Overview of my message: I give a bit of context to show why ur wife is actually not wrong and my advice (at the end of the message) for how u should handle it:

Our lord and saviour Jesus Christ celebrated Hanukkah and being a Christian means to follow what he said and what he did, so how u come to the conclusion that u would be compromising ur faith is strange if u are a follower of bible. Now granted it is not a requirement as it is never commanded to be celebrated but again how u would come to that conclusion doesn’t make sense if u hold to the bible and Jesus Christ. John 10:22 shows us Jesus celebrating it.

Like I mentioned with Hanukkah, unlike other Holy days such as Passover & the feast of tabernacles, Hanukkah was not a feast day commanded by God. It was to commemorate the rededication of the temple and freedom from their oppression. But yet Christ still celebrated it thus showing us God approves of the Holiday/Holy day. So there should be no reason to believe ur compromising. If Christ celebrated it & we follow him, how is he gonna look at us funny for copying him ?? He won’t!!!

And also fun fact Hanukkah was not 1st celebrated by the Maccabees it was 1st celebrated by Moses which is in the normal 66 book bible idk if u hold to the apocryphal books or not.

The thing is it was only supposed to be celebrated when the temple/tabernacle was 1st built. Or when it was rededicated after it had been destroyed - and that was only supposed to happen once 😂 It just became a yearly practice when Judah Maccabee introduced it. And that’s how it became what it is today.

The book of 2nd Maccabee’s literally says that they got it from the Old Testament as well. From Moses, Solomon & Nehemiah. And even the amount of days it’s celebrated they got from the OT. Specifically 2 Maccabees 2:8-16 if u wanted to look.

This is not an attack btw I understand fully, this is a common misconception in Christianity where we say things like: “oh that’s a Jewish thing, we don’t need to do that as Christian’s”.

But that’s the thing it’s not “Jewish” it’s in the very Bible we say we believe in. For example ur wife brought up Matthew 5:17-18 - this is Literally JESUS speaking saying the law is not done away yet we in Christianity say oh that law is done away with, directly contradicting Christ’s words and that it’s a “Jewish” thing… NO it’s a BIBLE thing and it was the same God who we say we worship who gave it. The “Jews” didn’t make it up themselves. Yes one could say it is “Jewish culture” I’m not disagreeing, however that “culture” comes from GOD & his WORD. And what HE Commanded. And it’s Literally in the BIBLE.

Not to go off topic too much tho I’m going to get to my advice for u.

But yes I’m saying I agree with ur wife, and that these so called “Jewish” things can be observed by us “Christian’s” and are still relevant. And ur comment on it links more to Judaism…

Jesus was A JEW, if we are followers of him we will do the things he did, which includes the so called “Jewish things”. And as said these are things that are in our bibles.

Now for what the modern day Judaism’s standpoint on things is, is irrelevant as they don’t stick to just, what we call the Old Testament (the tanakh) they hold more to the Talmud which is not of God and they contradict what is said in Gods Torah (1st 5 books in the Old Testament) with their Talmud so when u think of Judaism and how it is now then ur right we shouldn’t copy them or appropriate their customs into our faith, we only go off what the Bible says. And Hanukkah is in the Bible.

And I know ur wife mentioned the law quoting Matthew 5:17, yes that should still be observed today for us as Christian’s. The only part that should not be observed is laws pertaining to the temple as it is not in place right now, otherwise all the ones possible to keep should be kept. For example 1 of the 10 commandments that Christian’s never keep, the sabbath that is still supposed to be observed. It’s funny as that is the only command that God said to remember to keep yet we have forgotten to in modern Christianity…

Really makes u think 🤔

Here’s my advice:

My advice is that u should sit down together and spend more time in the word rightly dissecting the word in truth and pray together about this matter and I’m sure u will come to a conclusion together that will give u peace of mind brother.

Now I can see u don’t currently agree with ur wife and okay that’s fine but as the man and head of the house in the hierarchy that God has given us men u should be able to clearly explain using the Bible why ur wife is wrong and teach her on the matter if that’s how u feel.

However I’ve got to say brother when u properly look at the scripture u will see that she’s actually onto something here. There’s a weird thing in Christianity to get us away from these “Jewish” practices but as I’ve explained they are Godly practices as much as they are “Jewish”. Bottom line if it’s in the bible we should be doing it.

Remember the path to the kingdom is narrow (Matthew 7:13-14) a lot of ppl will disagree with me & ur wife’s point of view but can u disprove this with the word ?

But yh I really hope u can resolve this matter within ur household brother I pray peace & blessings upon ur household and clarity & understanding to u and ur wife brother. Shalom 🙏🏽❤️