We wrote the following series of articles as a result of conversations that were happening on The Messianic Keepers at Home Forum, in one of our groups "Exploring Our Hebrew Roots". I asked Ben if we could gather the information we had learned to share it with the ladies and well...it turned into a very comprehensive series of all the things we have learned to date surrounding the topic of Chanukah. (It is so hard to "leave things out" when it all connects to the big picture!)
We have been studying this topic for 4 years and it can get very sticky when it comes time to make a conclusion on it. YHVH is bringing so many families to His Torah so fast in these end days...there are so many topics to weed through and learn about and make decisions on. Especially if you are seeking the TRUTH and you have oneness and worshiping YHVH as your center and sole objective! Few things can be ignored! We finally came to the place where we could share all He has shown us in the past few years. It is long and involved, so we have broken a very long essay into parts, hoping that it would be easier for people to "process". We wish we could have released this sooner than we did...but we were really spending time on it to try to make it clear and being prayerful about it all as we wrote it. We expect it will challenge you, but hope above all, that it will bless you!
We suggest reading the articles in order and want to encourage you NOT to draw any conclusions until you have read it to completion.
What Do We Do About Chanukah? - Part 1
What Does Sukkot Have to Do With Chanukah? - Part 2
The Winter Solstice and The Abomination of Desolation - Part 3
The Stars - Part 4
So...What do we DO about Chanukah? Part - 5
We would love to hear your comments, reactions, questions, etc.
Bond Servants to YHVH,
Ben and Pamela
14 comments:
Thank you! This filled in a lot of holes for us. The astronomy was particularly thought provoking.
Pamela....you gave me alot to chew on and some things were repeat ...that I some how have put aside in my mind. Thank you so much for the well written information.
Shalom Pamela! I am dropping by to say a great big THANK-YOU for ya'll having taken the time to work through this. It is much appreciated. I will have my husband and I go through this nice "mini-study"! :)
Thank you so much for this study! It is fabulous!! This is our first year observing the feasts (and not observing "other" days), and I have been prayerfully considering Hanukkah for awhile now. Many of my questions were answered, and I feel far more at ease with what we will (and won't) be doing this month.
I do celebrate Chanukah, but have from the very beginning emphasized the part about how we are to fight against the ways of the world. The world that wants us to follow their ways, and not His ways.
Christmas is more difficult for us, as my father birthday is that day. So we do try and make it to his house to celebrate it and they do have all the stuff up...they do not know anything else, nor are they interested in hearing it. Sometimes we have to do the best we can with the circumstances we are given.
Thank you so much for this, very informitive, some new things we've not heard before, some we're familar with.
We've printed it off and plan on going over it again... again thanks
have a wonderful week!
Wow, Pamela... thank you for as Andi said, much to chew on. I was wondering if you would be able to share some of the resources you used while studying this. I would appreciate any help you can be in this area. I would like to lay my own eyes on it, if you know what I mean :D
Todah Rabah, dear one =)
Love to you!
Sigalet, We tried to agther up the resources of a lot of things and list them in the article. But if you are wanting a specific resource that we have missed, be detailed about it in the comments and we will do our best to list it. Much Love! p
i could not get the link about dreidel and christmas to work. Do you have that link?
Thanks
I read through this (as did my husband) on Shabbat and wanted to thank you for such a well written article. It expresses a lot of the concerns that I have with Chanukah, except for one ~ in Scripture we are given a provision for a 2nd Passover, but not for a second Sukkot (correct me if I am wrong). I'd like to know what your thoughts are on this in relation to Chanukah being a delayed Sukkot.
I agree with your conclusion about keeping it pure by avoiding myths and traditions (lights, oil, gifts) if we do choose to observe it (as with any holy day!).
Thanks for sharing!
Shalom Pamela,
I tried opening these study links and some wouldn't open, and others came up as blank pages? I don't know if it is my computer or not, but I would really like to read these. If it is not to much trouble could you try sending them to my e-mail address, to see if I can open them there? Thanks!
Shalom,
Moira
HHM and Moira,
We will check the links right away in the hopes to remedy it ASAP so everyone can access it on the blog. (Sorry about that! Thank you for bringing it to our attention so we can fix it!) I will post a comment when we think it is remedied (hoping you are getting the alerts from the comments sent).
Michelle,
That's a great question. This is our personal take on that: What the Maccabees did in that year was an example of "desperate measures for desperate times". In otherwords, it was an act of worship and expression of victory over the adversary. They were a war torn broken people who had their temple defiled and Sukkot stolen from them as a result. So this was how they repsonded as a rededication of the Temple to YHVH. Yes...they took a little liberty...You are right, YHVH has not given us an official "back up date" for Sukkot like He did for Pasach. We do not think that Chanukah should be observed in that way. Sukkot is Sukkot, the last thing we want to do is mess with YHVH's Appointed Moed! :-) Now...after this first year of rededication (the original Chanukah), we found no record in history of them observing it as Sukkot in that way again, but rather just as an anneversary of the rededication of the Temple. We could not find out HOW they did that though. :-(
Does that help clarify?
In case anyone has trouble with opening the embedded links in the Chanukah article, here they are:
1 Mac: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=4219672
2 Mac: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=4353562
Political history of Chanukah: http://hubpages.com/hub/Karaite-Comments-The-Truth-About-Chanukah
History of the Dreidel: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Hanukkah/At_Home/Dreidel.shtml
“The Star of Bethlehem” video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwHP5vPKXTg&feature=related
Detailed info about stars and Yahshua's birth: http://www.versebyverse.org/doctrine/birthofchrist.html
Restoring the calendar:
www.torahcalendar.com.
Thank you Pamela for the links! I am still unable to open the PDF's parts 1-5 I don't know why but they keep coming up blank??? Oh well, I will check back again tomorrow!
Shalom,
Moira
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