A SPECIAL HANUKKAH MIDRASH

[Ben Avraham]

Shalom to all of you and wishing you all a "Hag sameach Hanukkah" first night of Hanukkkah, tonight the 16th of December, 24th of Kislev, When we think of the 8 branch special Menorah, what are the things that come to mind? Well, we must take the Shamash, the middle tube and see YESHUA because we are all connected to HIM by the other branches. But, how can we look at the other 8 branches, connected to YESHUA to give us a total of 9? here's one way:

YESHUA > 1. Emunah (faith) 2. Mitzvah (good works) 3. Tzedakah (giving) 4. Teshuvah (repentance)

5. Mishpochah (family) 6. Ahavah (love) 7. HaTorah (bible) 8. Israel.

We are all connected to Yeshua through faith and our repentance which lead us to good works, giving, and love toward one another, to our family both synagogue family and our biological family, the Bible leads us to Yeshua and we should always pray for the peace in Eretz Israel.

NOW... you can't celebrate Hanukkah without a bit of laughter, smiles, and chuckles, Here's a small Hanukkah poem which I wrote which should bring smiles, or even a few "oi veys"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________


" TWAS THE FIRST NIGHT OF HANUKKAH"

Twas the first night of Hanukkah, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even
a mouse. The Menorah was placed on our table with care, in hopes that our evening visitor would soon
be here. Mama in her kerchief and I in my Yarmulke, had just settled down for the first night of
Hanukkah. When up on the rooftop there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the
matter. I put my robe on and ran towards the door, slipped on a banana peel and fell flat on the floor.
I picked myself up and ran out into the night, I looked up toward the roof and beheld a great sight.
An awesome warrior on his fearsome white steed, I knew it could only be Judah the Maccabee!
He got off his horse and jumped down from the roof, looked all around and said, "Oi Vey, I sure must of
goofed!" "I was headed toward Jerusalem but my horse turned aside, and then landed here" he said with
a sigh! I opened my mouth and this I did say; "Yo Judah, welcome to the U.S. of A." "You might as well
come in for a while, In my house you can stay"
Well Judah came in with a sack on his back, and headed for the kitchen to lay out some snacks. Out from
the sack came so many things, latkes and apple sauce, gefelte fish and more, crackers and cheese, and
hamantashens galore. "Hamantashens" I asked, "On Hanukkah?" "Why not?" said Judah, grinning from ear
to ear, "They're good anytime of the year!" With the sack now empty he looked at the time, he left out
the door and to the roof top he climbed. "Got to go now, I am Jerusalem bound". He mounted his steed
and rode out of sight, saying "Happy Hanukkah to all and to all a good night!"

by Rabbi Ben Avraham

[Ben Avraham]

Most of us already know the story. How Alexander the Great, in 336 BCE took control of Greece, and then expanded his empire to include Judea. Well, he didn't live a long life, he died at the young age of 33. Leaving his empire divided up between his five generals

Among the five generals, Seleucid gained control over Syria in the north, and Ptolemy gained control over Egypt. When we see the names of Egyptian kings, Ptolemy I , Ptolemy II, III, IV etc, these are all Greek rulers over Egypt. Judea was middle ground and the Seleucids and the Ptolemys fought over this little piece of priceless land, in the end, Seleucid gained control, the King that sat on the throne of Judea was Antiochus the Great.

One thing that Alexander did was to introduce Hellenism, which is Greek Philosophy and mind set. The Greeks were very carnal, given to pleasure, while the Judeans were "God" and "" oriented, so, these two different ideas clashed. Some Judeans accepted Hellenism, others did not. So even among Judeans, there was discontent, The high priest Matattias and his five sons, John, Jonathan, Judah, Simon, and Eleazar, were true to and the one true God, Adonai-Elohim.

Under Antiochus The Great, the Judeans were allowed to live in peace, their way of life was not disturbed, but in 175 BCE, Antiochus Epiphanes ascended the throne, He was BAD! he insisted on the people worshipping Zeus, he put a statue of Zeus in the holy temple, sacrificed swine, prohibited study, circumcision
under penalty of death.

The High priest Mattatias stood up against this and so did his five sons, He refused to sacrifice swine and worship Zeus, He killed a fellow priest who dared to do this, and He and his five sons became fugitives. They ran off into the desert, yet gained a large following, between 5 and 10 thousand Judeans who also rejected Zeus and the decree of Antiochus started a war against the Greek-Syrian forces, fighting in "Guerrilla warfare" tactics, they eventually drove out the Syrians and regained control over Israel.

But before victory was achieved, Matattias died, and left Judah in charge, as general, his nick name "Maccabeus" meant "Hammer" he "struck like a hammer"

with his small army. When they entered the temple, they found it stained with pig's blood. He destroyed the altar to the Greek god and cleaned up the pig's blood, put up the Menorah once again, and looked around for oil to light it.

Only one flask of oil was found, enough for one day. The oil was poured into the center of the Menorah, into the "Shamash" which fed into the other 6 branches, then lit. But the flame did not go out at the end of the day, it lasted 8 days, enough time for the priests to prepare more oil.

We can conclude that if God was able to create the world in 6 literal days, and make a few loaves of bread and fish enough for 5,000 people, fill many jars of olive oil from one jar which a widow had (through Elisha) then, one can conclude that one flask of oil was enough for 8 days, case closed , to G-d be the glory.

We have two miracles, the oil, and also the small Judean army of maybe 10,000 strong against a Syrian army of about 100,000 or more. Today, there are still miracles, the miracle of changed lives through Yeshua HaMashiach.

A game that consisted of spinning a top called a "dreidel" was invented during the Maccabean war, it make the Syrians think that just a "child's game" was being played, in reality, they were studying , the "dreidel" was just a front. Later on the letters "Nun" (N) "Gadol" (G) "Hey" (H) "Shin" (S) were carved on the dreidel which meant "Nes" "Gadol" "Haya" "Sham" (a great miracle happened there)

Also, these same letters begin the names of 4 enemies of Israel "N = Nebuchadnezzar " "H = Haman" "G = Greece" "S = Seir (Rome) and Israel sur-vived all of these powers.

In Hebrew Gematria, the letters N, G, H, S, = 358 also the title "Mashiach"

(Messiah) = 358. Today we have the 9 branch menorah which is special for the time of Hanukkah, it began in or around the 9th century C.E. One way we can look at it is the follow:

Y E S H U A = the Center branch the "Shamash" or helper, which the other branches are all connected to, and we have 8 other branches;

1. Teshuvah (repentance) 2. Tzedakah (giving) 3. Mitzvah (good works)

4. Emunah (faith) 5. Mishpochah (family) 6. Ahavah (love) 7. HaTorah (bible)

8. Israel

And this is the message, through repentance and faith, we receive Yeshua as our LORD and Savior, which produce in us good works, giving, and love. We become members of G-d's family and we grow in faith through his Word, the Bible, his instruction and teaching () and we are to always support and pray for Israel

If possible, go there YOURSELF and serve.

Rabbi Ben Avraham