The Learner
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29. What is the lighting of the Hanukkah lamps?
In the time of the second temple there was a period, when a heathen kind, by the name of Antiochus of Syria, had nearly abolished the observance of our religion, by the great cruelties he committed in Palestine, over which he had dominion. At length the Jews, led on by the valiant Judas Maccabaeus, drove the Syrian army out of the land; and when the people again consecrated the temple they instituted a festival, called Hanukkah, or the Consecration, and ordered that for all future periods lamps should be lighted in our synagogues and dwellings, commencing from the evening of the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, or Kislev, as an everlasting memorial of the mercy of the Lord, displayed in delivering his people and his religion from the power of the oppressor.
30. What is the festival of Purim?
We shall celebrate a festival on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the twelfth month, Adar, in memory of the great deliverance which God gave us from the evil designs of Haman, who, with concurrence of the kind of Persia, has resolved to destroy all the Jews residing in that kingdom, which in fact included nearly, if not all, the descendants of Israel. We therefore keep a fast on the thirteenth, and a festival on the next two days; and to commemorate the event, we read the Book of Esther which contains the history thereof; in order that we may be always reminded how good our heavenly Father has ever been to us; and that thereby we may be animated with a sincere desire to deserve in future his love and mercy, by a devotion to his will and a strict adherence to his law.
"The Jews ordained, and took upon themselves, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year. And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed." Esther ix. 27, 28.
31. By what is this festival distinguished?
We should give liberal presents to the poor and needy, so that they also might rejoice "on the days when the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor." Ibid. 22.
In the time of the second temple there was a period, when a heathen kind, by the name of Antiochus of Syria, had nearly abolished the observance of our religion, by the great cruelties he committed in Palestine, over which he had dominion. At length the Jews, led on by the valiant Judas Maccabaeus, drove the Syrian army out of the land; and when the people again consecrated the temple they instituted a festival, called Hanukkah, or the Consecration, and ordered that for all future periods lamps should be lighted in our synagogues and dwellings, commencing from the evening of the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, or Kislev, as an everlasting memorial of the mercy of the Lord, displayed in delivering his people and his religion from the power of the oppressor.
30. What is the festival of Purim?
We shall celebrate a festival on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the twelfth month, Adar, in memory of the great deliverance which God gave us from the evil designs of Haman, who, with concurrence of the kind of Persia, has resolved to destroy all the Jews residing in that kingdom, which in fact included nearly, if not all, the descendants of Israel. We therefore keep a fast on the thirteenth, and a festival on the next two days; and to commemorate the event, we read the Book of Esther which contains the history thereof; in order that we may be always reminded how good our heavenly Father has ever been to us; and that thereby we may be animated with a sincere desire to deserve in future his love and mercy, by a devotion to his will and a strict adherence to his law.
"The Jews ordained, and took upon themselves, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year. And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed." Esther ix. 27, 28.
31. By what is this festival distinguished?
We should give liberal presents to the poor and needy, so that they also might rejoice "on the days when the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor." Ibid. 22.
Catechism For Jewish Children: The Ceremonial Law
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