Holidays

Remember the Six Million

A few years ago at the Yom HaShoah ceremony here in Charleston, one of the Rabbi’s present reminded everyone that Jewish people always take their past with them forward into the present.  He gave the example of the children of Israel taking the bones of Joseph with them as they left Egypt.  The nation of Israel was re-established in 1948 amid the horror of the Holocaust.  In order to permanently weave the memory of the six million Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust into the fabric of the new nation, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion established Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day in 1953 as a national day of commemoration for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazi’s in the Holocaust.

There are many holidays of remembrance among the spring holidays of the Hebrew calendar.  Last week we discussed Passover, which is from 14th – 21st of the Hebrew month Nisan (it ended last night at sundown).  Solomon tells us in his book, Kohelet, (Ecclesiastes), “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Eccl. 3:1  So as God is in charge of human events, it happened that the re-birth of Israel occurred on the 5th of Iyar – exactly 3 weeks from Nisan 14th and Passover – the original birth of the nation.  When the leaders of the newly re-established nation of Israel sought for a day to honor the six million who perished in the Holocaust, they placed it among the other holidays of remembrance – exactly one week prior to Yom HaZicharon – the Memorial day for all IDF soldiers who have been killed – which is exactly on the eve of Israeli Independence day.  And thus these new dates of remembrance are added to the Jewish calendar to give it a wonderful symmetry.       

Today we study Yom HaShoah (Heb: יום השואה ) which this year falls on Wed., April 15th (and Nisan 27th) at sundown [Jerusalem time] and continues through to Thursday. The official name is Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah (Heb: יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה ).  Let us examine these words etymologically. The Hebrew word Yom (יום) means ‘day’ and Shō’āh Heb: (שאוה ) means ‘catastrophe’.  It is found once in the T’nakh in Proverbs 1:27 and is translated as ‘destruction’ in the KJV.  The word G’vurah (Heb: גבורה ) which means ‘heroism’.  The Hebrew root is   (ג ב ר ) from which comes the important word gibor (Heb: גיבור ) meaning ‘hero’. This word is found in 1 Samuel 17:51 describing Goliath and is translated as ‘champion’. David used it to describe both Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 23:1 when he lamented their deaths.  [Note: The English word holocaust is derived from the Greek word holokauston, meaning “a completely (holos) burnt (kaustos) sacrificial offering”.

Yom HaShoah is a solemn day in Israel, always beginning at sunset on the 27th of the month of Nisan and ending the following evening. Places of entertainment are closed throughout the country. The central ceremonies, in the evening and the following morning, are held at Yad Vashem ( יד ושם ), the National Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel.  On the evening of the 27th of Nisan at sundown, the President of the State of Israel and the Prime Minister along with dignitaries, Holocaust survivors, children of survivors and their families, gather together with the general public to take part in the memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem in which six torches, representing the six million Jews who perished, are lit.  The following morning at 10:00 AM, a siren sounds throughout the entire country for two minutes. For the duration of the sounding, work is halted, people walking in the streets stop, cars pull off to the side of the road and everybody stands at silent attention in respect for the victims of the Holocaust.  (See video in the side-bar)

The Hebrew phrase ‘Yad VaShem‘ (Heb: יָ֣ד וָשֵׁ֔ם ) is taken from the Bible from Isaiah 56:5, ‘Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.’ It is translated into English as ‘a place and a name’.  If you visit Israel be sure to visit Yad VaShem and if you have the chance, be sure to take your children and grandchildren.  The next generation must be educated about the Holocaust.

The Jewish Talmud says: “He who saves a single life, saves the entire world”.   Jesus also emphasized the value of one person’s soul as recorded in the Gospel of Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”  Any philosophy or religion that cheapens life or glorifies death is not of God because God says only one life is worth more than the whole world! 

Let us be sure to stand with Israel and the Jewish people at this critical time in history.  Again, be sure to hear a Holocaust survivor speak (and let your children hear them) as they are quickly passing away from us.  As long as the Lord lets us live on this earth, let us be a positive voice for the Jewish people and stand against those who deny that the Holocaust occurred. 

For Such a Time as This

The holiday of Purim (Hebrew:  פּוּרִים  –  Pûrîm “lots”) commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire where a plot had been formed to destroy them by the second-in-command of the Persian empire – Haman.  takes place in the Persian (Hebrew: פרס) royal city of Shushan ( שושן). (Esther 1:2)  The palace in ancient Shushan was a place of great power because Persia, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, had become the superpower of the ancient world. (Daniel 6:28)  King Ahasuerus (Xerxes was his Greek name) ruled 127 provinces which covered much of the known world. (Esther 1:1)      

Esther is a Second Temple Period book. King Ahasuerus reigned from 486-464 B.C. or about 40-50 years after the end of the Babylonian Exile. This places Esther in Bible chronology after Daniel and before Ezra and Nehemiah. The events of the entire book span approximately 10 years.

The entire story pivots around two ancient curses that God had decreed in His Word. Haman, the anti-semitic Persian minister, is a descendent of King Agag (Esther 3:1) who was an Amalekite (1 Samuel 15:8).  The Amalekites themselves were descendents of Esau (Genesis 36:11-12) and thus were Edomites.  They were under a 1,000 year old curse from God because instead of giving aid, they fought with Moses and Israel when they were trying to enter Canaan. (Exodus 17:14-16) However, Haman was also under an even older curse dating back to Abraham’s time from Genesis 12:3 when God said, “

I will … curse him that curseth thee” [the descendents of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob]. Haman is called “the Jews enemy” (Esther 3:10), so he has brought these curses upon his own life.  

Mordecai (Heb: מָרְדֳּכַ֥י), Queen Esther’s cousin and legal guardian, is of the tribe of Benjamin. (Esther 2:5-7)  About 600 years prior to our story, King Saul, also of the tribe of Benjamin, had failed to destroy King Agag as God commanded and thus lost the kingdom to David (1 Samuel 15).  So now in the Purim story, we see another battle between a descendant of King Agag and a descendant of King Saul that almost causes the destruction of the Jewish people.  So a practical lesson to learn is the long term impact of our decisions.   Because King Saul did not follow God’s will perfectly, he put his future descendents, the Jewish people, into great jeopardy.

A constant theme of the book of Esther is that ‘things are not always the way they appear’.  The name “Esther” is from the word mistar ( מסתר) and

means ‘hiding place’. [Note: her Hebrew name is Hadassah ( הדסה ) (Esther 2:7) and means “myrtle”.]  Esther hid her Jewish identity per Mordecai’s instruction (see Esther 2:10)  The book of Esther has an element of suspense and the characters in the Purim story are different from what they at first appear to be  and thus it is longstanding Jewish tradition to celebrate Purim by dressing in costumes.   

Another very unusual fact about the book of Esther is that God’s name is never mentioned, yet we see God’s hand at work throughout the book on behalf of the Jewish people.  All the “coincidences” of the book are Divine appointments.  God leaves His fingerprints throughout the book for the reader looking for them. And … God’s name (יהוה ), the Tetragramaton, [a Greek word meaning ‘four letters’], is “hidden” as an acronym in Esther 5:4.

The book of Esther and the story of Purim should especially encourage us who love and support Israel. In our time, we again see anti-semitic Persian leaders who want to destroy Israel.  They are modern-day Hamans (Esther 3:6-10).   However, just like in Queen Esther’s day, God is secretly working to affect the deliverance of those whom He considers the “apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8) – the Jewish people.  Haman had engineered decrees to cause the total destruction of the Jewish people, but in one stroke, God turned certain annihilation into a day of deliverance and salvation and, “The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.”  (Esther 8:16)  The 13th and 14th of the month Adar, which Haman had chosen to be days of destruction for the Jewish nation, became instead days of “gladness and feasting” and became the holiday of Purim. (Esther 9:19)  

Esther was probably afraid when she went before King Ahasuerus and she certainly BROKE PROTOCOL by doing so!  Persian protocol said that NO ONE, not even the Queen, could come before the King unless he called them.  She risked her life because the punishment was death.  Esther broke protocol and risked it all because she cared more about her people, the Jewish people, than she did about herself.  She was a true leader and hero!  Prime Minister Netanyahu did the same thing yesterday!  Most leaders today only take actions that enhance themselves, their ratings in the polls or their party.  It is nice to see a world leader who truly cares about his people.

Throughout the book of Esther we are constantly reminded that things are not as they at first appear because we don’t know the full story.  Mankind can never know the full story because we are not omniscient like God.  God is always at work in all situations, often in secret and often unseen, but He is there and so we cannot possibly know or understand until God reveals His part. We should also remember that God is interested in individuals as well as nations and He is working in secret, behind the scenes, in our individual lives to show us His perfect plan for our life. Often the way we do not understand may be God’s perfect plan and as Mordecai told Esther,  “who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” -Esther 4:14  

 A Dark Time in History 

The year was 167 BC and it was a very dark time in the land of Israel.  Since Israel was the linchpin of three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, the main trade corridor to all destinations had always passed through Israel making it prime real estate for surrounding kings.  (It is still Prime Real Estate!)  During the Second Temple Period, the governorship of Israel changed hands many times.  Mithradates was a Greek king of the Seleucid Empire.  When he took the throne in 175 BC, he changed his name to Antiochus IV Epiphanes. In Israel, many Jews were taking on Greek ways (this was called Hellenization).  Antiochus had replaced the High Priest, Jason (note the Greek name) with Menelaus.  Jason and 1,000 soldiers attacked Jerusalem and when Antiochus found out, he thought it was a full revolt. The book of the Maccabees gives the awful details: “Raging like a wild animal, he [Antiochus] set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery. …Not long after this the king sent an Athenian senator to force the Jews to abandon the customs of their ancestors and live no longer by the laws of God; also to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus…They also brought into the temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws.”

The golden Menorah (Hebrew: מְנֹרַ֖ת זָהָ֣ב) that was in the Holy Place in the Temple is first mentioned in Exodus 25:31-40. The Hebrew word ‘menorah’ is translated as ‘candlestick’ in the KJV, but it is important to remember the golden menorah was not a candlestick in that it did not burn candles.  From the artists rendition above, the golden Menorah had six branches, three off of each side of the main stem. Each branch along with the main stem held a ‘lamp’ for a total of seven lamps that burned olive oil. Leviticus 24:1-2 says,  “Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.”  This olive oil had to be pure, today we would say ‘kosher’, and it had to be from the first pressing or ‘extra virgin olive oil’ as we say today.

The Eternal Light

The phrase in Lev. 24:2, “to cause the lamps to burn continually” is from the Hebrew, לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד (l’ha-ah-lot nir tamid) which literally means ‘to go up an eternal light’. The Hebrew phrase ‘nir tamid‘ (eternal light) is often a synonym for the Menorah.  The golden Menorah was the only light inside of the Holy Place and was never to go out.  It was the priest’s duty to daily replenish the olive oil and to trim the lamps so they would always burn brightly. The Menorah was a constant physical reminder of the spiritual truth that Israel was God’s light of truth to the world concerning the one true God.

Dark Days – Religious Freedom Lost

During the reign of Antiochus, Israel was stripped of her freedom of religion and was not able to worship the one true God. However, just one person can truly make a difference. A aged priest from the rural area of Modiin named Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods.  In 166 BC, his son Judas Maccabee led an army of Jewish soldiers to victory over the Seleucid dynasty by using guerrilla warfare tactics. After the victory, the Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph and ritually cleansed the Temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship there and installing Jonathan Maccabee as high priest.

Miracle of the Oil  

Antiochus had desecrated the holy Temple so the priests had to first cleanse it and then re-dedicate it to God. The word Hanukkah ( חנוכה) is from the root meaning ‘to dedicate’ and Hanukkah is also called the ‘feast of dedication’.  The Temple Menorah had to be rekindled. Jewish tradition tells us that only a single container, basically a one day supply, of the kosher oil with the seal of the High Priest, was found. However the Menorah was re-kindled anyway. It took eight days for the priests to make more of the kosher olive oil and during those eight days, the Temple Menorah miraculously burned using the oil that was supposed to only last one day. I liken this miracle to that performed by Elisha for the widow in 2 Kings 4.

A Big Miracle Happened Here! Hanukkah commemorates this great miracle of the oil lasting for eight days – hence the eight days of Hanukkah. A special Menorah with nine branches (instead of the normal seven), called a Hanukiah, is used during Hanukah. One of  the nine candles is called the shamesh – שמש – from the root of the Hebrew word meaning “to use”. It is set off from the other eight by either being taller or shorter or to the side. For each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, the shamesh candle is lit, and then used to light one candle the first night, two candles the 2nd night and so on until on the 8th night of Hanukkah, all the candles on the Hanukiah are lit. 

Children spin tops called

a dreidel (Yiddish: דרײדל ).  The Hebrew word is סביבון – sevivon from the root meaning ‘to spin’. Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet:

נ (Nun), ג (Gimel), ה (Hei), ש (Shin), which are the first letters of the Hebrew phrase “נס גדול היה שם” (Nes Gadol Hayah Sham – meaning “a big miracle happened there”). Dreidel’s from Israel are inscribed with the letter פ (Pei) instead of (Shin) making the phrase: נס גדול היה פה, Nes Gadol Hayah Poh -“A big miracle happened here” referring to the miracle occurring in the land of Israel. 

Hanukkah points to God’s faithfulness to preserve His ancient people Israel by raising up a hero, in this case the Maccabes, to save them. Without God’s preserving hand, the Jewish nation would have ceased to exist.  In the spirit of the Maccabees, let us re-dedicate our lives to serve God in these darkening days of vanishing religious freedom.