Click For A printable Version.

Hanukkah

Hanukkah, which is also referreed to as the Festival of Lights, starts on the 25th of Kislev on the Jewish Calendar. Its observance takes place over a period of eight nights, and involves lighting a candle for each night of the holiday. Beginning with one candle on the first night and increasing the number of candles each night to conclude with eight candles on the last night. In addtion to the tradition of lighting the candles each night, the dreidel game is usually played by the childrean. The dreidel has four sides, containing the Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimel, Hey, and Shin. These letters are used as an acronmyn which is translated to, a great miracle happend there. Gelt which is Yiddish(a dialect of Hebrew spoken by some Jews) for money is also handed out in conjunction with the dredel game. Gelt is sometimes actually money or coins and is also sometimes chocolate packaged in a way to look like coins. Traditional foods usually include those fried in oil, including latkes(potato pancakes) and doughnuts.

The story of Hanukkah is preserved in the Talmud. It describes the events that trasnspired, which gave us the common practices and symbols we recognize today. The eight candles are symbolic of the oil that burned for eight days. When Judas Maccabeus rid the temple of its occupation by the Seleucid Empire they found only one days worth of oil that had not been compromised. This one day supply miraculously lasted for eight days which is the amount of time needed to fully prepare new oil.

Our Messiah Yehshua can be found within Hanukkah. Yeshua is often refered to as the light of the world, and even refered to Himself as the light of the world. “Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.” John 12:35-36 NIV It is probable that Yeshua was conceived druing the Festival of Lights. “A study of the time of the conception of John the Baptist reveals he was conceived about Sivan 30, the eleventh week (Luke 1:8-13, 24). Adding forty weeks, for a normal pregnancy reveals that John the Baptist was born on or about Passover (Nisan 14). Six months after John’s conception, Mary conceived Jesus (Luke 1:26-33); therefore Jesus would have been conceived six months after Sivan 30 in the month of Kislev—Hanukkah”(http://biblicalholidays.com/Hanukkah/messiah_in_hanukkah.htm) As The Festival of Lights is taking place the light of the world comes into our world’s existence.

If we are all a spark of YHWH, the conception of Yeshua or the spark of Yeshua can be realated to the lighting of a candle. Although a candle cannot burn forever and will cease to exist, Yeshua’s light is eternal and will never cease to illuminate the world. Just as the Festival of Lights marks the rededication of temple, if we have the Holy Spirit within us we are dedicating our bodily temples to YHWH. If we continue to walk in the footsteps of our Messiah our light should never cease as well.