The Contrast of Christian and Jewish Holy Days

The contrasting holidays of Christianity and Judaism illustrate the dichotomy between the two religions. Christmas and Easter celebrate universal themes offering hope and salvation for all mankind. Christmas officially marks the birth of the Savior and celebrates the desire for "peace on Earth and goodwill toward men." Easter, a more somber occasion, represents the promise of universal salvation through the Resurrection of Christ. While Christians celebrate universal goodwill on their holy days, Jews celebrate historic military victories against their Gentile enemies.

Near the time of Christmas the Jews celebrate Hanukkah, a commemoration of their military victory in 165 BC over their hated enemy, the Greek-descended King Antiochus IV of Syria. The victory finds its remembrance by the miracle of the long-burning oil lamps in their recaptured temple. As Christians enter the Lenten Season and prepare for the celebrations of Christ's offer of salvation, the Jews celebrate Passover, a holiday that is, again, based on an ancient conflict between Jew and Gentile. Passover is an unambiguous reference to the night when the spirit of death harmlessly "passed over" Jewish homes and descended into the homes of their hated Egyptian enemies, killing every firstborn male from newborn to elderly in all of Egypt. It may be shocking to put it this way, but in reality it is a celebration of mass infanticide.

Another important Jewish holiday is the Feast of Lots, called Purim. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language describes it as follows:

Purim A Jewish festival marked chiefly by the reading of the book of Esther and eating of hamantaschen, that is celebrated on the 14th day of Adar in commemoration of the deliverance of the Jews in Persia from destruction by Haman.¹

The festival celebrates the Jewish massacre of thousands of Persians along with their prime minister Haman and his 10 sons. It even includes the symbolic eating of the supposed anti-Semite's ears (Haman's ears - hamantaschen) in the form of three-sided cookies. Another of the favored Purim foods is Kreplach, which is dough pockets again shaped in a triangle to denote Haman's ears, but these snacks are filled with chopped meat, symbolizing the beaten flesh of Haman. Another of their Purim celebrations involves Jews beating willow branches in the synagogues meant to represent the flogging of Haman. The following description of these practices comes from a Jewish culture organization called Jewish Art in Context, but is found in numerous books about Jewish culture and religious holy days. The second description is from a Jewish-cooking guide called "Bon Appetit."

c. Special Delicacies
1. "Haman Taschen" (Oznei Haman = Haman's Ears).
2. "Kreplach": chopped meat covered with dough, also triangular in shape. The name has received a popular etymology: "Kreplach are eaten only on days on which there is both hitting and eating: Yom Kippur eve - the custom of Kaparot, Hoshanna Rabba - the beating the willow branches, Purim - the (symbolical) beating of Haman."²

      The reason Kreplach are eaten on Purim is interesting (if a bit of a stretch). Kreplach is also traditional for Yom Kippur … and for Hoshannah Rabah (the seventh day of Sukkot).
      On these days it was traditional for there to be some sort of beating. On Yom Kippur in ancient times, men would be flogged before Yom Kippur and we beat the willow branches on Hoshannah Rabah. On Purim, we beat out the name of Haman. So Kreplach became traditional for Purim. (Phillip Goldwasser from "Bon Appetit")³

Upon learning these things, I realized that if any other group had such ceremonies, it would be called hateful and barbaric. Imagine if Klansmen observed a ritual in which they made and ate cookies shaped to represent the ears of Martin Luther King and held a holy ceremony in which they symbolically whipped him! Purim has been celebrated annually since long before the time of Christ and has certainly been important in the fomenting of hatred and suspicion of Gentiles in the hearts and minds of Jewish children. This repulsive ceremony is analogous to Christian churches teaching our children to symbolically beat the Jewish Pharisees who condemned Jesus and then eating foods symbolizing the pulverized body parts of the Jewish priests. Of course, such would be completely antithetical to the spirit of Christianity, yet such revengeful attitudes are at the very core of Judaism.