On the Last Night of Hanukkah

Tonight people of Jewish faith with light the last of the eight candles of the Menorah, marking the last night of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is such a strange minor Holiday in that sometimes public schools or government buildings will display a Menorah while banning a Nativity display.

Some regard Hanukkah as a part of Jewish Culture that has nothing to do with the Jewish Faith. In my opinion, that is nonsense. What is Hanukkah? It is remembering the Maccabee Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd Century BC. First of all the Maccabees were outnumbered and should have been defeated. They won. Secondly the Temple needed to be purified, but there was only enough oil remaining for one night, yet it miraculously burned for eight nights. If that isn’t the hand of God, I don’t know what is.

One can argue that Hanukkah is not found in the Jewish Bible, therefore it is not a religious holiday. Why is something of this significance not contained in the Bible? The books of Maccabees were written after the age of Prophecy. So anything written after 400 BC were not included in the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament. They were also not written in Hebrew but rather Greek, another reason for their exclusion. That is not to say that these scriptures were not known and widely used. They simply were not a part of the Tora.

In the New Testament we know that Jesus observed the Festival of Lights with His disciples. It stands to reason that He did so as part of the Jewish observances of faith in His time and that Greek translations of Hebrew Scripture was acceptable. It stands to reason that in Christ’s time the books found in the Catholic Old Testament were also found in the Jewish Bible, but later removed. It is for this reason that the Catholic and Protestant Old Testament are not the same. The Catholics retained books that were removed during the Jewish Canon of scripture, while the Protestants adopted the revised text when breaking away from the Holy Church. Because the story of Hanukkah is not contained in the Jewish Bible or the Protestant Old Testament, many public squares do not regard the miracle of the oil as being religious in nature. As such, it is not seen as a violation of the Separation of Church and State. Separation of Church and State is a whole other topic of debate we’ll save for another day.

Regardless of its religious significance or lack thereof, Hanukkah is a beautiful festival of lights, thanksgiving and reflection.

Jewish Apple Cake
3 large or 6 small Red Apples
2-1/2 cups Sugar, divided
4 teaspoons Cinnamon
3 cups Flour
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 cup Vegetable Oil
4 large Eggs
1/ cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Orange Juice
2-1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 cup Walnuts, chopped

Note: Before beginning, check the packaging of all ingredients to make sure you are using only Kosher products.

Heat oven to 350-degrees. Grease and flour a tube baking pan, set aside.

Peel and thinly slice the apples. Place in a bowl, mix with 1 cup of sugar and all the cinnamon. Toss to coat and set aside.

Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl. Add salt, set dry ingredients aside. Pour oil into a glass measuring cup, set aside.

In another bowl beat eggs with remaining 1-1/2 cups sugar and all of the brown sugar.

Add the dry ingredients and the vegetable oil to the wet ingredients, alternating between the two. Once all the dry ingredients and oil have been added to the batter, stir in orange juice followed by vanilla. Beat batter for 1 minute.

Pour a third (1/3) of the batter into the prepared pan. Layer with a third of the sliced apples, then a third of the nuts. Repeat layering of batter, apples and nuts twice more for 3 layers, ending with the apples and nuts.

Drizzle the top of the cake with any cinnamon-sugar “syrup” residue in the apple bowl.

Bake the cake in the heated oven for about an hour or so until tester comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 25 minutes. Carefully loosen, then turn cake out onto the rack to cool completely. To serve place on a footed cake plate for a nice presentation, slice and serve. Delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if desired.

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O King of all nations and keystone of the Church:
come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!