have have a lot to do with God and how he feels about his holy place the place where he put his name forever the place where he wanted to reside with his people we see here in Ezekiel 8 it came to pass in the sixth year in the sixth month on the fifth day of the month as I sat in my house with the Elders of Judah sitting before me at the hand of the Lord God fell upon upon me there then I looked and there was a likeness like the appearance of fire from the appearance

of his waist and downward fire and from his waist and upward like the appearance of brightness like the color of am Amber he stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my hair and the spirit lifted me up between Earth and Heaven and brought me into visions of God to Jerusalem to the door of the north gate the inner court or the seat of the image of jealousy was which provokes to jealousy and behold the glory of God of Israel was there like the vision that I saw in the plain and he said to me son of man lift your eyes now toward the

north so I lifted my eyes toward the North and there north of the alter gate was this image of jealousy in the entrance furthermore he said to me son of man do you see what they are doing the great Abominations that the house of Israel commits here to make me go far away from My Sanctuary now turn again you will see greater Abominations so he brought me to the door of the court and when I looked there was a hole in the wall and then he said to me son of man dig into the wall and when I dug into the wall there was a door and he said to

me go in and see the wicked Abominations which they are doing there so I went in and saw and there every sort of creeping thing abominable beasts and all the idols of the House of Israel portrayed all around the walls and there stood before them 70 men of the Elders of the House of Israel in their midst stood Janiah the son of shiffon each man had a sensor in his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up then he said to me son of man have you seen what the Elders of the House of Israel do in the dark every man in the room of his idols for they

say the Lord does not see us the Lord has forsake in the land and he said to me turn again and you will see greater Abominations that they are doing so he brought me to the door of the north gate the Lord’s House and to my dismay women were were sitting there weeping for tamuz who is tamuz tamuz was a was a pagan God that they were weeping for him then he said to me have you seen this oh son of man turn again you will see greater Abominations than these so he brought me into the inner Court of the Lord’s house and there at the door of the Temple

of the Lord between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the East and they were worshiping the sun toward the East the son being s n and he said to me have you seen this oh son of man is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the Abominations which they commit here for they have filled the land with violence and they have returned to provoke me to anger indeed they put the branch to their nose therefore I will act in Fury my eye will not spare nor will I have pity and

though they cry in my ears with a loud voice I will not hear him or them and if you read a little further on two chapters later we have documented evidence in scripture when God actually abandoned the Temple because of it and I have highlighted here the number of times where God said do you see can you see this and it’s a great passage of scripture that helps us understand For a Moment God’s pain as his people had turned his Temple and his inner courts and the land into a place of idolatry even these men who had their backs to the Temple standing actually in the Temple grounds between the

The Altar and the porch that we saw earlier they were actually there with their backs to the Lord worshiping the son and God is saying to Ezekiel do you see do you see and my question is do we see can we like Ezekiel see what’s going on around us in the world as not only the world and true Gentile Pagan Gentiles are going crazy but we can even see those who name the name of Christ falling into worshiping pursuing idolatry and turning their backs to the truth of scripture to embrace their Traditions to embrace their pet doctrines do we see it do we see it the way Ezekiel Mattathias and

Judas Maccabeus saw it do we have the same sense of righteous indignation for what we see happening around us like Mattathias and Judas taking a stand against attius like Elijah against the prophets of B like Moses against Pharaoh like Phinehas against zimmery Shadrach mesach and Abednego like Daniel against Nebuchadnezzar like Stephen against the synagogue of the freed men like Yeshua against the J Judaism of the rabbis and Pharisees these stories of these men and women like Ruth and Deborah are in the Bible for a reason they’re highlighted in the scriptures for a reason because these people many at the cost of their own lives stood against the evil stood against

those who would teach otherwise from what the scriptures actually say from what God actually says and Hanukkah commemorates their unwavering resolve to resist Conformity to both secular and religious pressures yes it commemorates Mattathias and Judas but you can’t really say that those two men were unlike the heroes of scripture who were willing to not bend the knee so the question then becomes can and should Disciples of Yeshua celebrate Hanukkah and my answer is absolutely it’s a celebration of the faith of our spiritual predecessors absolutely it’s a celebration of the rededication of the Temple and we are now that Temple that holds the spirit of God so how do I celebrate

Chapter 9: How to celebrate

Hanukkah well let’s get into it one of the things that they do is lighting the menorah sensual ritual of Hanukkah is lighting the menorah a nine Branch candle or the hanoka a nine Branch candle candle uh the Hanukkah menorah also called a Hanukkah has one branch for each night of the festival and the central branch the shamash used to light the others on each night one additional Candle is lit the candles are usually placed from right to left uh but are lit from left to right David maybe you can explain that for a Second um I don’t have the explanation for that that’s all tradition it’s all tradition but let

me ask you this um do typically do they do they use actual candles and once a certain say for instance on the First day of Hanukkah does that candle stay lit until the next day or no it you know the candles have a life so they’ll burn for as long you know for as long as they burn but then the next day you so on the First night you you have the shamash the one that’s in the middle that’s used to light everything and then the First candle you you light the shamash you use that candle the middle candle or wherever it’s located and you you light the First candle

and then you put it back and that that burns for as long as it burns the next night you take a new candle because the other one is burned right and then you and then now you use two cand C so now you’re on the Second night so now you’re lighting two candles ah so that’s how it continues additional candles so it’s a total of I think if my math is not wrong it’s roughly 44 candle you know they sell them in packs we were we were we just bought a pack they sell 45 but I think it’s you know you get an extra but I think if you do

the math it’s you know you you it’s you know it’s two on it’s two candles the the shamash and and the First Candle is lit on the First night right and then on the Second night it’s three candles so it’s 2 plus 3 plus 4 for five up to nine do the math yeah okay well that explains a lot because I was wondering if if they would just let that one candle burn down down down down or if they bur all the way to the end and then they replace a new one okay gotcha uh also it’s a time of giving and receiving gifts while not as prominent as in

some other holiday traditions giving and receiving gifts is a part of Hanukkah some families exchange small gifts each night of a celebration is that accurate David yeah again a tradition um some there’s different use types of gifts some of them would give you know coins like money uh they use chocolate coins you know I think that to be honest I think a lot of the gift giving is probably influenced by uh you know Jews living into the the diaspora and seeing all the uh the Christmas giving going on and I think they kind of latched on to that to some extent I mean there is some gift giving but definitely

not as elaborate as it is uh uh in the Western Christian cele uh Christmas celebrations yeah okay uh they eat fried foods fried foods and oil are a significant part of Hanukkah to symbolize the miracle of the oil lasting eight days of the Temple so uh things like Lis and what’s that word David S suban yeah it’s a jelly filled dnut in a popular Hanukkah treat so these things just laying around the house during Hanukkah is that is that the idea lus I mean lus is part you know you eat it as a meal you can eat it with lus is you know similar to like hash browns okay but

made as a pancake not you know chopped hash browns like that but it’s like a it’s a potato pancake if you will um and then they would eat it either with applesauce or sour cream or whatever yeah usually those are popular toppings and then the souf is asess similar to what you find in a lot of doughnut shops these are you know the the um jelly filled Donuts usually sprinkled with some uh uh powdered sugar on it yeah well you know some of us Americans who come from Greek backgrounds like myself would might look at this and go well that’s weird until you stop and think about some of the

H the Traditions around Christmas that we’ve grown up with like fruit cake yeah you know um and and different things that are you know according to the tradition of the of the holidays it’s just different uh it’s not better or worse it’s just it’s just different um and then there’s a the time of teaching and learning learning Hanukkah is a time for families to come together and uh to take the opportunity to teach and learn about the history and significance of the holiday discuss the story of Hanukkah and the messages of Faith freedom and resilience and uh one other that I couldn’t fit on the slide was it’s a time

of giving it’s a time of U of of giving to people you know less fortunate anything that I’m missing there David Traditions um oh I mean those are say the key ones those are those are the key ones Christine says they sing songs um there are some songs that again pretty much uh talk about you know either the the heroism of uh by the way your transl your names of what you’re calling him like Judas is more of the Greek way his name was actually in Hebrew is Judah just like the tribe of Judah okay and Mattathias is TI which is kind of the same name I believe that what

is we call Matthew yeah right awesome but yeah they sing songs about you know the the great miracle that took place and the heroism of uh Hudak kabi and you know U the the the miracle that those are kind of some of the songs that they sing and commemorating that awesome well I have one last slide here guys uh Hanukkah is is called the Festival of

Chapter 10: Festival of lights in practice

Lights and some Believers have mourned their giving up of Christmas lights and decorations I understand this we’re talking about this briefly before we started when you come into the faith and understanding the the history of things like Christmas and Easter and and Halloween and you you come to grips with their pagan origins and their connections to B worship and satanic worship you give that up you go I didn’t know and so it’s gone but it’s also a holiday that we’ve had in our lives since the day we were born and many of us have very fond memories of hanging Christmas lights and trees and all that kind of stuff and

it’s not easy just to give something like that up it was for me because I have I have kind of a Josiah attitude towards this stuff where if I come to conviction that’s it’s wrong I start I stop that day well others it’s not that easy and that’s fine you know it’s it’s a it’s a personality thing but I think what we have to remember is that it’s a it’s a matter of reentering our holiday spirit towards something more meaningful towards something more biblically based and I think honestly even though Hanukkah is not a commanded Feast it is a celebration of something more biblically based and it is a festival

of lights and I know that many people celebrate this Festival of Lights by hanging lights uh I would assume David that the blue lights is a connection to the blue of Israel’s flag is that would that be accurate is we don’t know what the origin of the of the blue is but yes it is uh it is probably related to that but you know can you hang lights well yeah you can it’s just a matter of what your heart is set on um there’s another picture of you know people hanging Hanukkah lights just for the record what you see there you would never see in Israel no one does that

so it’s kind of an American thing or a western thing or what is it absolutely okay the home the house decorations with all the lights is definitely a you know is not an Israeli thing you will never see that in Israel uh but you will see uh obviously people lighting menorah and many of them may display them in their in their window um to it being a festival of lights is more of a Hanukkah thing or Yes actually use lights in other ways it’s related to the kukia and these this this light yeah but the question is is it a sin to put lights up and and I mean no

it’s not a sin I mean it’s in the same way yeah I mean as long as no it’s not a sin to put lights up you know as long as you as that I think the the concern is that you know we we make the same mistake you know with Hanukkah that we’ve done for so many years with Christmas as it becomes about the decorations and all of that and it it doesn’t we don’t honor the meaning of it the biblical base of it which is what I you know honestly I could Arrow you know like I I like my brother described you know we grew up very much I

very much decorated my house for the holidays like one would even say over decorated it I like the house to be very festive and so when I got a conviction about Jesus to celebrate Christmas I scrambled to figure out like okay how can I honor Hanukkah without losing this festive the festivities of our home with the lights and the Garland and and and so it’s important to not get caught up in the fact that you have Garland and you have blights what’s important is that you’re honoring something that is actually seen in the Bible and something I I agree with you Ed that the biggest one of the biggest things

about the story of Pica is uh Matas but for me I honor Hanukkah because Jesus did that’s the I mean I don’t even I definitely want to know about Hanukkah but the very fact that you see Jesus in the Temple on the going for the day of dedication that’s enough for me and um and so that’s that’s why and right now yes our house is very festive very festive with Hanukkah um lavenia asked uh what does it mean that they put the branch to their nose from Ezekiel 8 um lenia that is not fully known the answer that question is not fully understood um many think that it’s um a

a gesture of putting a fragrant branch to your nose in honor of the Sun God for its power to make things grow other people think that it’s an offensive gesture toward God but the answer to that question is I I don’t know for sure it’s it’s just one of those things that um we see in the Bible that we don’t quite understand yes Joe your mic is off okay thank you so it’s not fully known no it’s not okay um we had the Dilemma of course with the boys because we have a an 11year old and an eight-year-old at home and um you know they’re saying why aren’t we doing

Easter anymore what what you mean Santa’s not gonna come to the house I mean you know it’s just really hard for them so we definitely are gonna decorate and you know do the gifts but at the same time um we’re making sure that we’re prepared to have the blessings and the prayers and uh you know leading the dinner every night with a lesson about being the light and I had heard something on YouTube from uh that the they suggested that we do different light things like start with the light of creation the light of Adam the light you know and go through the whole Bible uh about you know being

the light and how we now are the light and you know that that kind of thing how we how we can uh be that for the world and for god um so this is our First one and so we’re really but we are G to have a Hanukkah tree you know because the kids were just we we’re not GNA have a tree no no we’ll have a Hanukkah tree so I found a a a tree skirt that’s you know Hanukkah and we’re we’re gonna do that and you know try to tone it down a little bit but make still make it fun for the kids and once we had uh

explained to them that there were eight days of gifts they dumped Christmas pretty [Laughter] quick um well David maybe um maybe you can kind of briefly walk us through just how you and your family have celebrated this and you know offer any thoughts that you have um to help us better understand this holiday yeah I mean it’s the way that we would can you turn your camera on so we can see your face oh sorry sorry um the way that we’ve done it if we you know we’ve we’ve obviously uh come together as a family it is a family uh type of a holiday just like any type of uh

uh the feast that God commands us to do uh and including the Sabbath right he he expects this to be something that you celebrate together as a family and not individually um you know we will we do gather around the man the uh hanuk every night and we will light the candles we’ll Ser a prayer we’ll sing a song um and then we have um there’s a it’s a Hebrew song obviously okay well teach us I don’t know I don’t know all the I mean I have to remember all the words I have to look it up I have to look it up um they they talks about praising God

uh and and actually it’s a you know song of of uh the the um uh Stone of my salvation about that it’s called look at up Ma I can type it in here in the chat well it’s probably on YouTube I’m sure you can find it Ma that’s how you would uh type it because obviously there’s no tadic in in English but that’s a very common song that is is sung um and then we would have a a meal together again we didn’t put too much emphasis on uh the gifting uh portion at least when I was growing up there was you know there was a a there was we

would get one more significant gift and then you know smaller gifts kind of equivalent to what you would think as talking stuffers you know during the U during the Christmas uh time uh those would be like smaller gifts during the the the other days and then one more I mean different type of foods like like you said the L the subot um I haven’t found good sub several years ago I went to Israel and they make I mean there it it tastes differently it tastes differently than a jelly donnut that you would find in your of course I’m sure donut store down the street I don’t know if it has

something to do with childhood memories or whatever but it is uh it does taste different um and so yeah and you can find recipe recipes for for those things online or you can just get a Jelly Donut from down the street um yeah so those are some of the key uh traditions and and like you said they definitely is a um uh teaching of you know what had happened um and and you know their their heroism and they’re standing up for God and you know the main focuses of this is um the miracle that took place right and why it’s eight days because there was one uh little um uh

picture of oil that was supposed to last for one day but it lasted eight days and that’s that’s the key Focus that is is the miracle that took place um I do like your perspective on it I think it’s great it’s an excellent perspective definitely a great perspective for uh people who are you you know for Christians for believers and definitely very uh I think uh appropriate for these times that we’re living in for sure so I definitely like that more of a focus and emphasis uh but the miracle as well again like you said um it’s not documented in the Canon scripture whether it happened or not but that

is definitely uh U you know that that is the focus of of the celebration from a Jewish perspective it sounds like a God thing to me when I hear that story about the oh absolutely and they they claim that it was a god you were talking about the dreidel uh it’s a I I I think it’s just again another tradition a little toy that the kids play with and um but it has four letters on it right and and the letters are different in Israel versus the rest of the world really and yes and the and that is because the the four letters are nun for NES which is Miracle

gim for Gad is large or big or great right Haya means that was in Israel there’s a p which means P here okay so it’s Nim he are the four letters if you buy an Israeli Dr if you buy one a rooad right outside of Israel it’s and at the end the last letter instead of a p is a Sheen which means sham means over there okay so anywhere outside of Israel it would be a great miracle happened there oh versus in Israel say A great miracle happened here oh that’s so cool yes another reason why Israel every every human being especially everyone who professes to be a disciple you

know Israel is uh set apart from every other place on the planet yeah yeah well that’s awesome okay guys well that is our uh our lesson on Hanukkah hope it was helpful thank you so much David for your insights and your input um into this study thank you uh I’ll start working on a uh a Christmas lesson I think and taking all of your your thoughts and and insights um into consideration and hopefully it’ll turn out awesome it will it will well you guys have a fantastic Shabbat and uh we will see you soon love you guys thank you bye bye thanks thank you