Why exactly don't Jews celebrate Christmas and why don't Christians celebrate Chanukah??

Question

Even Jews believe Jesus was a great prophet of God so why not celebrate his birthday?? Is it harmful??
Jesus was a Jew, not only that but a Radical Jew.

Also Christians believe in the Old Testament which IS the Jewish Bible The Torah... why don't they celebrate Chanukah?

I am personally no religion but I was raised Episcopalian/Christian and I just wanted to see if anyone ahd an answer to this!!

I didn't know Chanukah wasn't a amjor Jewish Holiday.

Also, I was watching this Jesus special on National Geographic and they were saying how Jews AT THE TIME believed him to be a "great prohet of God". I guess that isn't true nemore.

I didn't know Chanukah wasn't a amjor Jewish Holiday.

Also, I was watching this Jesus special on National Geographic and they were saying how Jews AT THE TIME believed him to be a "great prohet of God". I guess that isn't true nemore.

I know that Christmas was originally a Pagan Holiday. But most Christians don't see it as such.

Answer 1

I'll try to keep this short and sweet. Well, short, anyway.

As for why Jews don't celebrate Christmas, your question is based on a faulty premise, namely: "Even Jews believe Jesus was a great prophet of God"

No, they don't. Most religious Jews believe that he existed (though there are some who dispute this), but that he was an apostate. We Jews don't usually turn people's birthdays into holidays (so as not to encourage the worship of human beings), even people who are revered in Judaism. So it goes without saying that the day on which the birth of Jesus (who is not revered in Judaism) is celebrated (note, December 25th is NOT Jesus' birthday, even knowledgable Christians will tell you this), would not be a holiday for us.

"Jesus was a Jew, not only that but a Radical Jew."

Yes, he was a Jew. But he was only a "Radical" inasmuch as he taught things that ran contrary to the Torah. How does that make him better (since you said "not only that, but," implying what come after would be even better)? Unless you mean "radical" in the early-90's slang sense of "dude, that was totally radical!" There are lots of Jews who we're not particularly proud of, and more than a few false messiahs in our history. What, we should turn their birthdays into holidays too?

"Also Christians believe in the Old Testament which IS the Jewish Bible The Torah... why don't they celebrate Chanukah?"

This is actually kind of an interesting question, because the Hasmonean Rebellion actually pre-dates Christianity, and since Christians claim the existence of a Judeo-Christian tradition, one would wonder why they didn't co-opt the celebration of Chanukah. In fact, the first and second books of Maccabees are in the Apocrypha, and as such, made it into the Catholic Bible, but neither the Jewish nor Protestant ones.

I think the answer to this second question is philosophical. Chanukah represents the Jewish refusal to be assimilated, and a rejection of the detestible aspects of Hellenistic culture (the events leading up to the re-dedication of the Temple - that's what the word "Chanukah" refers to - were actually a civil war between the Torah Jews and the Hellenized Jews, as well as the clash between the Torah Jews and the Greeks themselves). Since Christianity represents the ultimate synthesis of Jewish theology and Hellenistic culture, it's only natural that the celebration of Chanukah would be an anathema to true Christians.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Why exactly don't Jews celebrate Christmas and why don't Christians celebrate Chanukah??
Even Jews believe Jesus was a great prophet of God so why not celebrate his birthday?? Is it harmful??
Jesus was a Jew, not only that but a Radical Jew.

Also Christians believe in the Old Testament which IS the Jewish Bible The Torah... why don't they celebrate Chanukah?

I am personally...

Answer 3

I don't know of any Jews who consider Jesus to be a great prophet of GOD, and even if that were so, Christmas has nothing to do with Christ - it is a pagan holiday that was usurped because exterminating the people celebrating Yule would have been too much trouble for even the Romans to handle.

As far as Chanukah goes, it isn't a biblical holiday. It isn't even a major holiday for Jews - the only reason people non-Jews even think about it as such is because it happens around the same time that Christmas does, which is a major Christian holiday. You should be asking Christians why they don't celebrate Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, or Passover, since these were not only major Jewish holidays, but holidays that Jesus himself celebrated.

Edit: Many Jews did think Christ was a great prophet. Those Jews eventually became Christians. Eventually, the requirements for being Christian were such that any Christian would have to believe in the Trinity, in Jesus as the son of GOD and even of Jesus as GOD period, and that he died for our sins. NONE of these are supported by Christ's words, much less by the Torah (saying Christ is GOD is idolatry, according to Jewish Law), so Jews catagorically reject them.

And yes, despite what Hallmark and the media tell you, Chanukah is a very minor Jewish holiday and one of two that isn't even in the Torah (the other is Purim). The High Holidays and Passover are the three main Jewish holidays, with others interspersed between them.

Answer 4

they have their own traditions. Christmas isnt a christian tradition although christians have tried to make it into that. Rather they are religiously jewish or not, it is part of their culture, why change where they came from and try to take away their traditions and replace it with one that causes more division among people.
By stopping celebrating Chanukah, it would be killing their traditions/culture and essentially their ancestors.

What is wrong with a different tradition?

Christians like to have things for themselves, that is probably why they dont celebrate chanukah, because they cant ever take it over like it started with them and will continue being a religious belief.

Answer 5

I don't know about Chanukah but Jews don't believe Christ as the messiah that's it

Answer 6

Channuka celebrates the defeat of Roman forces by the Jews during a battle that was going on then. It has nothing to do with winter solstice holidays such as christmas or yule, or whatever.

No, Jews don't believe that Jesus was a great prophet of God. Jesus broke the laws of the Torah, and he had the character of a criminal, not a prophet.

It is highly unlikely that Jesus even existed, as his story in the new testament matches word for word almost exactly that of much earlier pagan saviour stories. This story does not match whatsoever the conditions for who the messiah is, his birth, what he does and even what he does not do, as given in the Jewish Torah.

Most Jews are aware of this. Most Christians are not, being taught since childhood to believe in false translations of the Torah and the entire pagan god/man, virgin, god impregnating virgins, human virgin blood sacrifice for sin paganism -- and taught that these are prophecied in the Torah, when nothing could be further from the truth. These things come from ancient paganism adopted by the Church, not from Judaism or the Torah.

As for why Christians don't celebrate Channuka...well, it celebrates the defeat of the Romans by the Jews? Hello?
Romans = Christians, at least shortly after that. You expect Christians to celebrate a defeat?

EDIT: To Shaybani. Let's see. God gives the instructions to the Jews on Mt. Sinai as to how the Messiah will be born, to whom, what he will do during his life, what he will not do, and how to tell a false messiah from a true messiah. The Jews have held to this since that time.

Later on, the Church came along and CHANGED all of that, and adopted PAGANISM, the god impregnating virgins, the human/god pagan virgin blood sacrifice for sin, all of that, and then turned around and CHANGED the translations for its followers in the bible.

So let's see, you're calling what GOD gave on Mt. Sinai, twisted, and the paganism that the Church adopted, as the true meanings.

Seems to me you might have your turban on a bit tight there, it seems to have impeded your ability to think.

Answer 7

Jews don't celebrate the birthday of any other prophet, either. And the incident on which Hanukkah is based took place after thd end of the Old Testament proper and is recounted in I Maccabees, one of the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books, which aren't even included in the versions of the Bible used by non-Catholics. (The Episcopal/ Anglican Church does read parts of some of these books in the daily lectionary and reads the story of the retaking of the temple during Advent, but the actual account of the one-day's supply of oil that burned for eight days isn't there, either.) It might be more reasonable to ask why Christians don't observe Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, but passages in the epistles and in Acts make it clear that the early Church deliberately chose not to require its new converts, an increasing number of whom were Gentiles, to observe all the Jewish practices.

Answer 8

Christmas is a pagan holiday.

Christ was a late addition to an ancient celebration, heck, he was a late addition to the bible.

I don't get why. Perhaps because they don't have to, I sure wouldn't if I had the option.

Answer 9

Jesus called himself the light of the world, opened the eyes of a blind man, and preached that he was The Good Shepherd all during Hanukkah (John 10:22). It was called the Feast of Dedication because the Jews had to cleanse and rededicate the Temple because that devil Seleucid King, Antiochus Epiphanes, who first murdered all the Jewish priests, set up an idol of Zeus and sacrificed a pig upon the altar on December 25, 168 b.c.

December 25 is an age-old date for the rebirth of the enemy and has nothing to do with the Jewish man who lived over 2,000 years ago. Hanukkah and Christmas are antithetical.

Answer 10

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/nPcMH

to answer your question, no true Christian would celebrate christmas because it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ because he was not born dec 25th. Jesus told us to celebrate his death, not his birth and since Jesus died on Nisan 14th the last supper or the passover, Jehovah Witnesses celebrate his death all around the world in 235 lands worldwide. the shepards where out in the field when Jesus was born and in dec it is the cold and rainy season so this proves that Jesus was not born in dec. funny thing is must people know that but they just do not care