The Feast of Lights
The Feast of LightsDuring the month of December, in the Northern Hemisphere the nights are longer than days and everything is surrounded by a cold, dark ambience. Animals hibernate, birds migrate to the southern sky, and the trees are barren with a few scrawny branches looming out of darkness. The picturesque of winter is so devastating, everything seems to be consume by its shadow. Fortunately, within this desolate atmosphere is a small lamp with eight candles that being kindled each night for eight consecutive nights to traverse this enmity of darkness; it is the season of joy and thanksgiving, a season of light emerging out of darkness, and it is the season of Hanukkah. During these days, the Jews enjoy the company of their family; they feast, sing, dance, and recount magical stories to each other. Even though coincides very closely in temporality with the Christmas holiday and many times mistaken to be a "Jewish Christmas", its origin and meaning are very different. In present day, most people see the feast of Hanukkah as just a regular Jewish holiday and have no concept of what it is really about. To fully undertake the significance of Hanukkah, one must first visit its provenience and its d
The Maccabees believe that evil is outside. According to the Babilonian Talmud, "In it was oil enough for the needs of a solitary day. However, aside from the "Jewish Hellenizers", there is a distinctive group of Jews leads by a priest named Mattathais and his son, Judah, which stands up to revolve against Antiochus' tyranny. Lighting the candles is therefore the representation of a contrast of light in darkness; it is a metaphor of good versus evil. A few years after the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Second Book of Maccabees is written in which the feast of Hanukkah is mentioned. However, this notion of distinct contrast of good and evil is misleading because just like light and dark, good and evil exist in transition of each other. They purify the Temple and celebrate for eight days in which the people feast and sing hymns. After his armies are defeated, Antiochus returns to Judea and forces the Temple in Jerusalem into a temple for the Greek gods; he outlaws all of the Jewish customs and traditions. Exist inside us is only goodness, but we experience evil because of the continuous exposure to evil from our surroundings. More than two thousand years later, the feast of Hanukkah still consists of kindling a silver lamp of eight candles for eight consecutive nights. As a result, we must contemplate both the transition stage and the contrast of good and evil; using the light of goodness to shine into the dark, just as the Hanukkah lamp is lighting the dark winter night (Berger et. As for the tradition of kindling of the eight candles, it is believe that when the Greeks lost, they desecrated all the oil in the temple.
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Acceptance Essays
