Hanukkah in Israel
On December 16, Jewish people around the world will light the first candle in the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah. This joyous holiday commemorates the cleansing of the second Temple in Jerusalem after Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV sacrificed a female pig to Zeus on the altar around 167 BC. Antiochus, a type of the Antichrist, persecuted the Jewish people fiercely.
Hanukkah is referred to in Scripture as the Feast of Dedication (Jn. 10:22). Hanukkah gelt (money), dreidels (spinning tops), potato latkes (pancakes), and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), are all part of the modern celebration.
Latkes and sufganiyot are fried in oil because the story goes that when the Maccabees liberated the Temple, they found only a small cruse of consecrated oil that miraculously burned for eight days, giving them time to consecrate more.
We wish all our Jewish friends a happy Hanukkah.
