A Native American Indian looks at Hanukkah

I thought you might find this article to be interesting.

December 21, 2008
Hanukkah 2008
So, how does a Gentile relate to a Jewish holiday, one that's not based on a command from the Torah, yet one that is hugely popular among modern Jews? No country with a sizable Jewish population can go too long without knowing something about Hanukkah, the "festival of lights." It is a day that celebrates a miracle during the days of the Maccabees, who led the Jewish resistance against the Greco-Syrian culture whose leaders (like Antiochus IV) were dominating ancient Palestine, and coercing their ways upon the Jews there, in the second century before the time of Christ.
The traditional Hanukkah menorah.
In most online accounts, we're taught about how to celebrate the day. Games, gifts, foods, customs, etc., are rendered in great detail. To many Gentiles, Hanukkah seems very much like a Jewish Christmas. Lights, shining things, fancy wrapping paper, and above all, family. Like Christmas, Hanukkah is very much about family.
But, the truth is, Hanukkah is about war. Hanukkah is a military holiday. Yes, there was a miracle involved (the Temple lamps continued burning for eight days, when there was enough oil only for one day), but, the reason for the crisis was in fact war.
Hanukkah is about religious persecution, and the victory thereover by faith.
Hanukkah is about faith!
The Jews, in their own homeland, refused to bow to the customs of the world, or the dominant world view, or the cultural trends thereof. That is the lesson of Hanukkah. That is powerful medicine, for any people. Yet, it is precisely the lesson all people need to learn, if they are to preserve themselves as a people.
Judas Maccabeus, archetype patriot.
Our world today is in the midst of a global trend of multiculturalism--the dissolution of nationhood. This is the Communist doctrine, in fact. But on the street level, among the low-minded politicians and the people, there is a conscious craze for the mix, the cultural mix, the sexual mix, racial mix, political mix, and certainly the theological mix. All are one. And there is one "god" over all.
But the Jews would have none of it. Not on their own land, not in their own Temple. That's right. They weren't going to allow the same "sins" of Solomon to be committed again (1 Kings 11;10). There would be no foreign 'statuary' brought into the Temple, or anywhere near it. There would be no alien 'gods' honored in the Temple of the Most High. Never again.
The Almighty was not an abstraction, not a summation, nor a congolmerate of human thought. He was the living Father, the Creator in Heaven. Ther was no compromise or interpretation. There could be no surrender of principle in the name of cultural cooperation or "peace." The Jews would have war, rather,--at least, the Maccabee family and their followers.
In a way, Hanukkah should become a very American holiday. Hanukkah stands for what needs to be stood for--the preservation of nationhood, and that includes the nation's religion.
But perhaps I err in this notion. Perhaps the American Jewish people would not have this emphasis. I don't know. I know I care about them, very deeply. It would never be my intent or purpose to bring offense upon them, or cause injury or difficulty in any way. I know I have celebrated many a Hanukkah in Connecticut. But, that was back in the '80's. I don't remember any political application of Hanukkah then.
Times have changed, though. Today American needs political instruction and guidance more than ever before. Our leaders have literally abondoned our Constitution! They have let loose that which defines America. With the alluring influence of mass media, our leaders are completely side-tracked from their duty. They are blinded by self-importance, power, honor, and that grossly immature and arrogant Clintonian notion of "legacy." They try to write the history of themselves and their effects--before that history has even occurred. That is presumption of the most egregious order.
Hanukkah would not have this. The festival of national preservation would never see such egotistical nonsense. Hanukkah would measure the devotion of the man to the nation, nothing else. It appears that there are few Maccabees among us today. The line of 'Judah' has dried up in country. Or, so it appears.
For me, I'll celebrate Hanukkah as a national warning. National encouragement, rather. Hunukkah tells us what to do, and tells us that it is honorable. We can trust any future legacy to that. Any other basis for legacy will end in shame and infamy, no doubt.
So, Happy Hanukkah, all. Happy American Nation Day.
http://www.badeagle.com/journal/archives/2008_12.html#001306