And don’t forget to have fun eating!  Because this festival celebrates the miracle of the oil, fried foods have become customary among the Jewish people.  Those from Eastern European background favor potato latkes (pancakes).  Just for fun here is a recipe for you.    Eat them with sour cream or apple sauce.   (Hint:  they’re good!)

Latkes

3 cups of grated raw potatoes, drained

2 eggs 

1 small grated onion drained (4 Tbls. Approx.)

1 or 2  Tbls. Matzah (cracker) meal or flour

1/8 tsp pepper (to taste)

1 tsp salt (again to taste!)

¼ tsp baking soda

oil or butter for frying

Beat the eggs then mix in everything else.  Heat about ¼ inch of oil in a frypan and drop the potato mixture in by tablespoonfuls.  Fry till crispy outside and cooked through.  Drain on paper towels.  Best if served immediately, but can be kept warm and served later. 

For an easier time for the cook, go the route of the Sephardic (middle eastern) Jews and serve jelly doughnuts.  You can get those at the corner store!

My Thoughts

I said yesterday that I felt that we had deviated in some important ways from some of the ways of God when we deliberately turned our backs on our Jewish roots.  And yes, this was a deliberate turning by the way.  I will not go into the history here, but in early years, fear of the Romans who were persecuting the Jews fed a desire to not appear Jewish in any way.  There were other factors also, but the result was a turning away from biblical practices.

Several years ago the Lord impressed on me the passage in I Kings 12 and showed me parallels between what happened there at the splitting up of the Kingdom, and what happened as Christianity and Judaism parted ways.  Let’s look at that passage.

1 Kings12:25-33

Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. 26And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: 27If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 30And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. 31And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. 32And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. 33So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

In this passage we see that Jeroboam was afraid that his people would turn back to King Rehoboam and he would lose his half of the Kingdom.  Because of his fear he instituted a series of things, all of which perverted the worship of the true God.  We see first of all that he moved the place of worship from God’s city of Jerusalem to other sites which he selected, telling people that “it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.”  He built shrines (v.31) on high places thus bringing in syncretism since these were the traditional places of pagan worship.  Then he brought in false articles of worship, even introducing idolatry.  The leadership was also perverted as he “appointed priests from all sorts of people.”  Then he tampered with the feast of God by instituting one “like unto the feast that is in Judah.”  Finally he moved the timing of God’s feast by having “a month of his own choosing.”

Probably already ideas are coming to you about how we have done these things in our own ways in our churches.  Even in this Hanukah teaching we find we are having to study about a very important festival that our Messiah celebrated – because it is foreign to us!  What else might we be missing?  Well I am going to leave you to meditate on that tonight and I will share some more of my thoughts tomorrow.  Please remember that I am not advocating that we do any of these things in order to earn anything from God, but because there are blessings that we are missing out on!  Let me leave you with these thoughts from Marvin Rosenthal from the book The Feasts of  the Lord by Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal.  Although he speaks of the seven feasts of Leviticus 23, we can apply much of this to the feast of Hanukkah as well.

“These seven holidays are called ‘the feasts of the Lord.’  That expression indicates that these holidays are God’s holidays – they belong to Him – in contrast to man’s holidays.  They are, quite literally, ‘the feasts of the LORD’ (Lev. 23: 4)  And only on His terms and at His invitation can men participate in them and enter into their benefits.

The Hebrew word translated ‘feasts’ means appointed times.  The idea is that the sequence and timing of each of these feasts have been carefully orchestrated by God himself.  Each is part of a comprehensive whole.  Collectively, they tell a story.  These feasts are also called ‘holy convocations’; that is, they are intended to be times of meeting between God and man for ‘holy purposes.’  Since these seven feasts of the Lord are ‘appointed times’ for ‘holy purposes,’ they carry with them great sacredness and solemnity.”  (p. 13)

May the Lord bless us with wisdom and understanding in these things!

Shalom,

Sarah McIlvaine

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-Sarah McIlvaine (2008)