Hanukkah, the Celebration of Light – Day One

Break out your Menorah and candles!

Tonight, December 7, 2023, is the first night of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. We are going to explore this celebration, the story, and the miracle over the next eight days. To kick us off, here is a summary of Hanukkah from an article by Sharon Hardy Knots and R. G. Hardy.

• Setting is in winter
• 400 years between Malachi and Matthew
• God’s silent as Israel was sent into captivity of the Assyrians and Babylonians, because of idolatry.
• Secularized by Alexander’s rule during the Golden Age of Greece.
• Jews had become secularized and assimilated into the pagan culture. 
• Finally a group known later as the Maccabees revolted. 
• Their motto was: “Who is Like You, O Lord, Among the Mighty!” 
• The name Maccabees. An acronym, from the first Hebrew letter of each word in the motto.
• They took back the Temple that had been desecrated and defiled to restore it.
• The rededication to the Lord was an eight-day process.
• The miracle of the sanctified oil, of which there was only enough for one day of the eight-day process is the celebration of lights—Hannakuh.