(10.) The Hanukkah Menorah: The Festival of Lights

(10.) The Hanukkah Menorah: The Festival of Lights.

“The most important thing about Chanukkah (Hanukkah) is the spiritual thing, not the military and political thing… Judaism and its culture of hope survived, and the Hanukkah lights are the symbol of that survival, of Judaism’s refusal to jettison its values for the glamour and prestige of a secular culture, then or now. A candle of hope may seem a small thing, but on it the very survival of a civilization may depend.”  (Rabbi Jonathon Sacks).

Hanukkah-At-A-Glance. This Hebrew word means dedication or consecration, and the Hanukkah holiday is a celebration of the miraculous triumph of a small group of Israelite rebels led by one faithful family, the Maccabees, over the most powerful military in the known world at that time. The Jewish freedom fighters in second century BC defeated the mighty Greco-Syrian forces, led by a power-crazed general by the name of Antiochus, who were attempting to force Greek culture and religion upon the vulnerable citizens in Jerusalem. For three long years, the Jews had no choice but to endure the most horrific persecution imaginable. But these Jewish Wars for freedom ended with the defeat of the enemy and the rededication of the holy Temple after the worst forms of desecration. Hanukkah has been called the Festival of Lights for two centuries as it celebrates this moral victory over evil, as well as light over darkness, freedom over oppression, faith over idolatry, and hope over despair. Through Hanukkah’s eight days of celebration, the Jews are again reminded of how, with God on their side, courage is able to triumph over cowardice. [The reader will find later in this article a more complete backstory to the reasons for the Hanukkah holy days.]

What is the Menorah? “Menorah” is a Hebrew word that simply means light-bearer, or the place that shines and gives light. Menorah and lampstand are treated as synonyms throughout the Bible, even with its variations down through biblical history. The first official menorah was made according to very precise spec’s from Lord Yahweh Himself given to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 25). As with every other piece of furniture in the wilderness Tabernacle, every piece meant something profound, and was a shadow of a heavenly thing to help us understand God better (Hebrew 8:5). The other official menorah in Judaism is the Hanukkah menorah, the centerpiece of the eight-day celebration of Chanukah (Hanukkah).

The Differences between the Tabernacle Menorah (TM) and the Hanukkah Menorah (HM). There are two official menorahs in Judaism, and it would help us to understand both if we do some comparing and contrasting:

1. The TM was made by hammering out the Lord’s design from one solid piece of gold weighing 75 pounds; the HM has no such restrictions, can be any size, and made by any material that is not flammable.
2. The TM has seven branches, with three branches extending outward from each side of the central branch; the HM has nine branches, with a row of eight candleholders and one separate candleholder that is placed at a different height than the other eight.
3. The seven branchers of the TM symbolize the completed seven days of creation; the eight main candles of the HM represent the eight days celebrated during Hanukkah to complete the holiday.
4. The TM could only be fueled by a wick in each branch that is soaked in pure olive oil, with candles being forbidden; the HM uses candles for the lightings, or perhaps oil lamps if preferred.
5. The TM lamps are lit solely by the attending priests in the Holy Place, and kept lit daily from sundown to sunup; the HM has a ninth candle that is called a “servant candle” which is used to light all the other candles.
6. The TM was designed and fashioned to resemble an almond tree, complete with its buds, blossoms and leaves; the HM is not required to appear like the TM, and so have been made to resemble everything from various animals to plants, from geometric shapes to mythic figures.
7. The TM was hidden from sight within the private space of the Holy Place; the HM is intended to be seen by everyone as it is displayed in the home, synagogue and public spaces.
8. The TM was required to have all its lights burning every night until morning; the HM is lit only once a year during Hanukkah, is progressively lit one candle at a time, and must be burning for at least 30 minutes each of the eight nights.

The Sources for the Story of Hanukkah. The books of Maccabees One and Maccabees Two are included in the Apocrypha, 10-12 books written between the Hebrew Bible (OT) and the New Testament, from 400 BC to the birth of Christ. The word “apocrypha” means “hidden” or “doubtful.” Jewish tradition holds that “the Holy Spirit departed Israel” after the last prophet Malachi, and so the books of the Apocrypha are considered inspired, and are not included in their Tanakh, the official Hebrew Bible. Devout Jews, though, believe that the apocryphal books are useful for devotion, instruction and as an important historical reference, even if not inspired by the Spirit of God. The Protestant Reformers like Luther and Calvin believed strongly that their protest Bible needs to be founded on the Tanakh, so they likewise did not consider the books of the Apocrypha to be inspired, authoritative or a part of their official Scripture. Their bias against apocryphal books from the Old Testament continues to this day and are not included in any Bibles other than the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bibles. When Martin Luther composed his Luther Bible, though, he believed the OT Apocrypha to be worthy reading for Christians, and so he placed a separate section of the Apocrypha between the two Testaments. On the other hand, the Orthodox and Catholic Churches believe these so-called “apocryphal” books to be inspired, authoritative Scripture and not “doubtful” in any way in terms of deserving inclusion in God’s Word. Rather than referring to these books as “apocryphal,” the Orthodox and Catholic Bibles consider them to be a “second canon” and include the following ten books… Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, and significant additions to Esther and Daniel. Scholars believe that the Apocrypha are extremely helpful in gaining an understanding of the gospel era, the early Church, and 1st century Israel. Since Jesus was deeply rooted in 1st century Judaism, then it makes sense to be aware of anything that will reveal the cultural tendencies, the language, the customs and the history leading up to the Jesus movement. The OT Apocrypha connected the dots between the two Testaments, and set the stage for the entrance of Christ and His early believers. The OT Apocrypha shaped the culture that we see in the New Testament and so is interesting background for the NT in general. In fact, Jesus and His fellow Jews in Israel were quite familiar with the Apocrypha through the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible and considered it inspired and necessary for the Faith. Which leads us to the Septuagint, since this Greek translation of the Bible included all the Apocryphal books before Christ’s birth.

The Septuagint (LXX). This was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was widely popular during Jesus’ era and beyond. This translation was considered inspired Scripture and commonly used for devotional and historical reference. The Septuagint was composed between 250 – 100 BC by a legendary group of 72 Jewish scholars of the Greek language. They first met in Alexandria, Egypt mid-2nd century to translate the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, and then the entire Bible was finally completed by other scholars around 100 BC. The Septuagint was composed so that Greek-speaking Jews spread around that part of the world could read Scripture for themselves.  The OT apocryphal books were included in this official Greek Bible, and so they were accepted as inspired Scripture as well. Most of the New Testament quotes of the Old Testament (about 80%) were directly from the Septuagint, including many times when Jesus Himself quoted from the Septuagint. The Hebrew version of the Bible was read in the synagogue, and the Septuagint was read practically everywhere else. In the early Greek-speaking Christian Church, it was the Septuagint that was adopted as their official Bible.

The Longer Backstory to Hanukkah. Around the year 171 BC, after Alexander the Great and after Ptolemy, a power-crazy general from Syria tried to conquer Jerusalem, and almost succeeded. His name was Antiochus IV, and he wasn’t shy about what he thought of himself and what he planned to do with those rebellious Jews in Jerusalem. Anticochus called himself Epiphanus, which means “God made manifest,” while at the same time his public nickname was “the Madman.” Antiochus was the very definition of unholy hubris as he sought to Hellenize Israel, to force Greek religion and culture down the throats of the Jews.

HUBRIS: a Greek word that means excessive pride; exaggerated self-conceit; overwhelming self-confidence; sheer arrogance; someone with hubris always has a lack of self-awareness and won’t stop to examine his behavior or consider other actions; people with hubris are generally too full of themselves to question their motives or actions; people who are overcome with hubris eventually bring about their own downfall. As Rabbi Jonathon Sacks once wrote, “If Scripture is our guide, what makes God laugh is a person’s delusion of grandeur.” 

In his overwhelming hubris, Antiochus succeeded in horrifying devout Jews by desecrating the holy Temple, profaning the name of Yahweh, polluting the land with pagan idolatry, and massacring thousands of devout Jews. A catalogue of his army’s persecution of the Jews would have to include demonic abominations like these:

1. Smashing the entrance gates and porches of the Temple;
2. Stripping the Temple of all its sacred vessels and treasures in order to pay his war debts;
3. Erecting an idol of Zeus on the holy altar that had the face of Antiochus himself;
4. Sacrificing a pig, the most unclean animal imaginable, on the Temple altar and then sprinkling its blood in the Holy of Holies;
5. Pouring pig broth over the Torah scrolls, then ripping the scrolls up and burning them;
6. Installing a pagan fertility cult within the Temple, complete with orgies and prostitutes;
7. Forbidding any Yahweh-worship within the Temple, and requiring all sacrificial offerings to be pigs;
8. Outlawing any demonstration of Jewish religious expression, including Sabbath-keeping, Torah-reading, circumcision, Kosher laws, etc. Violators would be immediately executed, including men, women and children.

Nope, Not Gonna Happen. After over three years of this insane persecution, all it took was one brave family led by a righteous patriarch to make things change. His name was Mattathias, and his five sons became known as the Maccabees, and they finally couldn’t take it anymore. Living in caves away from the cities, they became the leaders of the Jewish resistance movement, the freedom fighters that gathered thousands of Jews who were willing to do the unthinkable… They challenged Antiochus and stood up to the fiercest military known at that time. Led by Judah Maccabee, they mastered the art of guerilla warfare, scored numerous victories over Antiochus’ troops even when vastly outnumbered, and finally, triumphed over the Syrian madness. After the final victory in 164 BC, Judah and his men entered the Temple to purify it of its desecration. They were heartbroken as they saw what had been done to their sacred Temple, and immediately went to work to restore the holy places in honor of their Lord Yahweh. They cleansed the sanctuary of filth and pig blood, they removed the fertility shrines, they destroyed all remnants of pagan idolatry. They tore down the perverted altar and rebuilt a new sacred one. They also wanted to relight the holy Menorah, but they were only able to recover a one-day supply of the needed holy oil. So they lit the Lampstand in good faith, hoping for the best, since they knew that it would take eight days to replenish the supply of oil. Miraculously, that one-day supply of oil somehow enabled the Menorah to last all eight days. The newly restored Temple was rededicated at that time, and every year since then Hanukkah (Chanukah) has been celebrated every year in December to remember this historical milestone, and for the renewal of faith and hope that is required of all true believers.