Hanukkah 2005

Well, Hanukkah ended a bit ago. You’d think that I’d be able to get to writing about it sooner, but – here I am several weeks later. Better late than never, right?

So, why Hanukkah? We have studied Hanukkah a little each year for the past 3 years. At first we just studied to learn about what it was. It couldn’t really be a Jewish Christmas, like so many seem to think, could it? What was the deal with it anyway? Is it in the Bible and if so, how come we never knew that before? So we got some books, did some research and had a blast. This past fall we decided, DH and I, that we would keep Hanukkah as a regular part of our year from now on. Let me explain why without going too much into a history lesson. Hanukkah is technically the Festival of Dedication and is in honor of the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem after Antiochus and his army tried (oh, how they tried) to squash and annihilate the Jewish people and their religion. The people were threatened with their lives if they did not give up their religion and convert to a new religion. They were killed if they kept the laws of G-d, and it wasn’t a quick and easy killing either. It was nasty and horrible and vicious. A little band of fighters took on the huge army, the little band grew and grew into a larger band – still smaller than the army of Antiochus. In short, the little band won and work was started to rebuild the Temple and consecrate it again. Hanukkah, or the Festival of Dedication, is the annual celebration of the rededication of the Temple after the war was won.

Hanukkah is a holiday with a theme of not giving up, not compromising, staying true to our Creator G-d even when it looks like we might suffer horribly. It’s a perfect holiday to keep!

I got an idea from an article I read from the Torah Family Magazine. We decided to do something similar to what this family wrote about. We each drew names of our family out of a hat – all 7 of us. It was to be a surprise and nobody could tell anyone who they had, not even tell mom! Everyone had to spend their own money, a guideline of $20 (the kids picked the amount, we were going to say $10!), and everyone had to do some serious thinking about who they were buying for.

Once that was established, the rules were set. The ONLY one to know when the exchange would be was Dad. It could be anytime during the 8 day celebration, day or night. Why? Well, if the church is the bride and Yeshua is the bridegroom and His return is patterned after the Hebrew wedding traditions – wouldn’t it be fun to pattern our gift giving after that? We talked about the virgins waiting for the bridegroom, some were ready and some were unprepared and had to go get more oil in the middle of the night. We talked about ourselves being the bride and the question was asked, “What kind of bride do you want to be for the Messiah? Will you be prepared? Will He be pleased or will He feel like Hosea?” We talked about how the bridegroom begins to build a house for himself and his bride after the ‘engagement’ is official and his father is the one who decides when his son is ready to be married. This whole time the bride is waiting anxiously every day, because any day could be the day he comes to get her. Once the father decides it’s time, he gathers together the wedding party and they travel to meet the waiting bride. So only the father knew and could decide when our gift giving would take place in order to remind us that only the Father knows when the Son will return and that we had better be ready – not in town buying oil at midnight.

Once he announced it was time, everyone was to scramble to the living room with gifts in hand, ready to exchange them. We started with the youngest children first, giving their gifts to the ones whose names they drew. Sara was so excited, she was bouncing and almost screaming! LOL Everyone was excited, and everyone knew where to be as soon as the call was given. We were so blessed by the giving of our kids! Only the oldest two boys spent close to the spending guideline! The two youngest went way over – all for their sister and brother. Everyone was so pleased with their gifts, you could tell that much thought was put into what to buy. But one of the most important lessons of the gift giving part was that the kids all were discussing one day, when DH and I weren’t in the room but could still hear the conversation, how they were more excited to give the gift than to see what they were getting. They all had put so much time, thought, and energy into their gifts that they just couldn’t wait for their brothers/sisters to get them. That blessed us.

Each night of Hanukkah we did our regular Bible reading and a separate family study. We talked about the theme of holiday being “No Compromise” and read stories about Hanukkah heroes who refused to compromise their faith or their actions before G-d and their fellow believers. We learned a lot and had some great discussions. And of course, the gifts. Since Hanukkah was at the same time as Christmas this year, we saved the Christmas gifts and gave them as Hanukkah gifts – one gift per person per night. That way, rather than getting a ton of gifts in one sitting it was stretched out for 8 days. The kids said they liked that arrangement much more anyway.

This being our first “real” Hanukkah, we were thrilled and inspired to refuse to compromise. In years past we had lit candles and had studied the holiday enough to understand that the legend of the oil is just a legend, that the first recorded mention of the miracle of the oil was significantly later than the original accounts in the Books of Maccabees. You’d think that if such a great miracle actually happened that they would have mentioned it at least once in the original account. So the oil wasn’t a focus of our Hanukkah, but fodder for the children’s stories and videos we enjoyed throughout the week.

Next Hanukkah will be a great one too, unless the Bridegroom comes first!!!