[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] FW: Hanakkah

Wed Dec 8 13:55:35 UTC 2021

From: Larry Perry [mailto:larryperry at performancepress.ccsend.com] On Behalf Of Larry Perry
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2021 8:11 AM
To: mmoore11 at kent.edu
Subject: EXT: Hanakkah

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Letter from Larry

Wednesday

December 8, 2021

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Good Wednesday Morning Everyone:

Here we are in the month of December. Less than 3 weeks 

until Christmas as celebrated by Christians. Our Jewish brothers 

and sisters are now celebrating Hanukkah. 

Hanukkah, which is Hebrew for "dedication," is the Festival of Lights.

It commemorates the  <https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001aU_A3Tci0cR4729a41aZaE0sAwVI29t146XIYCDgdY549_ngJPB-OhvuVxdRXIk5YgfKMSPExG06yn_EXZkE7vv-KCxFsa4PlK_Wt5zwF4ZOEvonXwYe709g_fjI5E9JuGDWuNce_4OUIy8edZHJknWFVm91c6cZ_JYmbCcfiWO2UzgWvenf4cVGm1NnFLDETDh3OVsKxG_LewBxMcC_0UpJ4vh09WdVzxBUpdfTYYeDoYwRE6jTTE53ciVMQa8L&c=vaiUIBa2PpxEZ-iybBfe8Ec9N_bXlHgmhMSucU7v7gxq12hpg6N5lg==&ch=SGJAawNuWqwJcxpmpIBe3JfMpI2LkAUjWBhKpvo7PEubHrhMbgAqoA==> victory of the Maccabees over the Syrian Greek  

army, and the subsequent miracle of rededicating the  <https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001aU_A3Tci0cR4729a41aZaE0sAwVI29t146XIYCDgdY549_ngJPB-OhvuVxdRXIk5aeGtMc8nHRvTnJhwELeFMDy-dmD4Gvd1bS-GtLTU4yBvF8pyKfxD7ZpLB3HAXD4j_wljIx97EnQKKuSP-nITlJvO4tSsbZtOZqfe2NZ8PmZtVXHjdXfn9NOkpDGzIaJK93c_nBx1hM8s5ldEzE9xzAuosXuL_fTVD0TMhCUNtz0pzYGg1AULkZhqMFBm7fH7j12-Cgnxo_70Y8ThobFz7ixs51PwSsvl&c=vaiUIBa2PpxEZ-iybBfe8Ec9N_bXlHgmhMSucU7v7gxq12hpg6N5lg==&ch=SGJAawNuWqwJcxpmpIBe3JfMpI2LkAUjWBhKpvo7PEubHrhMbgAqoA==> Holy Temple in 

Jerusalem and restoring its menorah, or lamp.

The miracle of Hanukkah is that only one vial of oil was found with

just enough oil to light the Temple lamp for one day, and yet it

lasted for eight full days.

We have many Jewish readers of these notes and those of us in the 

Christian community want to join you in the celebration of Hanukkah. 

Despite the fact that thousands of Jewish people celebrate the 

Festival of Lights every year, not many people know much about

the celebration referred to as a kind of "Jewish Christmas". Each 

year at this time I love sharing the story. Enjoy and learn.

HANUKKAH

Hanukkah begins four days before the new moon, which is the 

darkest night of the month.The month is close to the winter solstice,  

which is the longest and darkest month of the year. Like many  

other faiths, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah brings light in the

darkest time of the year.

 "Mizzer Perry, what is a hacucuk?"asked Lucas, one of our

neighbor children who came over to help us decorate our Christmas 

tree many years ago. 

"I am not sure what you mean," I said.

 "Well, there is this guy, David, in my class at school who doesn't 

believe in Christmas, but told me he will celebrate hacucuk or

somepen like that."

    "Oh, you mean Hanukkah or sometimes in the Jewish religion

called Chanukah," I said. "Your friend David is Jewish. Let me tell 

you the story about Hanukkah."

"OK!" 

The other children helping(?) to decorate the tree sat down to listen.

 "A long time ago during the time the Bible was written, but before 

Jesus was born, there was a bad King who ruled over Syria and 

Greece. These are countries over in the area of the world we call

the Middle East today. This bad King didn't like the Jewish people 

because he was afraid of them. So to discourage them and try to 

control the people, this King turned the Jewish Temple (kinda like

a big church) into a shrine and then he tried to force the Jewish 

people to forget God and their religious worship ceremonies. In 

other words, he destroyed their Temple.

"You mean the King didn't want the people to go to church?" asked 

Angie, one of the children sitting on the floor now.

" That's right," I said.

"How terrible."

"Yes, it was," I said. "Well, anyway, there was this group of 

Jewish guys that got together and decided they were going to fight

the King so that they could worship God. Their leader was named

Judah. You could say these guys were like Freedom Fighters that 

you study about in school."

 "You mean like Paul Revere and his Raiders," said Jason 

one of the children.

"Uh-huh. Well anyway, to keep the people from worshiping, 

the King destroyed all of the oil the Jewish people used to light lights 

in their worship services."

 "You mean the people didn't have any lights?" Kelley asked. 

"More than that, the King destroyed everything and took the 

people captive. Then the bad King sent a message that everyone 

should give up their customs and belief in God to become people 

according to his rules. This made Judah and his friends pretty mad 

so they went to war against the King."

" You mean they kilt people," said Kelley with a tear 

beginning to well up in her eye. 

"Yes, but don't worry Kelley, good always wins over evil. 

Anyway the good guys under Judah won. When they won they 

wanted to thank God for guiding them through the war, letting

them win the Temple back and reuniting the Jewish nation. So 

they took over the Temple and wanted to rededicate it to God.

So the soldiers looked for some of the special oil used to 

light the lights for their Temple leaders. But the bad King had 

destroyed all of the oil, except for one little bottle the soldiers 

found. Normally the small bottle of oil would only last 1 day, but

this bottle lasted 8 days thanks to God. It was a miracle

" What does that have to with hacucuk or whatdoya call it?"

asked Lucas. 

"Hanukkah, well," I continued, "each day for the next 8 

days the Jewish people lit a new candle in the holder. The holder 

is called the "hanukkiah" thus the name Hanukkah. So the 

celebration of Hanukkah is a Feast of Lights which celebrates the

rededication of the Temple and the reuniting of the Jewish people. 

It is a very important time of the year for our Jewish brothers and 

sisters and typically occurs around the time we celebrate the 

Christmas. This year it begins in early December and lasts for 

eight days, remember the 8 days of light from the little bottle of oil. 

So Lucas, your friend David will be celebrating his religion near 

the same time you are celebrating Christmas."

"Wow," said Jason, "you mean the Jewish kids get presents 

for eight days."

"Not hardly, I responded, but they do get presents and play 

games during this time, just like you do."

"So there are 8 candles on the holder," asked Kelley.

 " No, actually there are nine now. The ninth candle or light 

is either taller or shorter than the others and is used to light the 

others. It is normally placed in the center of the holder. Today if you

were to visit your friend David, you would see the Hanukkah or 

the holder on the fireplace mantel or on the table of David's house

or somewhere near the middle of the house kinda like our 

Christmas tree."

" Now you know the meaning of Hanukkah," I said, " so you see, 

people of the world worship God in different ways."

SHALOM and HAPPY HANUKKAH to all of our Jewish

friends around the world on this special time of the year. It is my 

sincere hope and prayer that someday soon the world will be at 

PEACE and we can all serve God in our own way!

Much love to YOU ALL!!

Larry

NOTE: This letter is sent to anyone interested in receiving these inspirational notes. There is no charge and you are encouraged to forward these to anyone you think would benefit from reading them. If you would like to receive them direct, just send an email to me at larryperry at att.net and ask.

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