Hanukkah - Many Flames, One Light

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

The Hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah) and candles that we light and place on the windowsill are meant to remind us of God’s miracles. Thanks to those miracles, we stand here as the people of Israel in the Promised Land.

The holidays of Israel are not only a memory of the past. Yes, that memory is fundamental and important, and many lessons can be written about the significance of collective memory.

But alongside the memory, which is indeed very important, the Jewish tradition is to add a spiritual aspect to the holidays, making them still relevant to our spiritual life even today. And there is no better demonstration than Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is the commemoration of the events that took place in the year 164 BC. The miracle tells of the lighting of the temple menorah. The miracle is light.

And at Hanukkah we encounter a fertile ground for teachings with metaphors and parallels relevant to faith and light. Yeshua is the light of the world, the Torah is light, and we, the believers, are called to walk in the light and not in the darkness.

The holiday was established after the Maccabees defeated Antiochus and thereby freed Jerusalem, and purified the Temple. Antiochus had defiled the Temple in Jerusalem as much as he could, and forbade Jewish customs, including eating kosher and keeping the Sabbath, and even prohibited reading and studying the Torah.

After purifying the Temple, they discovered that there was enough oil left to light the holy menorah for only one day. And the process of creating additional oil would take a week.

But a miracle happened, and the oil that was supposed to last for only one day was enough until more oil was created and brought to the Temple eight days later. That is why we celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah for eight days.

The holiday is mentioned in the New Testament, in John chapter 10: Yeshua goes up to Jerusalem, in the fall (or in the winter, depending on the translation), for the Hanukkah holiday, where the crowds ask him, “Are you the Messiah? Tell us!” Our clear answer is, “Yes! Jesus, Yeshua, is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!”

Hanukkah is a festival of light, it is a festival of the victory of light over darkness. A lot of darkness is defeated by a little light, that’s why we light the menorah when the sun goes down.

Throughout the days of Hanukkah we light more and more candles. Each candle joins another candle, light connects to light, and together the light grows and defeats the darkness.

As believers, this image is completely clear to us: Jesus is the light, and darkness is a place of “darkness and gnashing of teeth” (as it appears in Matthew 22:13).

When the light turns on in our face, in our heart, we will make an effort to keep it lit. Because it attracts, and together we are a light that can affect our surroundings.

We have truth, we have pure light, that can affect others. What is the source of the light that is in us, as believers?

The sun and the moon were only created on the fourth day of creation, and light appears on the first day. So what is the source of light?

Isaiah prophesies in chapter 9 with these words:

Matthew quotes this verse and associates it with Yeshua, as the beginning of Yeshua’s ministry:

From now on there is light. From now on there is hope. From now on there is salvation.

The people walked in darkness; they walked in the land of shadow. Then they saw light, what is the light?

The answer is in Isaiah 9:6:

Isaiah indicates a situation in which the people of Israel walk in darkness, but this situation is not permanent, there is hope. This people will see a great light, and this light will pave their way.

The central motif of John is the light. John begins his gospel in a way that recalls the opening of the Torah, “in the beginning there was the word”.

In Genesis light was created with the word, and the focus in John 1 is the light. The light that overcomes darkness. And, similar to Genesis, the light brings order and overcomes chaos, and the darkness cannot overpower the light.

Our faith in Yeshua the Messiah turns us into a menorah. And Yeshua’s command is that we must sit on the windowsill, just like the Hanukkiah, and shine to the world that there is hope, there is a way, there is light, there is truth.

We are the display-window of faith in God, and faith in Yeshua the Messiah. We are actually a walking advertisement, and when people see us and our lives favorably, we advertise God favorably, we illuminate faith in a good and positive light.

This is precisely what Jesus asks us to be, reflectors of the light, that the light of the Torah, of the Gospel, of faith will shine through us. That we will illuminate the way, like a lighthouse in a storm.

I will end with a quote from Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl, the founding father and visionary of the state of Israel:

As each individual member awakens to contribute of their best and their talents, this mutual responsibility contributes to the strength of the group, joining together for a common goal.

That is, the steadfast, great, light will be created if all the small, individual flames join together. Then, all the talents, all the abilities, all the good intentions will make a greater impact than if everyone holds the light only for himself and only with his own power.

This is the importance of walking together, as the body of Messiah, as servants of the light of life, who is Yeshua. My prayer is that we can serve Him together, in unity.

Netivyah blesses each and everyone, our families, our communities, to have a happy and bright holiday, illuminated by the light of Yeshua the Messiah.