The 8 day long Festival of Hanukkah, which literally means “dedication” in Hebrew, memorializes the Jewish dedication of the Holy Temple in 165 B.C. following the Maccabean revolt started by the priest Mattathias and eventually led by one of his sons, Judah the “Maccabee”, meaning “Hammer”, against the cruel and oppressive Seleucid Army’s reign over Israel led by Antiochus lV, which persecuted and killed thousands of Jews because of their refusal to assimilate their religious observances with the pagan culture of the Seleucids, and forced them into hiding and secrecy of worship and study which is exactly how the dreidel game, which is a spinning top game that the Jews played to disguise the purpose of their religious gatherings, became a traditional game played during Hanukkah and in modern times has even evolved to have a Hebrew letter on each of the four sides of the top representing the acronym “Nes Gadol Haya Sham” which means “A Great Miracle Happened There”, which hints at the two miracles that occurred surrounding the dedication, with one being the God led victory of the small in number Maccabean revolt, made up of commoners and farmers wielding farm tools, over the greatly skilled and numerous Seleucid Army wielding artillery and war Elephants, along with the second miracle recorded in the Talmud of how upon the cleansing and dedicating of the Temple the Maccabees found only one day’s worth of the pure oil used to Light the perpetually lit Temple Menorah, lit the lamps, and experienced the miracle of the oil lasting 8 whole days which was just enough time to make new pure oil for the lamps, which is why people eat food fried in oil such as jelly donuts called "sufganiot" and potato pancakes called "latkes", which all adds to the long list of reasons why Hanukkah is so awesome, with the other reasons being that it is a fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel 8:11-14, that this event prefigures what we will experience in the end times according to Matthew 24:15-21, and also that Yeshua himself was recorded going to the Temple for the Festival in John 10:22-23.
Stay tuned for the next “run-on” sentence regarding what traditions my family has for Hanukkah 🤣
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