Hanukkah 2021

Happy Hanukkah 2021

How to Have A Happy Hanukkah 2023

How to Have a Happy Hanukkah 2023

Stores have cleared the back-to-school supplies to make way for Christmas decorations. The weather is changing, and soon we’ll hear Bing Crosby singing about a White Christmas on every radio station. But what about Hanukkah in 2023?

But for Jewish people everywhere, there’s more to this holiday season than just feel-good movies and baking. In fact, there’s plenty of houses that won’t be staged with a Christmas tree this year.

As a Messianic congregation with a heart for the Bible and Biblical holidays, we can relate. Although the Hanukkah celebration isn’t commanded in the Torah, or the Old Testament, the story of Hanukkah calls us to rededication in new and meaningful ways each year. 

So what’s so special about Hanukkah? And where do dreidels, latkes and menorahs fit?

We’ll cover all you need to know about this holiday, so you can celebrate Hanukkah in 2023. 

Happy Hanukkah 2021

Other Names for Hanukkah

You may see this Jewish holiday written as Hanukkah, Hanukkah, Hanukah or even Chanukah. They’re all referring to the same thing. 

Some other popular names include the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication.  

 

What is Hanukkah?

The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates a major military victory in the 2nd century BCE that changed an entire nation. The Syrian King Antiochus waged war on Israel. He mandated that the Jewish people were to worship Greek gods. Antiochus even desecrated the holy temple in Jerusalem, turning it into a shrine to Zeus. 

While all the Jewish people agreed that worshipping Greek gods was against their beliefs, several of them assimilated into the new culture. Still, other Jews decided to take a stand.  

Of those who refused to bow to false gods was the priest Mattathias. He felt so strongly that when he saw a Jew getting ready to offer sacrifices to the Greek gods, he killed the man and the King’s officer who stood nearby. 

This outburst led to the great Jewish uprising against King Antiochus Epiphanes. 

Mattathias and his family fled to the hills, where others joined him. This small group of farmers-turned-soldiers became known as the Maccabees. 

Judah Maccabee took over after Mattathias died, and the ragtag army went on to conquer the Syrian army and reclaim the temple in December 164 BCE, three long years after Antiochus had taken over. 

Miracle of the Oil

A menorah is a multi-branched candelabra that signifies holiness and the rhythms of God. The first and second temples had seven branch menorahs, resembling the six days of the week and the Sabbath, or Shabbat. It was customary to keep the candles burning at all times in the temple.  

After the temple was recaptured, priests were put to work cleaning, restoring and lighting the menorah. 

Unfortunately, there was only enough oil for one day, and it would take eight days to prepare more oil. 

Even still, the priests lit the menorah, reconsecrating the temple for God. 

Tradition would tell us the candles stayed lit for eight days until new oil could be prepared. The lighting of the menorah today represents God’s faithfulness to provide for His people in miraculous ways. 

When we walk out in faith, God meets and sustains us. 

The Hanukkah Elements

So how do dreidels, latkes and doughnuts fit into the Hanukkah celebrations? Let’s take a look.

Dreidel 

Jewish tradition says that when King Antiochus outlawed the Torah, Jews found hidden ways to keep their traditions alive. They began teaching the Torah orally through a spinning top game that we refer to as dreidel. 

Each side of the dreidel has a Hebrew letter on it—nun, gimel, hey (or chai) and shin. Together, the letters form “New Gadol Hayah Sham” or “a great miracle happened there.” In Israel, the dreidels are slightly different, indicating “a great miracle happened here.” 

It’s customary to stock up on Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins) and play dreidel during the eight nights of Hanukkah. 

Menorah 

While there were seven menorah candles on the temple candelabrum, there are nine Hanukkah candles. The Hanukkah menorah, also called a Hanukkiah, has a branch for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah plus a shamash candle, or a helper candle. 

It’s customary for the shamash candle to light the other candles each night. 

Latkes & Doughnuts 

Latkes, otherwise known as ​potato pancakes, go hand-in-hand with Hanukkah. Why? Because they are loaded with oil. 

To celebrate the traditional miracle of the oil, we eat foods cooked in oil. Potato latkes are definitely a favorite, but other popular foods found at a Hanukkah party include fried fish, homemade corn dogs, doughnuts and sufganiyot, a round jelly-filled doughnut commonly eaten in Israel. 

Hanukkah FAQ’S

Here are some of the most common Hanukkah questions, answered. 

When is Hanukkah 2023? 

Hanukkah comes around each year on the 25th day of Kislev, a month in the Hebrew Calendar, usually coinciding with December. I know what you’re thinking, but no; this date has nothing to do with Christmas. In fact, most years, the 25th of Kislev lands somewhere between late November and early December. 

This year, the first night of Hanukkah begins sundown on Sunday, December 7th and ends on Monday, December 15th.  

 

The Hebrew calendar differs from the Gregorian calendar that we use today in a few areas, but the biggest is in regard to the new year. While Americans celebrate the new year on January 1, the Jewish calendar recognizes the fall as the start of the new year. 

Is Hanukkah in the Torah? 

Nope! Hanukkah is described in the Talmud, religious texts used for learning. It is described in the New Testament as being celebrated by Jesus and his disciples, and the full story is outlined in the ancient historical accounts of the Books of the Maccabees. Unlike Passover and Yom Kippur, Hanukkah is not a mandated holiday listed out in the Bible. But that doesn’t keep us from celebrating the themes and enjoying a happy Hanukkah! Even as Christians, there is so much meaning and symbolism in the holiday as we remember to be dedicated to Jesus. 

 

Where does Jesus fit in Hanukkah? 

Hanukkah extends beyond Judaism for a few reasons. John 10 recounts Jesus celebrating Hanukkah. But there’s also a much more meaningful connection. 

First, Jesus was Jewish. So imagine if the Maccabees hadn’t won their fight with the Syrians. There would be no Jewish people and no savior from the line of David. 

Also, Hanukkah points us to Jesus. For Messianics and Christians, the shamash candle represents Jesus, the one through whom light comes. Not only does he describe himself as the light of the world, but He also shares this invitation with His disciples. In Matthew 5, Jesus talks about being the light of the world. He describes his followers as lights in the world, instructing them to share their light with others. 

Hanukkah is an invitation to rededicate ourselves to God, receive Jesus’s light, and share that light with others.  

How do you say Happy Hanukkah?  

You can extend holiday greetings in any of the following ways: 

Happy Chanukah

Hanukkah Sameach

Chag Sameach

Happy Holidays

What Do I Do Now to Celebrate Hanukkah in 2023? 

Ready to celebrate Hanukkah? Check out our Hanukkah guides, where you’ll find liturgy and information for each of the eight nights. You’ll also find info about Hanukkah recipes, music and movies. 

Looking for a way to really interact this year? Check out our YouTube channel here to find a video for each night of the Holidays that tells you the Hanukkah story and helps you light the candles each night. 

Got kids? Look for our kids guide to help your little ones get excited about the holiday.

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Judah Maccabee and Hanukkah

Hanukkah Day 3: Courage and Judah Maccabee

The Story: Judah Maccabee

Imagine: your world has fallen apart, and it would seem that Antiochus has won. Jewish culture has succumbed to political and religious assimilation, and Jerusalem is looking increasingly more Greek every day. But suddenly, something changes. Judah Maccabee and Mattathias appear.

 

Not all of the Jewish people would succumb so easily. Though many Jews submitted, others understood that assimilation and elimination of Jewish worship, sacrifices, and traditions would be the destruction of Judaism itself! Though the flame of conviction was small, it was steadfast. These brave Jews would not back down.

 

Antiochus’ heavily armed soldiers were sent out of Jerusalem to force the Jewish people across the nation of Israel to worship the king and make sacrifices of pigs to the Greek gods. A large army of soldiers came to Modin, a small town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. They went straight to the home of an influential Jewish family led by a priest named Mattathias and his five sons.

 

The generals and a Hellenistic Jew tried to sweet-talk and coerce Mattathias and his family into offer sacrifices, knowing his influence would bring many Jews to the Hellenistic side, but Mattathias would not hear of it. The generals grew more and more angry, and they marched him to a Greek altar erected in the town. Forcing him to the altar in the sight of all of the Jewish people in the town, they ordered him to give in, on pain of death.

 

But Mattathias and his son Judah Maccabee would not forsake his faith. In a miraculous burst of energy quite unexpected for a man of his age, he grabbed the sword from the general’s hand and ran the general and his men completely through! He tore down the Greek altar with a strength comparable to the righteous anger of the prophet Samuel when he lopped off the head of the captured King Agag in the Old Testament!

 

Mattathias and his sons drove off the soldiers with a loud battle cry led by Judah Maccabee —” Whoever is for the Lord, follow us!” And just like that, in a matter of moments, the rebellion of the Jewish people had begun!

 

THE THEME: COURAGE

When you think of courage, what do you think of? Do you think of a person? Of a storybook character? A time when you were faced with your own fear and you conquered because you chose to be courageous?

 

No matter how we associate it, courage is the ability to do something that frightens you! Now, just because we feel courage doesn’t mean there is no fear present. On the contrary, for courage to be present, there must be fear that instills the courage! Courage means we feel the fear and we choose to act on our convictions anyways. Courage comes from our worldview and what we truly believe in our heart. It means we choose to be brave over and over and over again! It means we persevere through the power of the Holy Spirit, even when we are faced with our greatest adversity!

 

Courage requires us to stand up against wrong and stand up for what is right. It means we must be willing to get out of our comfort zone and embrace our faith in the One who will always conquer! We see this courage in the Maccabees and their incredible faith in God and belief in their cause!

 

Today, we are constantly battered by things that require us to stand up and be courageous. We cannot stand by the sidelines and allow the injustice! We must always remember that in order to be truly courageous, we stand upon and fight for the truth of the Bible: that is true courage. In order to see the gospel prevail, we must speak out against injustices, those things that do not glorify God. We must be deeply convicted like Judah Maccabee and Mattathias and stand strong in the face of adversity.

 

As we continue the story of Hanukkah, ask yourself,

 

  • In what ways has God been your strength and courage in the last year?
  • In what ways has God been asking you to grow in new strength and courage in the next year?
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Antiochus and Conviction

Hanukkah Day 2: Conviction & Antiochus Epiphanes

The Story – Antiochus Epiphanes

Imagine: Jerusalem is captured by a foreign nation, and suddenly, everything in your life changes. King Antiochus, the ruler of the Syrian Empire has taken your home! Quiet, dedicated religious life in Israel turns to chaos as the new conqueror flips Jewish life upside down.

 

Antiochus is an evil ruler and a very narcissistic one at that. He is so full of himself, he declares he is a god on the earth. He calls himself Antiochus Epiphanes: god incarnate! Antiochus has conquered much of the Mediterranean coastline from Egypt to Greece. He is fascinated with Greek culture and wants his entire kingdom to assimilate into the Hellenistic culture. This political push made its way through the city and into the unsuspecting Jewish countryside. Antiochus threatens death to any Jew who would not comply to his assimilation culture.

 

Over time the setting of Jerusalem changes. Greek gymnasiums and temples begin to dot the landscape of Israel, Greek learning is instituted to replace Jewish teachings, and Jewish culture is oppressed. Through trickery, deceit, social and political pressures, Antiochus has seduced important leaders in the Jewish community to join him, including the High Priest of Israel, Jason! Jews are forced to bend to his religious compromise. All Jewish religious rites and traditions are to be forfeited on pain of death. He strategically focuses on rooting out any practices consistent with God’s Word, such as Temple worship, and the Sabbath. The oppression grows so great, mothers and children are killed if the parents attempt to circumcise or bar mitzvah their children in the Jewish tradition.

 

Antiochus desecrates the temple in Jerusalem and erects an altar to Zeus where he slaughters pigs by the hundreds in direct assault and defiance of the Jewish cleanliness rituals. He erects statues all over Jerusalem and a statue of himself in the temple and orders the people of Israel to bow before the statues.  Many Jews compromise and bow down to the Greek Statues of Athena, Zeus and Antiochus out of fear for their very lives and the lives of their children.

THE THEME: CONVICTION

Conviction is a strongly held belief or opinion. Time and time again in history, God’s people have had to choose whether or not they would stand convicted. Over thousands of years, the Jewish people were sold as slaves, Israel was conquered, and people were murdered for their faith. After Jesus resurrection’, many early Christians were martyred. During the 16th century, many across Europe were killed for reading William Tyndale’s Bible in English. During the Holocaust, millions of Jews were killed by Adolph Hitler. Even today, many are still persecuted for their belief in Jesus. In each and every generation, there were people who stood strong, knew what they believed, and fought back!

 

In the events of Hanukkah, the Jewish people were one such example of conviction! Antiochus’ horrible actions would foreshadow Hitler’s future annihilation of the Jewish people in the 1940’s. Many others over the centuries would come against God’s people.

 

Today, the world tells us our God is not enough. We face new challenges and struggles every day as our world falls apart. But in the midst of compromise, this is our hope: Jesus is our Savior and our King! We can stand on our convictions in the face of danger, sorrow, pain and even death. Why? Because we know we serve a good God who has conquered death for us! We can engage our culture with a deep conviction in the truth of Jesus. So, when you stand facing your greatest fear, you can stand on the love and mercy and incredible sacrifice of our Messiah Jesus!

 

So, as we continue the story of Hanukkah, ask yourself:

 

  • In what ways have you chosen to be convicted in the last year?

 

  • How is God calling you to be convicted in the next year?
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The Hanukkah Story?

Hanukkah Day 1: The Hanukkah Story

The Hanukkah Story

Today begins the first day of Hanukkah in 2021, when we begin to light candles and tell the story of Hanukkah and the Maccabees. Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication is a captivating story of bravery, courage, miracles and victory! But what is the Hanukkah Story? Why is Hanukkah explained from this story in history? Hanukkah was a defining moment in the life and history of God’s people. A small band of Jewish rebels changed the course of an entire nation! These brass soldiers decided Yahweh was more important than anything else.

 

The story of Hanukkah began in the 400 years between the writing of the Old and New Testaments. God was not silent in those years. He was still at work fulfilling His promises and preserving His people, as the story will show.

 

Now, as we step into the story, imagine yourself as a Jew living in Jerusalem in the 2nd century B.C.. You walk the busy streets through the marketplace, cows lowing in your ears, and sheep baaing. You smell smoke as the priests burn sacrifices in the Temple to Yahweh. The bustling city is the heart of the religious world for the Jewish people, and it is your home. You love this city, and the people in it.

 

But over time, this beautiful city becomes transformed as the Hellenistic Greek culture seeps in. The changes are slow at first and you hardly notice them. But as time passes by, you see an Acropolis pop up next to the Jewish temple. You see pigs in the streets instead of sheep and cows. Greek culture, statues, clothes and sports begin to dominate the Jewish city. Soldiers enter the Holy City of Jerusalem, and the entire capital is thrown into chaos! You hear people screaming, animals in a panic, and the yell of soldiers rushing through the streets trashing the marketplace! Your entire life has changed as fires burn high in the sky: your beloved city transformed into ruin right before your eyes.

But how did we get here? How did this happen? The story begins just a few decades earlier in Babylon, as Alexander the Great, the ruler of the known world dies of typhoid fever in his tent at the young age of 32. This death set off a series of actions that would affect the nation of Israel, just a few hundred miles away. When Alexander died, his kingdom was divided into four sections and given to his four best generals. One of these generals was the founder of the Syrian Empire, and he passed on his empire to his grandson, Antiochus IV.

 

Like many rulers before him, Antiochus vowed to conquer nations! He began this through the assimilation of Hellenistic culture through the powerful leaders like the High Priest Jason, and when the nation of Israel rebelled against the assimilation, they were forced into it instead. And so it was Antiochus who entered Jerusalem on that fateful day, capturing the nation of Israel.

THE THEME: STORY

Story: Yahweh reveals his kingdom through stories! Stories change lives; stories challenge; stories inspire. Story is a part of every culture and it always captures the deepest parts of our hearts, because we see ourselves in the characters. We hold our breath as the protagonist Christian journeys to Heaven in Pilgrim’s Progress. We cheer when King George slays the dragon in the classic fairytale, and we cry in relief with Frodo and Sam when they finally destroy the ring and return to their home in the Shire.

 

Narrative story is the powerful medium God chooses to reveal his Word in the Bible, and it is through the stories of God’s miracles in these historical accounts that our lives are forever impacted. The Hanukkah story show us how God revealed himself through incredible miracles as he saves his people from annihilation.

As we begin Hanukkah, ask yourself these questions:

  • What story has your life told so far?

 

  • What story do you want your life to tell by the time it’s over?

 

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