Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-12-13
CELEBRATION ENDS
FEAST OF cHANuKA, OBSERVED
BY oTTUMwA JEWISH PEG.
PIE, DOMESTIC CLOSE.
Feast Of the Lights, Being Observed
With Lighted Tapers, Tell Story
Of Patriotism and PIety Of Ancient
Days.

At shutdown last evening the feast
OF Chanuka, which has been observed
by the Jewish people of this city for
4 the past eight days, came to an end.
The patriotic and devout Hebrews In
Ottumwa do no longer keep lighted
tapers in their homes, honoring the
bravery of their ancestors and the sur
vival of Judaism, in this symbolic way
The eight days of celebration have
come and gone.
day is an interesting one. After the
capture of the Babylon in 537 B. G.
by the Persians, the Hebrews were
given permission to return to Pales-
tina,s where they established COM
monwealth subject to Persia. For two
hundred years they lived almost indie
pendently with. their personal govern
ment in their own hands. When Alex
ander the Great, after his conquest of
Persia, stopped before Jerusalem on
his triumphal march, he was met at
the gate Of the city by white-robed
priest, who pleaded for his land and
people. The soldier, moved by the
prayer, fell on his knees before the
priest and promised protection and IA
vor.
Issued TyrannicaI DEGREES.
In the second century B. G. Pales-
tine was annexed to Syria. Antiochus
Epiphanes, or ''the Badman," as he
was popularity known, came to the
Graeco-Syrian throne, with the desire
to convert all his subjects to paganism
According to the story of Dr. Mendal
Silber, monotheistic Palestine seemed
a thorn in his eye, and he determined
| to crush her. He, therefore, issued
tyrannical DEGREES against the He
brews, merely for the sake Of making
his power felt. These DEGREES, arbi-
trary and cruel as they were. would
probably have been obeyed had they
affected only the political interests Of
the people. But Antiochus was clever
enough to see that il he was to sue
coed in crushing the Hebrews he must
| aim at their Judaism, the one source
! of their vitality. In 1853, B. c., he en-
tered the capital, plundered the tenn
Iple, burnt the Scriptures, offered
swine's flesh on the altar and put to
death great many of the inhabit-
ants. He forbade the Hebrews to prac-
tice the ordinances of their religion
and ordered them to eat forbidden food
and to offer public sacrifice to idols.
But he miscalculated the strength Of
their attachment to the ancestral
faith. The first reply of the brave
hearts among them was martyrdom
They yielded themselves to torture
and death rather than obey. A mother
and her seven sons were separately
and successfully tempted. II can
rather bear to see them all die than
said the brave woman, and, one after
| the other, the boys were put to death
before their mothers eyes. An old
man Of eighty, Eliezer by name, did
his part, too, to prove that the calm
ness Of age can be as steadfast as
the impulse of youth. Brides and
tortures were tried on him, but all to
no avail. "Hear, o Israel the Lord is
our Cod" was the last utterance Of
his dying lips.
i Set Up ldoIatrous Altar.
i An idolatrous altar, set I'D by a
royal emissary near Jerusalem, was
the final insult. Then the Hebrews re-
VOTED, gathered together their little
forces, and fought for their religion as
they had never fought for their per-
sonal safety.
i The solid phalanx of the enemy
could not stand against the handful of
4 resolute men. In 1855 B. G. Antiochus
was repulsed, Jerusalem regained, and
the temple purified and re-dedicated.
4 1t is to commemorate this glorious
story that the Feast of Chanuka,' .
of dedication, has been instituted The
4 festival lasts for eigth days, and at
each nightfall little lights are kindled,
both as a Renaissance of the solemn
re-lighting of the holy candlestick by
the Maccabees. and also as symbol
of JOY.
4 The lighting Of the tapers is Of in.
terest to the Christian as we'll as the
Hebrew. For If Judaism had persisted,
Christianity would never have been
born, and upon the success Of the He
brews depended not only the saving Of
4 Israe1 hut the religious salvation Of