Chanukah is one of those Jewish holidays that pose all kinds of questions for Jew and gentile alike. At the very least, neither has to get all bent out of shape wishing one another a Happy Chanukah or a Merry Christmas.
For gentiles, the obvious question is, is it like Christmas? No, it falls around the same time as Christmas because, frankly, the early Church leaders needed to come up with a holiday to rival Chanukah for Jews who had become Christians and it also happened that December 25th was the birthday of Mithras, a very popular pagan god.
The early Church leaders were literally inventing a new religion in a Jewish society because, after all, Jesus and his apostles were all Jews. As St. Paul perambulated, he was spreading the gospel first to Jewish enclaves and then to a pagan society.
When anyone talks about religion it raises all kinds of questions. The ancient Jews had so many questions that their sages wrote volumes of answers in the Talmud and the Mishnah. All the answers, pro and con, were written down side by side so ultimately the reader has to choose which exegeses works for them. This is the opposite of dogma.
This is not to say that lots of things aren’t forbidden to Jews, but mostly in the name of hygiene, good health and moral behavior; which may account for why they’re still around.
As for how Chanukah is spelled, well, I spell it C-h-a-n-u-k-ah, but sometimes the other way. Jews have learned to be nimble because there was always someone or some folks that wanted to kill them. A little flexibility can be a good thing.
The other thing about Chanukah is, frankly, that it’s not that big a deal in Jewish homes. If you want a reason to party, that’s Purim. Chanukah goes on for eight days. This year it starts the evening of Friday, December 11 and finishes the evening of December 19.
And here’s a secret, but you didn’t hear it from me. The vast majority of American Jews celebrate Christmas! Some even put up Christmas trees, but all of them have gifts waiting for the kids on Christmas morning. Sorry, it has nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with enjoying a really great holiday that includes Santa Claus.
As far as the Jewish sages were concerned, Chanuka was not a major holiday. They were worried that since it went on for eight days it might be used as an excuse to not work. So it was kept on the calendar, but only because it was a reminder that, as many times as pagans might have chased them out of their holy land, Israel, they kept the faith.
"It is not a foreign land we have taken, nor is it over strangers' property we have ruled; rather, it is our inheritance that was illegally conquered at one time, and when we were able to do so, we returned it to our possession." -- I Maccabees 15:33-34.
Today Israel is considered holy to all three major faiths and history proves they have been quite willing to kill each other for the right to claim it.
And, yes, Arabs have lived there for generations, probably since around 636 A.D. when Israel was conquered by Muslims. The Crusades were an effort to reclaim Israel for Christianity. Largely unknown, however, is that throughout the Middle East there has always been a significant population of Christian Arabs. Many live in modern Israel, having had to flee their homelands.
Confusing, eh? So, it really doesn’t matter how you spell Chanukah. What matters is that Jews have been celebrating the redemption and reconsecration of one of their temples for a very long time.
Judaism is a very old religion. They were the first to worship a single, universal God as Creator of the universe. At the time that was a very novel idea.
And, on Christmas morning, a whole lot of Jewish kids are going to open up their gifts just like the gentiles. America! It’s a great country!
