Dear Doves,

 

   Hanukkah Eve, Erev Hanukkah, Hanukkah Day 1, begins after sunset on 12-8-2012. The day of conclusion, Day 8, will begin the evening of 12-15, 2012. This year Hanukkah is unusual. Days 1 and 8 ( a premier Noah number) will begin at sunset after the conclusion of the weekly Day 7, the Shabbat (Sabbath). When the Shabbat ends the 7 days are complete, the weekly cycle is done. In The Scriptures we know that 7 is a number for completion. It is only after sundown on the Shabbat that a ritual called the Havdallah is done. This happens when 3 stars can be see in the night sky. The alternative interpretation is waiting 40 minutes after sundown to enjoy the Havdallah. It is a ceremony or ritual to say fond farewell to the day of rest, to go from the set apart and sacred back to the mundane and profane world. The Havdallah is about completion, farewell, departure, separation, and division. Are these not themes of The Blessed Hope, the apostacia? Thereafter there will be the heaven dwellers and "the earth dwellers" as they are named in The Book of Revelation.

   What are used in the Havdallah? There is wine or grape juice in a kiddush cup on a saucer. There  are spices, like cinnamon and cloves, for a sweet and pleasant smell. There is a multi wick (3) special candle. After prayers of gratitude, the juice or wine is enjoyed, there is the smelling of the spices, the lighting of the Havdallah candle. One sees his or her reflection of the candle light on the fingernails, then extinguishes the candle in the wine or juice in the saucer which has been poured to overflow the kiddish cup. Then a few prayers of preparation for the next week and longing for the Shabbat to return. The Shabbat is called The Sabbath Bride or Sabbath Queen.

   This year the final lights on the 2 Hanukkah Shabbats (Sabbaths) to be lit will be the 2 to begin Hanukkah, the servant lamp candle plus the Day 1 candle on the evening of 12-8. On 12-15, the beginning of Day 8, the number 8 is about new beginnings, all lights are lit. The hanukkiah will be ablaze and lovely with all the 9 lights to enjoy. What does the number 9 reflect in The Scriptures? In Galatians 5:22 are the 9 fruit, gifts, wedding presents, the earnest of the abiding and indwelling of The Spirit of Truth, the Ruach ha Chodesh, the Holy Spirit. The Fruit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Might Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, the Festival of Lights, be the Season for The Light of the World to suddenly appear to spirit away His bride of the Ages? We shall see.

 

With Love and Shalom,

Jean