By Justine Hemmestad
This year, the first night of Hanukkah falls on the same day as Christmas so we thought it would be apt to see how Hanukkah has been celebrated historically in north-central Iowa, as well as how Hanukkah is celebrated in wartime Israel.
On Dec 15, 1949 (Israel had been a state already for one year) the Fort Dodge Messenger published an article entitled Begin Observance of Jewish Festival of Lights Tonight, which read in part:
“It commemorates the first successful struggle for religious freedom in human history…In the year 165 B.C.E., the Syrian conqueror Antiochus decreed the death of the Jewish religion. Immediately the Jew raised the banner of revolution and won. Jerusalem was recaptured, and the Temple was cleansed and rededicated to the worship of the Invisible God.”
The Nameless One says from Israel, “It's the darkest time of the year, and on this dark time we increase light by adding more candles each day.”
I have learned that the “darkness” is in essence a stifling.
But the physical representation of light to commemorate Hanukkah didn’t come along for a few hundred years later.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter lit the first National menorah in Washington D.C. for the world to see America’s support of Israel.
40 years later, the national menorah is 9 meters tall; needless to say it’s a big deal in America, with some Americans mistakenly considering Hanukkah the “Jewish Christmas.”
The tradition of gift-giving on the nights of Hanukkah is similar to that of Christmas, but actually Hanukkah is more of a minor holiday in Judaism (Hanukkah isn’t even mentioned by name in the Tanakh).
Hanukkah didn’t become commercialized in America until the mid 20th Century, and then it was geared toward children, probably as a counterbalance for Christmas.
But as for the truth of the holiday, the actual focus, the Nameless One says, “The war with the Greeks was ideological - they didn’t want to kill Jews, they wanted to kill us spiritually by pushing Greek culture, values, and worship (the Hellenistic agenda) onto us.”
The Greeks desecrating the temple (a reciprocal of sacrifice) then, I find to be much the same as Hamas desecrating the temple of Jewish bodies (a reciprocal of prayer) on October 7, just a different time period with different symbolism.
The Nameless One sees the connection between the two dates, also. He says, “Just like in the time of the Maccabees - the Jews in Israel proved their absolute heroism and resilience; and many Jews around the world strengthened their identity more than ever before even if they aren't religious.”
The Nameless One says, “These days our enemy Iran is really interested in killing the Jews just like the Nazis…this generation of Jews is basically proving it can stand both against the physical Holocaust and we can stand against the ideological war against us, [waged by the] UN/ICC/ICJ and all the other ideologies who basically want to force us to commit national suicide.”
Now I understand, though on a much smaller scale, what Hanukkah symbolizes because I feel it. Though nations have wanted Jews to cease to exist, Jews shone through the darkness. Jews persevere. Jews grow despite the oppression.
How else can a light shine but through darkness? How else can wisdom be heard except through ignorance?
As local government wants the Leader to cease to exist, we persevere despite them; we raise the banner of rebellion with the goal of perseverance.
This is the essence of Hanukkah in wartime: “The war is an opportunity to invest in Israel,” says Dave DeWalt, founder of the investment fund Night Dragon, which is considered to be one of the top cyber firms in the U.S.
Without investment - there is suppression, both financial and emotional. Investment is vital to identity, overall.
“As long as the temple stands,” the Nameless One earlier asserted, “no one is using menorahs.”
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