This time of year, every year since I was a kid, I get extremely irritated by attempts to make Hanukkah into some sort of Jewish Christmas or Jewish Dewali.
So tiresome to hear of Hanukkah portrayed, mostly by ultra-liberal Jews, as "the Festival of Lights." Some sort of holiday to spread peace, joy, and cheer to one and all.
Ugh.
Hanukkah ain't that at all. It's about picking up a sword, and killing the foreign oppressor AND killing those of your own who have sold out to the foreign oppressor. The Maccabees were warriors, not spreaders of love and peace. They rose up against the Seleucid empire, but also mostly against those "Hellenized" Jews, who backed the Seleucid rulers and their attempt to eradicate the Jewish faith. The revolt was a long-shot affair, led by the Maccabee family. The Maccabees, however, eventually defeated the Seleucids, and restored their right to practice the Jewish faith. The Maccabees also proved true to Jewish history in another way: once they became victorious they began fighting among themselves, but that's another story. The Romans eventually moved in, and the rest, well, you know the rest.
Anyhow, we in the West might do with a little more of the original Maccabee spirit as we see our societies colonized from within and without.
A little less peace and goodwill, and more "This We'll Defend."
With that said, Merry Christmas to all.
How about Kwanzaa? (Ducks and runs out of room).
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Butch
Did not know that, thanks for the History Lesson!
ReplyDeletejuvat
Hanukkah is more "4th of July" than "25th of December".
ReplyDeleteInteresting how the Maccabees stories seem to go in and out of favor.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, the Books of Maccabees are not part of the Hebrew Bible (correct me if I am wrong) for a number of political reasons.
The Christian Church decided to include them in the Bible.
Until Luther, that is, when once again political expediency removed them from the Protestant Bible.
Seems like nothing ever changes: Cancel Culture is not a modern concept.
The Septuagint (ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) includes the books of the Maccabees. Since they weren't in the Hebrew canon, Jerome saw Maccabees and other books found in the Greek canon as a lesser, "deuterocanon" or apocrypha. Luther and other Protestants dusted off this idea, but for quite some time continued to print Bibles with the Apocrypha, save in a separate section rather than mixed in with the rest of the Old Testament.
Delete--Kepha
Thanks for history lesson, so keep your sword sharp Dip
ReplyDeleteAnd Merry Christmas to everyone
Merry Christmas to Diplomad, and his readers!
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays!
ReplyDelete*puke*
sorry..
- reader #1482
My college roommate is Jewish. His wife is Catholic. The first day after Hanukkah is over my family visits his with his mother to have Christmas and eat up their leftover Hanukkah food.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. For a more humorous take, try this out:
ReplyDeletehttps://lidblog.com/christmas-hanukkah/
"This We'll Defend"
ReplyDeleteI remember when the US Army said that - not just on its flag - and meant it. Nowadays they have sort out pronouns within first.
Adam Sandler could not be reached for comment…
ReplyDeleteWishing you a peaceful and bright holiday.
ReplyDeleteOh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
ReplyDeleteWhat so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
No doubt these words will soon be redefined and banned into the abyss by our progressive overlords.
Delete- reader #1482