Christmas, Hanukkah, and Sukkot
Christmas, Hanukkah, and Sukkot
Tim O’Connor – Center for the Preservation of Humanity – 12/24/2022
Well, it’s Christmastime. I hope if you are celebrating Christmas you are keeping in mind the reason for the season – the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. It is also the time to celebrate Hanukkah – today is the sixth day of the eight day celebration. Hanukkah comes from the Books of Maccabees. Sukkot ended on October 16 in 2022, and, as always, was followed by the celebrations titled Shemini Atzeret which means the eighth day of assembly and Simhat Torah denoting having finished reading the Torah for the year. Sukkot is suggested in Exodus 23 and better described in Leviticus 23. There is a somewhat common theme in all three holidays.
The Books of Maccabees is set in Judea during the times that the Hellenistic Selecuid Empire reigned over the region. When Antiochus, the king of the empire, died, his son Antiochus Epiphanes came to power. Until Antiochus Epiphanes took over, the Israeli’s were permitted to practice their religion. According to 1 Maccabees, the Israeli’s decided that too many bad things had occurred to them and they sought to change that by living by the customs practiced by their Hellenized neigbors. “So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil,” reads 1 Maccabees 1:14-15 ( Defender Bible, KJV with Apocrypha).
After conquering Egypt, Antiochus came against Jerusalem. Antiochus desecrated the Temple. He took everything of value out of the Temple. Later he sent tax-collectors who murdered many, and who also defiled the sanctuary. After a time with the lawless tax-collector in charge, the king issued decrees outlawing any custom save his own.
1 Maccabees 1:41-53 “Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that each should give up his customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath. And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane sabbaths and feasts, to defile the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances.
“‘And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.’
“In such words he wrote to the whole kingdom. And he appointed inspectors over all of the people and commanded the cities of Judah to offer sacrifice, city by city. Many of the people, every one who forsook the law, joined them, and they did evil in the land; they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had,” (Defender Bible, KJV with Apocrypha).
When these authorities came to Mattathias the son of John and demanded he follow the decree he Mattathias refused. When a fellow Jew came forward to sacrifice to the king, Mattathias killed him on the alter, killed the officer of the king who was making the demands, and destroyed the altar. Mattathias gather those who sought the law as he did and fled. The king’s men attacked Mattathias on the sabbath and at first they refused to fight; however, decided to begin fighting back even on the sabbath lest they be exterminated from the earth. Apostates and alters were torn apart by the armies Mattathias assembled. General war was waged on the people of God by the kings of many nations.
The king failed to subdue the uprising and the people of God who wished to live under the law took the temple back and rededicated it to God on 25 Kislev. The idea of lighting the menorah during Hanukkah gets its start here with the story of the pure oil which was found only able to last for one day but which lasted for 8 days. Maccabees 1 and 2 does not record this. It is first recorded in the Talmud at Shabbos 21b. It reads, “The Gemara asks: What is Hanukkah, and why are lights kindled on Hanukkah? The Gemara answers: The Sages taught in Megillat Ta’anit: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the days of Hanukkah are eight. One may not eulogize on them and one may not fast on them. What is the reason? When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary they defiled all the oils that were in the Sanctuary by touching them. And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame them and emerged victorious over them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil that was placed with the seal of the High Priest, undisturbed by the Greeks. And there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the candelabrum from it eight days. The next year the Sages instituted those days and made them holidays with recitation of hallel and special thanksgiving in prayer and blessings.”
Another interpretation of the importance of the holiday was written by Shayna Zamkenai in Forward. “In lighting the Hanukkah candles, Jews have every reason to celebrate the restoration of the Second Temple and return of Jewish sovereignty. But the candles should also serve as a reminder of the dangers of civil war and internecine strife — a message that is especially relevant in today’s political climate.” One part of Judaism in Maccabees wants to forget the law and the other wants to preserve it. The Godly won the day with God’s help and the menorah is still lit to celebrate the victory over the Greeks.
What is interesting is in Maccabees where it relates the retaking of the temple. In 1 Maccabees 4:56 it states, “So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and offered burnt offerings with gladness; they offered a sacrifice of deliverance and praise.” 2 Maccabees 10:6-8 reads “And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts. Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palm also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place. They ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews.”
The feast of tabernacles is Sukkot. The original holiday which Hanukkah mimicked was the feast of tabernacles which first appears in Exodus 23:14-17 “‘Three times a year, you are to observe a festival for me. Keep the festival of matzah: for seven days, as I ordered you, you are to eat matzah at the time determined in the month of Aviv; for it was in that month that you left Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Next, the festival of harvest, the firstfruits of your efforts sowing in the field; and last, the festival of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in from the fields the results of your efforts. Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord, Adonai.’”
The festival of ingathering described here is also described in Leviticus 23:33-36, “Adonai said to Moshe, “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to Adonai. On the first day there is to be a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work. For seven days you are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai; on the eighth day you are to have a holy convocation and bring an offering made by fire to Adonai ; it is a day of public assembly; do not do any kind of ordinary work.”
Now this is highly odd. There is nothing associated with why this is a holiday, let alone a high holy day. Leviticus 23:23-25 reads “Adonai said to Moshe, “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘In the seventh month, the first of the month is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts on the shofar. Do not do any kind of ordinary work, and bring an offering made by fire to Adonai.’”” Rosh Hashanah is what is being described here – the new year in the Jewish calendar. The second holiday is known as In Leviticus 23:28 the holiday culminating with Yom Kippur is fully described, “You are not to do any kind of work on that day, because it is Yom-Kippur, to make atonement for you before Adonai your God.” The festival of matzah mentioned in Exodus (above) is also mentioned in Leviticus 23:5-8, ““‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between sundown and complete darkness, comes Pesach for Adonai. On the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of matzah; for seven days you are to eat matzah. On the first day you are to have a holy convocation; don’t do any kind of ordinary work. Bring an offering made by fire to Adonai for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work,’”” and describes Passover. All of these celebrations have something in common except Sukkot – they are remembrances of an event God caused, a miracle He preformed.
While Hanukkah is 8 days long there are only two other references to anything Biblical which is an 8 day time period. Sukkot, which, again, is what Hanukkah is modeled after, is one of them. During these 8 days, one is to live in a quickly built, non-permanent, three-sided, foiliaged-roofed hut. To my knowledge the only other reference to something being eight days long is in Leviticus 12:3, “On the eighth day, the baby’s foreskin is to be circumcised.”
So, Sukkot is 8 days long for no apparent reason. During Sukkot, everyone is supposed to go to the holy city and live in a sukkah. The place would have been absolutely packed with very little space left for anyone who arrived late which would push them further into the surrounding lands. The Messiah is always depicted as having been born in a three sided, lean-to structure which is, to my intellect, a sukkah. Even if it was a barn with only three sides and not truly a sukkah, all that does is show the permanence of Jesus and of His Father while reminding the rest of the Sukkot-goers that they are temporary and transient.
And then, on the day 8 of Sukkot there is to be a gathering for no specified reason. That day would have been the circumcision of Jesus. So, in my best judgment, with only this information, I would tend to think that Jesus’ birth was on the 15 Tishri (September – October). This also makes sense because that is when harvests come in.
But this is not the only evidence. If you go read Luke 1 there is a time table laid out which can be used to determine when Jesus and John the Baptist were born. It is possible to find out when, precisely, Z’kharyah served in the Temple as priest. I am not privy to that information but it is recorded. Once that is determined, everything points to Sukkot being the birth of Jesus.
Christmas, of course, is when Christians are supposed to remember that God sent His Son to live perfectly among us. A lot of us are super excited about what we will get under a tree that shouldn’t be in our homes. A lot of us forget that the holiday is supposed to be about Jesus. A lot of people celebrating pay absolutely no attention to Jesus whatsoever. Instead they spend time and money buying things for other people, which is nice, but is not what Jesus was really all about. He sacrificed himself to save the whole world from sin. All we have to do is accept Jesus as the Messiah and live as He stated in Matthew 5:17-20 – by the Torah.
The reasons that non-believers are able to blend in so easily are several-fold. One is that the holiday features lots of commerce but almost no reflection as to what the holiday is supposed to be about. Retailers want you in their stores milling around looking for the best deal, not in church pews worshiping God. I don’t see advertisements for churches and synagogues but I do see plenty of flashy consumer products in advertisements. The holiday has literally turned into a celebration of something Jesus actually used violence to solve. He flipped over the money changers tables at the Temple. Is the way we celebrate Christmas really any different?
The other cause is that Christmas has its foundations in ancient Roman culture, not the Bible. The holiday started off as a one day affair on December 17 and was called Saturnalia. It grew into a seven day affair which featured no work, freedom of the slaves, and relaxed moral codes according to Britannica online. According to Simple to Remember Saturnalia was adopted by Christians with hopes of converting those who celebrated it to Christianity. Simple to Remember describes what this pagan holiday entailed:
“Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
“The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).”
Admittedly, the source above is firmly Jewish and may be biased; however, it seems to adequately explain just how laden in debauchery this pagan practice was. Even History alludes to some of the above claims. They explain:
“Instead of working, Romans spent Saturnalia gambling, singing, playing music, feasting, socializing and giving each other gifts. Wax taper candles called cerei were common gifts during Saturnalia, to signify light returning after the solstice.
“On the last day of Saturnalia celebrations, known as the Sigillaria, many Romans gave their friends and loved ones small terracotta figurines known as signillaria, which may have referred back to older celebrations involving human sacrifice. …
… “Constructed in the fourth century A.D. to replace an earlier temple, the Temple of Saturn in Rome served as the ceremonial center of later Saturnalia celebrations. On the first day of the festivities, a young pig would often be publicly sacrificed at the temple, which was located in the northwest corner of the Roman Forum.
“The cult statue of Saturn in the temple traditionally had woolen bonds tied around his feet, but during Saturnalia these bonds were loosened to symbolize the god’s liberation.”
Saturn as a Roman temple featured their treasury. The Romans were known by all for their expansive and brutal armies conquering tribes and turning them into vassal states subject to Roman ‘law.’ Instead of pillaging the barbarians, the way we celebrate Christmas amounts to the same thing – the government is getting fat off of all kinds of taxes because of all the things we purchase.
I’m not trying to suggest here that Christmas is completely useless. It is meant to celebrate the birth of the Messiah. No one can argue; however, that many of the more neutral aspects of Saturnalia are not still being carried on. Thankfully, households and towns no longer sacrifice a member of their community. There is still much drunkenness, there are social mores which are crossed. There is all that money that the neo-Romans are collecting off of its subjects. Even Christians in some circles realize all of this. It is a day of worship and remembrance, a day to rejoice that the savior was born. It isn’t about Santa Claus and Rudolph nor sun worship and drunken orgies. We’ve gotten away from the drunken orgies, lets get rid of the rest of the pagan aspects too.
On Christmans 2022, I pray that whoever reads this will think for a moment about the birth of Christ, whether you think it was on the first of Sukkot, December 25, or some other date, and really understand what that means to you. He died for you. He died after having done many miracles and giving many parables. In order to die for us, of course, He had to be born in the first place which is why there is a Christmas. Between His birth and His death He showed us the proper way to live – completely by the Torah. We would do ourselves a favor by contemplating that this Christmas and, honestly, every day of our lives. Likewise, without understanding the roots of what we do and why we do them, we can never hope to live up to what God has commanded of us – live holy and righteously as described by the Torah and love Jesus Christ and accept Him as King over our lives.
Bless God and God bless.