Hanukkah, a pedagogical resource in the hands of the apostles.

We live in a world where spontaneity is constantly promoted, and although this is very good, the mistake has been to stigmatize everything falling under the category of ritual as bad. One of those who understood and explained this best was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his book The Little Prince. In the dialogue between the fox and the little visitor, he says:

“The little prince came back the next day, and the fox said, ‘It would have been better to come back at the same time. If, for example, you come at four in the afternoon, from three I’ll begin to be happy. The later it gets, the more I’ll feel happy. By four, I’ll be agitated and restless. This way, I’ll discover what happiness is worth. But if you come at any time, I’ll never know when to prepare my heart. Rituals are necessary.’ ‘What’s a ritual?’ asked the little prince. ‘It’s also something too often forgotten,’ said the fox. ‘It’s what makes one day different from another day and one hour from another.’”

In this way, we can understand that through the repetition or ritualism of events, one can learn more and more about the same theme. Let’s not forget that it was God Himself who taught this system. Therefore, each year through celebrations, a specific theme was spoken of and everything to which it pointed. We know that not everyone passed the test correctly when the Messiah became man, but this teaching method was so effective that it was clear that this failure depended exclusively on sin in their hearts. It’s not that the information arrived incorrectly or that the teaching was unclear, but rather that they could recognize the uniqueness of Jesus and simply chose to reject it due to their personal interests, revealing their distance from God and His purposes. That’s why Jesus constantly exposed their crimes and sins, as we saw in the previous article.

A journey through a couple of apostolic texts will allow us to see the application of the teaching of Hanukkah, and how they could identify the Messiah through it and also continue to transmit that message:

(John 1:1-18): One mistake often made when studying the biblical text is its decontextualization. Although this is understandable due to cultural differences and the distance in time from the text to the reader, we must therefore adopt the Jewish lens of the first century to approach it more closely. As a consequence, whenever light is mentioned in the text, most of its expositors often resort to modern science or simply the nocturnal illumination of a house. So if we look at the context of first-century Judea, and we already know that once a year there is an eight-day celebration in the winter period (the darkest of the year), then we can better understand what this meant for a time without electric light. As we said in previous articles, a Jewish city or neighborhood shone completely when the Hanukkah menorahs (9-light menorahs) were lit in every house during a specific period of the year. These lights were placed on the outside at the entrance of the houses because it was a requirement of the celebration that both visitors and neighbors saw them from the street. Now the text of John surely gains more life before you: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1–5). Wow! The Word and God are the same, and Life and Light belong to that Word because He is the only way God became accessible to His material creation that is limited to time and space. So, if all life and all light are in Him, necessarily outside Him there is nothing but darkness. Or as one of the Jews themselves would say centuries later: “Darkness is nothing but the absence of light,” so when the Light appears where there was darkness due to its absence, the Light has no other option but to triumph and shine, as the Light will always prevail with its mere presence. And what does John teach that happened in this world subject to spiritual darkness? Simple: “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9). Imagine what it’s like to put the Hanukkah menorah at the door and someone asks, “Why do you put so many lights on the doors? Why does this house, this neighborhood, or this city shine so brightly?” The Christians’ answer would not only be the same as had been given up to that moment by Pharisaism: “Because a miracle was performed here a long time ago to save us from Antiochus’s extermination,” but something more powerful and that could now be enjoyed by all the people inserted into the saints: “Because in this home, God has performed a miracle that is the salvation from eternal extermination, now we are born of God and in us is Life and Light, and if you confess and accept the Messiah Jesus as we did, you too will have the same.” And all thanks to what? Well, because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father), full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

(Philippians 2:1-18): In this other text, Paul writing to the Philippians from his tribulation and imprisonment, represents that moment when it seems that the teaching of the gospel is going to suffer a setback and could be extinguished. Saying this today sounds somewhat pessimistic, but just over 30 years after the beginning of Messianic teaching, with small groups of believers in some cities of the empire and the threat of not knowing what happened to the entire church of Judea, Perea, and Galilee due to the war with Rome, not knowing about the rest of the apostles and that he writes from prison, puts believers in a situation very similar to that of Israel in the time of Antiochus, where everything seems to end. Therefore, from the beginning of the letter Paul will face his readers with this reality, but at the same time he will give them encouragement through the passion of Jesus himself and will present them with the challenge: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13). In other words, that they could be left alone, without any teacher, and even with many teaching a different gospel, but just as God raised up the Maccabees He will raise up new leaders, teachers, and, furthermore, a well-concerted body that will make of their diversity a body. So under that perspective and in the midst of an immoral and confused generation, inheritor of the same virus that contaminated Antiochus, they should be like Hanukkah menorahs in the midst of the dark universe and that only thanks and solely to being subject to the Word of Life (Philippians 2:15–16).

Although there are other texts, I urge you to undertake your own research in the Apostolic Teachings to understand them more deeply in light of Hanukkah. If you have the desire to celebrate this festival of Light and God’s miracles this year, remember that the crucial thing is not so much to adhere meticulously to every detail of the tradition, although that can be valuable, but to live fully what you can do, celebrating from the depths of your being as a member of the family of Light. Do it with the total intention of thanking God and radiating what He has worked in you towards others. Remember: “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” (Luke 11:33–36).

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

Jesus and the Feast of Hanukkah

As mentioned in previous articles, the Jews, led by the Maccabean family, recognized that when they went to purify and dedicate the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by Antiochus IV with a service to Olympian Zeus, God manifested His power with a miracle that amazed everyone. When the scant oil of the Menorah burned for eight consecutive days, they understood and began to connect the dots of each event that had occurred, realizing that God’s hand had miraculously been present from the beginning, even in details they had thought were insignificant or random. Like the nine lights that women lit to recall the Temple’s Menorah, or the victory despite the numerical disproportion of the armies, or the four letters on the dreidels (N, G, H, CH) that mysteriously formed an acrostic in Hebrew saying, “A miracle has happened here.”

Apart from all that the Feast of Hanukkah meant, the fact that they analyzed everything that happened and highlighted every detail revealing a divine miracle showed their great desire and humility to recognize God’s sovereignty over the nation. In other words, there was a clear message throughout the feast: GOD IS LORD OF ALL DETAILS, NOTHING ESCAPES HIS CONTROL, AND HE HAS THE UNIQUE POWER TO TRANSFORM THEM TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE.

However, Jesus faced the opposite from His arrival in this world. The descendants of those who had seen God’s hand at work in the time of Antiochus IV, and after celebrating this feast for over 190 years, were now unable to see what God was doing right before their eyes on a much grander scale.

If we analyze the context of the only passage in the Apostolic Writings where this feast is explicitly mentioned (John 10:22), we can understand the above. Moreover, since they could not say that what Jesus did were not miracles, they attributed them to demons instead. Thus, there were those trying to understand, but they were also confused by those attributing these acts to darkness, sparking a debate in the crowd: “At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.” (John 10:19-23). Like every year since the first Dedication by the Maccabees, every city in Judea was filled with lights placed where they could be seen from outside each home. While it is true not everyone celebrated, such as the Sadducees and the Essenes, the majority following Pharisaic teaching did. So cities, especially Jerusalem, became brighter than any other for eight nights each evening. Anyone traveling through the area would ask, “Why are all Jewish cities shining from within each home during these days?” All responses would focus on one: “Because a miracle happened years ago in Jerusalem when God saved us from extermination.”

Yet, on these days’ feasts, God had personally visited His people, walking among them, performing thousands of daily miracles, and they did not see Him. Thus, they surrounded Him and said to the Jews, not the Sadducees or the Essenes, but the very people who had learned from the Pharisees: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24-25). But on the first Hanukkah celebration, there was no need for a voice from heaven, nor did anyone ask the Maccabees to explain this; they were so open to God’s ways that they simply believed. Now they were asking Jesus to tell them what they already knew from their ongoing debate. Thus, Jesus’s answer was precious: “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me; but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30). In other words, those with the Maccabees believed in God’s works, demonstrating they were His people, but those surrounding Jesus did not believe in the many miracles because they were not His people. It wasn’t that Israel was not His people, as the apostles were also Israel and believed, but these particular ones who did not accept Jesus were not. They were such enemies of God that despite being very religious and celebrating a feast like this: “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.” (John 10:31).

Then: “Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.‘” (John 10:32-33). Thus, it wasn’t that they didn’t see the miracles, which of course would be illogical not to see, but rather they were directly rejecting Jesus. Their reasoning was clear: If you are performing miracles that only God can perform, then we have an issue with you, and we must recognize you as we recognized God during that Hanukkah and worship you as God was worshipped in those days.

In the midst of this, Jesus posed a textual challenge. Because the word we translate from Greek as God (θεος) doesn’t hold much significance in Spanish and is even confusing (we won’t go into that), but the word appearing in this Psalm and that Jesus should have cited in Hebrew is elohim, which doesn’t exactly mean ‘god,’ though it’s translated as such to better understand, but rather a term originating from Akkadian referring to various beings with or attributed to a specific power, whether human (Exodus 21:6) or even a false deity (Jeremiah 44:15). Thus, He said to them: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:34-38).

And this has been the stumbling block for many Jews to this day, not understanding that Jesus is God Himself. It is true that one cannot believe anyone who claims to be God; that would be irresponsible and a sin, especially when a few throughout history have done so. But if someone lives strictly according to God’s law, capable of a life filled with miracles every second of existence, His message proclaims this, and furthermore, He is capable of dying for it, then it is understandable why Jesus told them to believe in the works themselves. They needed to set aside their prejudices, their analyses, what they had learned since childhood, and analyze the reality before them.

Was it very difficult for a Jew to believe that God became man? No, just as it is not difficult to believe it today for those who believe all of Scripture. If the biblical text is full of examples of men who spoke (Genesis 4:6), walked (Genesis 5:24), and even ate with God (Exodus 24:9-11), the question would be: What limited or human-like form did God assume when making this possible? The answer is simple, and we find it in the same one who cited this feast in His gospel: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18).

Now, clearly, if we today analyze each event celebrated in Hanukkah, we can also find their connection to Jesus. For example, those letters on the dreidel reveal something very interesting. And although previously we talked about one type of dreidel, in reality, there are two with different letters; one of them speaks from Jerusalem, and the other from outside it, so as not to be redundant in this article, we will look at them now. From outside, it said: “a miracle happened there,” and its letters equate to: Nun is 50 (נ), Gimel is 3 (ג), Hei is 5 (ה), Shin is 300 (ש), if we sum them, the value would be 358. And this value coincides with the total value if we sum the letters of the word Messiah (Mashiah), which are: Mem is 40 (מ), Shin (300), Lamed (30), Yod (10), and Het (8). The other from within Jerusalem would say: “a miracle happened here,” and its letters would be: Nun is 50 (נ), Gimel is 3 (ג), Hei is 5 (ה), Pei is 80 (פ), summing them varies the value to 138, but this also coincides with one of the names attributed to the Messiah, which is Menachem (Comforter), whose letter values are: Mem which is 40 (מ), Nun which is 50 (נ), Het which is 8 (ח), and Mem which is 40 (מ).

So when we say that God is in control, it is not a simple conclusion or a religious phrase to repeat. His sovereignty is so real and infinite that not only did He fulfill the moedim that He Himself designed for mankind since the foundation of the world, but He has also fulfilled and fulfills every human celebration intended to announce Him. As the angel who announced the revelation to John said, His people must: “worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10c).

In the next article, we will be addressing how the apostles used the messianic announcement of this feast in their teachings.

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

Hanukkah, a new established festival.

To fully understand the holiday of Hanukkah as we know it today, it is essential to trace its origins. In the previous article, we explored the early years of this celebration after the Jewish victory led by the Maccabees. Initially embraced with great enthusiasm, especially following the impact of the Dedication days, over time the Maccabean family (Hasmoneans) not only took leadership of the government but also assumed the role of the high priest. As a result, many began to dissociate from them, as recounted in some of the Qumran manuscripts.

During this period, different sects emerged, each naturally aligning themselves or not with the new festival of Hanukkah. The Sadducees and Essenes did not observe it, while the Pharisees were the only ones to adopt it. In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees were highly esteemed among the people, which meant that even though other sects did not celebrate the festival, they could not avoid noticing that the majority of the nation did. Thus, celebrating this festival automatically identified a person with the Pharisaic sect, even if they were not officially part of it.

The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD led the leading Pharisaic sages, recognized within their own sect and known as rabbis, to convene in the city of Yavne. There they decided to compile the essence of their oral tradition and what distinguished them from other sects, along with documenting recent historical events that justified or highlighted their prominence. Clearly, they faced a monumental challenge: adapting their practices in light of the reality that there was no longer a Temple and therefore no sacrificial system. Thus, they had no choice but to reinvent Pharisaism entirely. This included adopting a more universal name, “Judaism,” appointing local leadership universally as “Rabbi” (previously an honorary title), and transferring and formalizing liturgy from the Temple to the synagogue. While they updated aspects of the divine festivals (mo’adim), they did not need to alter the man-made festivals (hagim) but rather explain them in greater detail, as they were not dependent on Temple service but were previously only part of oral tradition.

Like all rabbinic festivals, Hanukkah from its inception contained profound symbolic significance directly associated with the events surrounding Antiochus IV. Below, we will delve into its most important details:

The eight days that marked the miracle of the continuously burning menorah, even though there was only enough consecrated oil for one day, underscore several aspects of the festival: (1) It celebrates the divine miracle in protecting the Jewish people; (2) It signifies the divine light that, reaching all, guides toward correct worship of God by lighting lights in a place visible to all neighbors; (3) It defines the festival’s eight-day duration; (4) It establishes eight main lights that are lit, one per day.

When King Antiochus decided to eradicate Jewish culture and banned pilgrimage to the Temple, many women, desiring to continue observing the Sabbath (Shabbat) and preserve as many customs as possible, symbolically turned their tables into mini-temples. Hence, the celebration revolves around the home. The food, family celebrations, and guests reflect the importance of unity and the freedom granted by the Lord.

Moreover, while not anticipating that the menorah would play a significant role in this festival’s history, women devised a makeshift menorah or simply arranged lamps in an order reminiscent of the original on their table. However, not wanting anything to replace the authentic, they decided on an eight-lamp configuration, plus an additional one used for lighting. Therefore, during Hanukkah, a candelabrum called a Hanukkiah is used, with one light being lit each night until all eight days are celebrated. In other words, there is one light that is lit every night, and from it, the other eight are successively lit. This symbolizes the idea that God can ignite a light in our hearts and simultaneously cause it to multiply and spread around us, reaching to the ends of the earth.

The significant role played by oil in this story is represented by the sweets consumed during these days, mainly those cooked in oil, such as: bimuelos or fritters, which are fried dough balls sprinkled with sugar or doused in syrup; gozinaki, a sweet made of nuts and honey; kubanet, similar to French toast; sufganiyot, jelly-filled doughnuts covered in crystallized sugar; and latkes, potato pancakes seasoned with spices and served with sweet-sour sauce. While culinary traditions may vary by region and community, they allude to the sweetness of witnessing the divine miracle of the salvation of their people and the Light produced by His anointing.

The holiday also serves as an educational tool through games, especially targeted at children, akin to a traditional summer school organized by evangelical churches. Each night presents different games, with particular emphasis on the dreidel game. What is the origin of this custom in the celebration of Hanukkah? Community educators covertly used the dreidel, known in Hebrew as Sevivon, to instruct children for their Bar Mitzvah (the Torah or Pentateuch learning from birth until the end of puberty). The dreidel has four sides, each with a letter (N, G, H, CH, which are some of the most common letters at the beginning of Torah verses). When it landed on a side, both participants engaged in a dialogue reciting Torah texts from memory related to the letter facing up. This way, Greek soldiers and Jewish informants were unaware of the children’s activities. Additionally, teachers would give them coins to simulate gambling, adding a playful and educational element to Hanukkah.

In summary, the holiday of Hanukkah transcends the limitations of time and borders, commemorating the divine miracle that protected its people and the spreading of His Light amid the oppression of darkness and the Evil One. In the next article, we will explore the celebration of Hanukkah in the context of Jesus’ life and how this festival came to anticipate and announce His coming and ministry.

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

A Dedication that Left Its Mark in History.

The festival of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Dedication or Lights, is a solemnity designed by Jewish leaders a hundred years before Jesus to commemorate and recall divine intervention in preserving their people against the oppression of the Greek Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. As part of the articles in this series on Hanukkah, let’s look at the historical background that gave rise to it:

Long before and after Alexander the Great passed through Judea, relations between Greeks and Israelites were favorable. Their strategy of imperial expansion did not include exterminating other cultures or peoples. They merely required the nations they conquered to join the empire. It was relatively easy to impose Greek culture on these pagan nations, as they viewed the Greeks and their gods as superior after the war. So, where did all this hatred from Antiochus towards Hebrew culture come from? The issue lay in the fact that Greek annexation of conquered nations typically involved an exchange of cultures and religions. Greece offered images of their gods and their worldview, expecting reciprocal gestures from the conquered nations. This mutual cultural exchange was epitomized by the famous Pantheon in Athens. However, when it came to the monotheistic Jews and their God, whom Antiochus didn’t understand and barely acknowledged existed, cognitive dissonance led him to a singular solution: to exterminate this culture from the face of the earth and impose Hellenization through military force.

Antiochus forbade circumcision, the study and teaching of the Bible, Sabbath rest, the mere mention of God, and worship at the Temple. He not only issued edicts but also desecrated the Temple itself, reaching the peak of social discontent in the region. While these restrictions targeted details of worship, people covertly continued their daily lives to avoid detection by Greek soldiers or by those Hellenized Jews (later forming the Sadducee perspective) who maintained their status quo by collaborating with the Greeks. However, when Antiochus began imposing his deities on the Jews, he desecrated the Temple to convert it into the Judean seat of his cult, even sacrificing a pig on the very altar to Zeus Olympios. This act ignited a Jewish uprising on such a scale that they not only defeated him but also gained independence from the Greeks until the Romans arrived.

The revolt was led by a family nicknamed the Maccabees, who spearheaded the resistance. It all began when Matathias ben Johanan, a temple priest and devout man (a perspective that later formed Pharisaism), in a small town called Modi’im, could no longer tolerate the hypocrisy of the situation. Sensing imminent danger from the offense, he killed the Greek envoy, who astonishingly was also Jewish, as he brought the king’s decree to sacrifice a pig there. From that moment on, his sons, led by the eldest Judah, who earned the nickname “the Hammer” (Maccabee), organized a highly successful guerrilla warfare that gained the support of the majority of the Jewish population. Despite the disproportionate numbers (10 Greeks for every Jew), indicating a seemingly doomed struggle unless God granted them victory, several battles later, Antiochus’ forces were finally expelled from the region, achieving the incredible liberation of Jerusalem and all of Judea in 165 BC.

After the Jews, led by the Maccabees, triumphed and were certain that God had given them victory, they entered Jerusalem triumphantly. They then set about resuming Temple service, necessitating its complete dedication (Hanukkah). They ritually cleansed the entire building and reinstated the priestly orders and their rotations. However, something happened that marked the central point of the future celebration of Hanukkah. They found that the menorah (seven-branched candelabrum) inside the Holy Place of the Temple was extinguished and needed to be lit. The dilemma was that Jewish law forbade extinguishing the lights once lit, even to relight them, and there was only enough consecrated oil to keep it burning for one day, while it would take eight days for new oil to be prepared. They chose to obey the command to light it, trusting that if it went out on its own, they would be exempt from violating the commandment. Meanwhile, they put the most experienced people to work on producing the oil.

However, a miracle occurred that resonated throughout the nation. While everyone waited anxiously for the light to go out so they could pray and fast with great supplication and lamentation before God, as a testimony that this was not their intention, the small amount of oil continued to burn miraculously. Each day, the people sang, rejoiced, and praised God as the lights did not go out. It was like a suspenseful real-life drama. On one hand, there was the anticipation of being ready to call on God if the lights went out; on the other, there was joy and surprise that they did not. Thus, instituting a new celebration to commemorate this miracle was not difficult for the Maccabees, as every year that same generation awaited, celebrated, and passed down to future generations this tremendous event.

The book of First Maccabees tells us: “For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar… Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that the dedication of the altar should be celebrated with joy and gladness at the same time each year, for eight days beginning on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev” (1 Maccabees 4:56-59). And in Second Maccabees, it also says: “they celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the festival of Booths… the whole congregation decreed and published a decree that all the Jewish people should celebrate these days every year” (2 Maccabees 10:6-8).

Although this is the general history, there were other events that marked that moment, and all together they grouped and formed a set of meanings for the new celebration of Hanukkah. But we will discuss these in the next article, where I will tell you how Hanukkah is celebrated as we continue to narrate them.

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar

A Human Festival Celebrating Divine Miracle

The fascinating and significant theme of celebrations in the Bible intertwines with its fundamental teachings. In this series of articles, we focus on the festival of Hanukkah, but before delving into it, it’s crucial to distinguish between two general types of celebrations.

When God created the heavens and the earth, on the fourth day, He made the sun, moon, and stars (Gen 1:14). Although the Spanish text isn’t explicit, it reveals that the reason behind this creation was not just to provide light during night and day, but for them to “And let them be for signs and for seasons” (according to the KJV). But what does “seasons” mean here? The Hebrew word is “moed,” meaning ‘an appointed meeting’ or ‘a set time,’ and at times it is translated as ‘festivals.’ Thus, God created the firmament as a guide for specific gatherings with Him, celebrated festively, therefore considered festivals.

Parallel to the “moedim” (plural of “moed“), there are celebrations that may arise from God’s heart without being a “moed,” and also those arising from human desire, whether to commemorate something God did among them, something they do for God, or simply something special they wish to highlight. This type of celebration is simply called a ‘festival’ in Hebrew: “chag.” Thus, every “moed” is a festival, but not all festivals are a “moed.” We have “moedim,” which originate from God’s heart and are festivals, and also festivals that are not necessarily a “moed.”

It is important to note that not all festivals arising from human hearts are good, as we know the heart of man is deceitful (Jer 17:9). However, God has granted freedom for man to create these celebrations from the abundance of his heart. He uses each “moed” as a reference, allowing through this freedom the creation of celebrations that glorify Him. How do we know of this freedom? Simply put: God has not forbidden it, as evidenced by the case of Mordecai and Esther instituting the feast of Purim (Esther 9:20-22), always staying clear of the pagan ways of the Gentiles (Lev 18:3).

After understanding the difference between “moed” (celebration in a time cycle established by God) and “chag” (festival), we can place the festival of Hanukkah. This festival has a particularity that distinguishes it from Purim: God established that when an object was consecrated for God’s service, it must be ‘dedicated,’ translated from the Hebrew word “hanukah.” Whenever the people of Israel performed “hanukah” for something (Num 7:10; 2 Chr 7:9; Neh 12:27), it was done with great respect and solemnity, preparing everything for God’s service.

However, two centuries before Jesus’ birth, an extraordinary event occurred during the dedication ceremony of the Temple in Jerusalem, due to its “seizure” by one of the Greek kings. This led the leaders to institute a festival to commemorate such events. Thus, in that special “hanukah,” which commemorated several “miracles,” the “divine light,” and above all, the “salvation” of their people, emerged the festival known as Hanukkah.

In the next article, we will explore the historical events that marked that special “hanukkah” that made it extraordinary.

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar