Happy Hanukkah!

Foreword to the Books of the Maccabees

Each year, the children of Yisrael celebrate the Chanukkah, or “Feast of Dedication.” Children spin dreidel’s to win “Chanukkah Gelt” – foil-covered chocolate coins. They sing songs and eat sweets to observe the festival. Adults attend Synagogue, and parents tell families the legend of the single cruse of sacred oil that miraculously kept the lights in the Temple lit for the eight days necessary to complete its dedication. Everyone exchanges gifts and shares in the traditional fried foods prepared for the occasion. There is no holiday more uniquely Yehudy than the Chanukkah.

But, Chanukkah is not only important for the Yehudy people. It is important to all who regard the Hebrew scriptures as the Word of the Most High. Chanukkah is a commemoration of events during the so-called “intertestamental period” chronicled in the book of Maccabees. Because they were written in Greek, these books were rejected from belonging in the Yehudy canon. And because they were considered too Yehudy, they were removed from the modern Christian canon, as well. Yet, they and their story are a spiritual connecting link between these two faiths, and a temporal link between the TaNaK and the writings and times of the disciples of Yehoshua our Messiah. Maccabees is the story of the fighting spirit that preserved Hebrew culture in the face of the onslaught of a heathen and polytheistic Greek “civilization.” It is, above all, the history of that tenacious faith of the true remnant of the children of YHWH, and of His own faithful protection of His promised and chosen people.

If it had not been for Mattithyahu, his sons and all of the events of the books of the Maccabees, Hebrew culture, the Temple itself, and even the land of Yisrael as a Yehudy nation would have been altogether lost to history. Judaism as a religion would have ceased to exist, and Messiah Yehoshua would have had no place and people through which the events of his life and the fulfillment of prophecy could be carried out. For these reasons and others, Chanukkah and the books of the Maccabees are important not only to the Yehudym, but to all the peoples of the world.

Have a Happy Hanukkah,
Sabbath Keepers Fellowship