Happy Hanukkah. And a Prayer for Peace in Israel 🇮🇱 …

Tonight is the 1st night of Hanukkah. The Festival of Light that is celebrated by the ancient Israelites living in Israel and scattered all over the World in commemoration of the Rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, in Israel over 2,200 years ago. (2nd Century BC)

View of menorah during the Festival of Hanukkah at the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem 2023.

Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days,starting on the 25th day of Kislev (December) according to the Hebrew calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or hanukkiah. One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the shammash (שַׁמָּשׁ‎, "attendant"). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shammash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival.Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods. (wiki)

The story of Hanukkah, and the rekindling of the Temple lamps is told in the Book of Maccabees that can be found in the Catholic Bible and was celebrated each year by Jesus and his family 2,000 years ago.

2 Maccabees 10

And having purified the temple, they made another altar: and taking fire out of the fiery stones, they offered sacrifices after two years, and set forth incense, and lamps, and the loaves of proposition.... Now upon the same day that the temple had been polluted by the strangers, on the very same day it was cleansed again, to wit, on the five and twentieth day of the month of kislev (December).
And they kept eight days with joy, after the manner of the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long before they had kept the feast of the tabernacles when they were in the mountains, and in dens like wild beasts.
Therefore they now, carried boughs, and green branches, and palms for Him that had given them good success in cleansing his place. And they ordained by a common statute, and decree, that all the nation of the Jews should keep those days every year.

Source: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Maccabees%2010&version=DRA

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches consider the books of Maccabees as a canonical part of the Old Testament. The eight-day rededication of the temple is described in 1 Maccabees,though the miracle of the oil does not appear here. A story similar in character, and older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees according to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev (December) , and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabee. The account in 1 Maccabees, as well as 2 Maccabees portrays the feast as a delayed observation of the eight-day Feast of Booths (Sukkot); similarly 2 Maccabees explains the length of the feast as "in the manner of the Feast of Booths".

In the Gospel of John, (John 10:22-42) there is a story of Jesus walking in the Holy Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem during the Festival of Hanukkah..

Then the Festival-of-Dedication (Hanukkah) took place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. - John 10:22

Yochanan 10:22-42 / Orthodox Jewish Bible

Then the Chag (Festival) of Channukah took place in Yerushalayim. It was winter.
And Yeshu (Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach) was walking around in the Beis Hamikdash in the area called Ulam Shlomo (Solomon’s Colonnade).

In Israel, the Hebrew name of Jesus is “Yeshu”. The word Yeshu means “Salvation”
Yeshu-ati means “My Salvation”… The story of Jesus, his life and resurrection, and his Teaching are seen as a message of Love, and Jesus (Yeshu) is considered by Christians the Way to Salvation and everlasting life.

One of the songs that is sung every Hanukkah is Ma’oz Tzur and is translated as Rock of Ages (Mighty Stronghold)and the opening phrase is :

M’oz Tsor, Yeshu’ati

מָעוֹז צוּר יְשׁוּעָתִי לְךָ נָאֶה לְשַׁבֵּחַ

O mighty stronghold of my Salvation,(Yeshu’ati)
to praise You is a delight.
Restore my House of Prayer
and there we will bring a thanksgiving offering.
When You will have prepared the end
for the blaspheming foe,
Then I shall complete with a song of hymn
the dedication of the Altar.

My soul had been sated with troubles,
my strength has been consumed with grief.
They had embittered my life with hardship,
with the calf-like kingdom's bondage.
But with His great power
He brought forth the treasured ones,
Pharaoh's army and all his offspring
Went down like a stone into the deep.

To the holy abode of His Word He brought me.
But there, too, I had no rest
And an oppressor came and exiled me...

Source: https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/music_cdo/aid/104615/jewish/Maoz-Tzur.htm

Prayers for Peace and Salvation (Yeshu - ati) during the Festival of Hanukkah in Israel.

Peace among the children of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael and Jacob (named Israel by God)

O mighty stronghold of my Salvation,(Yeshu’ati) to praise You is a delight.

Sing along …

Transliteration

Mah-ohz tzoor yeh-shoo-ah-tee leh-kha nah-eh le-shah-bay-ah-kh
Tee-kohn bayt teh-fee-lah-tee veh-sham toh-dah neh-zah-bay-ah-kh
Leh-ayt tah-kheen maht-bay-akh mee-tzahr hah-meh-nah-bay-ah-kh
Ahz, ehg-mohr beh-shir miz-mohr kha-noo-kaht hah-miz-bay-ah-kh

Rah-oht sah-vah nahf-shee beh-yah-gohn koh-khee kah-lah
Kha-yai may-reh-roo veh-koh-shee, beh-shee-bood mahl-khoos ehg-lah
Oo-veh-yah-doh hah-geh-doh-lah hoh-tzee eht hah-seh-goo-lah
Khayl pah-roh veh-khol zah-roh yahr-doo keh-eh-vehn bim-tzoo-lah

Source: https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/music_cdo/aid/104615/jewish/Maoz-Tzur.htm

Hanukkah (Source) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

2 Maccabees :

2 Maccabees was originally written in Koine Greek by an unknown diaspora Jew living in Hellenistic Egypt. It was likely written some time between 150 and 100 BC. Together with the book 1 Maccabees, it is one of the most important sources on the Maccabean Revolt. The work is not a sequel to 1 Maccabees but rather its own independent rendition of the historical events of the Maccabean Revolt. It both starts and ends its history earlier than 1 Maccabees, starting with an incident with the Seleucid official Heliodorus attempting to tax the Second Temple in 178 BC, and ending with the Battle of Adasa in 161 BC. Some scholars believe the book to be influenced by the Pharisaic tradition, with sections that include an endorsement of prayer for the dead and a resurrection of the dead.

2 Maccabees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Maccabees