I see so many of the brethren conflicted in terms of Hanukkah and I want to offer you a little mussar on the subject. If you are conflicted then do not stress over it this year and do not celebrate it this year. And prepare yourself throughout the year and do a small bit of objective research on it. As many of you know I recently translated 1 Maccabees from the Aramaic fragments of it and being the objective guy I am, I am not like most who do that and then say it needs to be cannon. I do not see it as a canonized book and I am not gonna tell you it is in order to sell you a copy, that is dishonest. But I think if a person is about to enter into Hanukkah one needs to have a clear grasp on why our traditions are what they are, why we do what it is we do and what the significance is. If you are worried about well the oil is not in the books of the Maccabees then you are not at a point yet to where you can grasp the reason why we celebrate the oil in the menorah and why we have the 8 stick menorah on Hanukkah yet. I am not saying this in a bad way to anyone so please do not see it as that. But Hanukkah is so holy and so set apart that I think when we try and enter into it before we are ready we are just as guilty as the Greeks and Hanukkah is about rededication and it is about returning to the pure form of Judaism and when someone celebrated Hanukkah before they are ready it is equal to that of what the Greeks did. The fact is my many years of observance many would think I have celebrated many feasts of dedication and to be honest this is the first time I am REALLY connecting with the message of Hanukkah and this was the first year I was ready for it. So if someone is trying to push you to keep the festival before you are ready simply tell then to shove off and that you dont need a crash course. Many try and force people into observance simply to sell their wares on the subject and that is spiritually harmful to the person being forced and it is harmful to our faith as Netzari because we are defiling the brethren by forcing them into observance. Just as a parent would not let their 10 year old drive a car we should not push a person into such a holy observance before they are ready. Anyone who tries to push and shove you into the schul and into observance is displaying the attributes of Jim Jones and David Koresh. Stay away from them.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:22:07 +0000
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