• Jewish Holidays: The Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah)

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    A child in front of a shiny menorah with all its lights to Zot Chanukah (8th day) .the Chanukiah (chandelier with 8 branches + 1) should not be confused with the Menorah (7 branches candlestick)

     

     

     In the last centuries before ha'Mashiah Yahushua (Jesus Christ) appear in the Jewish tradition three new parties: the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Dedication which will be discussed below, and the Purim festival will the next time, the subject of an article in this series. 

     

    Origin of the festival

     The term "Dedication" is the translation of the Hebrew word "Hanukkah" little used in the Old Testament, and used to describe the consecration or dedication of the altar for sacrifice àADONAÏ YHWH Elohim God (No. 7.10ss; 2 Ch 7.9). The Bible also used to talk about the opening of the walls of Jerusalem after reconstruction in the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 12.27).

    The feast of the Dedication therefore designates an inauguration, but which one? In the calendar of Jewish holidays, "the Hebrew Bible ignores the celebration of a feast of Dedication. It appears only in the last period of the Second Temple in the second century before the Messianic era." This is a festival that celebrates the purification of the Temple of Jerusalem in the year 164 before. J-C. The event attached to this party deserves a historical reminder.

     

         The purified sanctuary

    After the period of exile, the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt under Persian regime Darius (520-515 before. JC.), The walls of the city restored later by Nehemiah (445) and religious life revived under Ezra the pulse. In the following century befell the empire of Alexander the Great Greek, winner of the Persians. Relatively unaffected by the Ptolemaic dynasty (Greeks of Egypt), values and Jewish traditions were battered by the Seleucids, which Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164), a fanatical supporter of Hellenism. "Any compromise seemed therefore impossible between defenders of Hellenism and the faithful observers of the Mosaic Law ... The Orthodox current tenants rebelled against royal authority ... practices considered pagan and even sacrilegious were adopted by the Seleucid power ... The great persecution began We are 167 J-C.The Maccabees, Jewish family, take up arms, are joined by the faithful, win victories, and take over the management of Jerusalem in 164: they destroy the altar idolater, replace it with a building dedicated to the worship of the Lord.

     

    Institution of the Feast

    Here is what we read in 1 Maccabees: "On 25 the 9th month, called Kislev in the year 148, they rose early and offered in accordance with the Act, a sacrifice on the new altar of holocausts which they had built "(1M 4.52s). And in the second: "It was the same day that the temple had been desecrated by foreigners that also fell on the day of the cleansing of the Temple, the 25th of the same month, which is Kislev" (2M 10.5). The same day, Judas Maccabeus establishes the annual memorial event: thus was born the festival of Hanukkah, the Dedication (1M 4.36-59; 2M 10.1-18). "Through the institution of Hanukkah, Judas was innovative but at the same time he was inspired by the rites observed during the Feast of Tabernacles ... One and the other associated with the theme of the consecration of the altar and the sanctuary . "  


     

    Text : Pierre-André Schaechtelin