The History of Chanooka
Chanukah (Chanooka) is a Jewish celebration of miracles and deliverance from oppression. Called the festival of lights, Chanukah celebrates the miracle that happened after Jews retook Jerusalem from the Syrian Greeks in 165 B.C.
The temple needed to be rededicated but there was only enough oil for one day. According to the Talmud, one day's worth of oil burned for eight days. This is why Chanukah is called the festival of lights. The word Chanukah is derived from the Hebrew word meaning "to dedicate."
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Alexander the Great
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Alexander conquered and died To understand the history of Chanukah you must understand the world it was a part of. Some time after 336 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered the world from Greece to Egypt in the west and all the way south to India. He died in 323 B.C. and his kingdom was divided.
The Hellenistic rule over Israel was light at first but things worsened as the eastern and western portions of what was Alexander's empire fought and Israel was taken by one side or the other.
Antiochus
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Antiochus was a Syrian Greek Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek ruler of Syria, held Israel in 168 B.C. This king of Syria decided that the temple in Jerusalem should be dedicated to the Greek god Zeus. To do this Antiochus ordered pigs to be sacrificed in the temple to honor Zeus.
That was his first mistake. This defilement of their temple outraged the Jews in Israel and they began to fight back against the Syrian invaders.
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Scripture
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The Chanukah Menorah The Talmud records the miracle of the lamps and other texts also tell us of Chanukah. In the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees is recorded the story of Hanna and her seven sons. The invaders ordered Hanna and her sons to pray to the Zeus idol but they refused and were tortured to death. These stories and others relate the anger of the Jewish people at the desecration of their temple.
The writings of secular scholars of the time also record the story of Chanukah. The historian Flavius Josephus records that the Jewish leaders ordered lavish feasts celebrating the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem.
Fighting Back
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They fought the Syrian Greeks In the village of Modiin outside Jerusalem, the revolt began. A Greek soldier and his men caught the Jewish priest Matthias and ordered him to eat pork. This is forbidden for Jewish people.
When a villager stepped in and offered to eat it in Matthias' place, Matthias was outraged and killed the man. Then the villagers and Matthias killed all the Greek soldiers. This began the war against the Syrian Greek invaders. Thousands of Jewish fighters gathered in the mountains prepared to fight their enemy.
Judah Maccabee
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Judah fought for freedom Judah Maccabee led in the fighting against the Syrian Greeks. By 165 B.C. the Jewish fighters had pushed the Syrian Greeks out of Israel and had retaken Jerusalem. The Talmud tells us that they went into the temple to cleanse and rededicate it.
They found only one small flask of oil for the new menorah they had made. God blessed the oil and it burned for eight days, which was the time needed to get more oil. Because of this miracle the religious leaders ordered a joyous festival be celebrated each year in the month of Kislev to celebrate it.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit hanukah image by robert lerich from Fotolia.com Greek God image by Sitech from Fotolia.com Pergamon image by Sammy from Fotolia.com Jewish holiday: menorah, book and sunshine image by Boguslaw Mazur from Fotolia.com handle of dagger image by timur1970 from Fotolia.com israel flag button image by Andrey Zyk from Fotolia.com
