Hanukkah for the rest of us!

tanstaafl72555

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You don't have to be ethnically Jewish, or religious, to appreciate what happened to spawn "Hanukkah" or the festival of lights. It is a story of heroism, bravery, rebellion and true virtuous nationalism that rivals the US war of independence.

In short, in about 200 BC, or if you prefer the "BCE" ("before the Christian Era".... choke on it, ok? :) ) the Seleuccids were the recipients of a big part of the kingdom of Alexander the Great, they were a mix of Arab, Greek and (a few) Jews, and ruled over the Palestinian area, along with much of what we call the "middle east".... The Seleucids were self styled sophisticates, dedicated to learning, philosophy, genteel culture, stamping out backwards nationalistic exclusivism and the fundamentalist religious cults that fostered it, demanding a melding together of all the various sects and nationalities with common elements of all bringing all their subjects into a giant happy throng singing Kum Bay Ya.

They were eventually led (in Israel, anyway) by a guy named Antiochus, also called "Epiphanes" (from which we get the word "epiphany" or a manifestation... I will let you fill in the blanks there). He demanded a syncretism of religious practices, as he rightly recognized that that pesky Judaism which insisted there was ONLY ONE GOD (and you don't know Him!!!) was never going to sing Kum Bay Ya in the right key. So, he decided that these ignorant rubes had to be helped along in their path towards tolerance, inclusiveness and acceptance of others and the way to start would be to demand an altar to Zeus in the temple. So, he did. It is challenged by historians whether he actually sacrificed a pig on that altar, but that has been a claim for centuries, and definitely pissed off a lot of Jews.

They brought in a cohort of political delegates and offered some really attractive political sinecures to a guy named "Matthias" who was a small time priest and leader of worship stuff in Jerusalem, if he would help foster a spirit of unity, tolerance, inclusiveness and equality, especially in this religious stuff. He was offered to be "on the inside" with the ruling crew. Matthias responded by killing a fellow Jew who was working to bring in Zeus worship, and killing one of the delegates, taking a bunch of fellow fundamentalist zealots, fleeing to the mountains, and starting an armed rebellion. Whoopsie for the tolerance and inclusiveness! Anyway, his son Judas Macabee (nicknamed "the hammer") turned out to be a remarkable military, political, and diplomatic genius. The stories of his military exploits (he defeated a FAR stronger FAR more equipped, FAR more advanced and sophisticated state), his brilliant formation of alliances with other competing states (including Rome, which was still a nascent power), use of propaganda and disinformation, using guerilla tactics until enough support surfaced to field a traditional army, and his rough piety and devotion to Jehovah God... all these make for GREAT reading.

BLUF, he threw out the Seleucids, purged the temple, and had a "cleansing ceremony" where the lights n the temple were so bright, and the people so full of joy that orthodox worship had been restored, that the "festival of lights" was born in commemoration. The story also arose that during the period of abandonment, oil in the Menorahs in the temple were never refilled but continued to burn, thus claiming that the God of Israel used a miracle to confirm the light of true worship. I dunno about the latter, but neither do I sneer.

THAT is the story of Hanukkah. It is in the "Catholic" bible, and is what Protestants call the "apocryphya." There are clear and unambiguous foretellings of this in the book of Daniel (written about 500 years before these events happened), and the cultural/political/religious impact they left on Jewish mentality is critical to understanding the time of Jesus.

Christians especially, but any national patriot should read and become familiar with this stuff.

HAPPY HANUKKAH!!!
Hanukkah Sameach!!!!
חג חנוכה שמח !!!!!
 
My mom never taught any of this when lighting the menorah.
Don't feel bad. She probably did not know herself. I never knew until MUCH later in life, being the weirdo I am and motivated to read up on stuff.

Plus, one of the absolute requirements to rewrite a culture's politics is to rewrite its values, and the basis for that is to obscure history, which contains the basis for those values. We have a whole nation of complete historical ignoramuses, and I am one of the worst. I learn new stuff every day and am all the time reshaping my views of "what happened." People who write history lie about history. First lesson to be learned.
 
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Mixed family here. Jewish mother. Not very religious, more cultural. same on the Protestant side of my dads family. Core values, holidays and pride were about all.

Happy Hannukah,

-The Bear Jew
 
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