Parshat Vayeshev  23 Kislev 5762, 8 December 2001

By Shlomo Riskin

If you ask any school-child what happened on Hanukkah, you will hear how the Greek-Syrians wished to undermine and destroy the Jewish religion - they even defiled the sacred oil of the Menorah (candelabrum) of the Holy Temple; miraculously they were vanquished by the heroic Israeli freedom fighters, the Maccabees. Indeed, the Talmudic account stresses that the "Greek-Syrians entered the Holy Sanctuary" (B.T. Shabbat 216), and the "Al HaNissim" prayer, specially added to the Amidah liturgy during the eight days of Hanukkah, records how the "wicked Kingdom of Greece arose to cause your Torah to be forgotten."

However, a careful reading of the Apocryphal Books of the Macabbees as of the writings of the Second Commonwealth historian Josephus Flavius reveals a very different reality: the conflict surrounding Hanukkah was initially a Civil War, a War of Jew against Jew, Hellenist against Pietist. The Jewish Priestly leadership at the outset of the Second Temple gradually became more and more assimilated into the esthetically attractive, philosophically enticing and materialistically alluring culture and life-style which emanated from Hellenized Syria. Even the names of the last three High Priests before the Maccabean rebellion reflect this change in identity: Hanyo (literally meaning G-d gives grace, followed by Yehoshua whose name changes to Jason mid-way into his career as High Priest, and finally Menelaus, a well-known Greek name prominently figured in the epic writings of Homer and Virgil. This last High Priest wanted to turn Judea into a Greek city-state and to import to Jerusalem the Olympic athletic games with all of their economic business advantages as well as their opening libations to the mythological gods. It was at this point that the religious and nationalistic Macabbeans staged their war of rebellion - and only when the Hellenists feared that they were losing that they called upon the Greek-Syrians for help. Why does our Talmudic source text as well as our liturgical prayers gloss over the internecine, civil war nature of the controversy and make the entire conflict look like a battle of Greek versus Jew, Greek Hellenist against Hebrew nationalist? Why hide the historical truth?

Moreover, as a kind of Postscript to the Hanukkah story, our Talmudic Sages declare: "Cursed be the individual who teaches his child Greek wisdom" (B.T. Bava Kamma 82b). Especially after the existential danger "Greek wisdom" brought to the re-nascent State of Judea, such a prohibitive seems eminently reasonable. How come our major halakhic sources - with the notable exception of Rav Shlomo Ben Aderet (Responsa of Rashba Part 1, Responsum 18) - never made this prohibition part of normative Jewish practice? Indeed, Maimonides perhaps our greatest post- Talmudic legalist -philosopher, defines "Greek wisdom" as a linguistic code which has become obsolete (interpretation to the Mishnah, the end of Mishnah Sotah). Why?

It seems to me that the answer is to be found in a leit-motif which is iterated and re-iterated throughout the Biblical Book of Genesis, and reaches its climax in the stories of Joseph and brothers - which are always read during the Hanukkah Sabbath. From the very dawn of human history, we see rivalry between brothers: Cain vs. Abel, Esau vs. Jacob. We have previously attempted to define this sibling tension as civilization vs. culture, technology vs. ethics, science vs. torah. In the first Biblical pages one of the two opposing forces was either destroyed or banished: Cain the more scientifically advanced farmer murders the more contemplative and poetic shepherd Abel, and the aggressive hunter Esau banishes the more studious dweller-in-tents Jacob. However, mother Rebecca always understood that the ideal synthesis would be the combination of both civilization and culture together, the hands of Esau servicing the voice of Jacob, the scientific beauty of Jepheth dwelling in the religious tent of Shem. But in order for this to occur, the sacred and ethical Torah must welcome and even embrace science and philosophy; economic, political, military and technological advancement must agree to serve as the infrastructure which will enable the higher moral values of ethical monotheism to influence the world.

This conflict comes to a head - as well as a potential resolution - in the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph is the cosmopolitan universalist, who dreams of leaving Israel for Egypt, who yearns to trade-in the familial shepherding for the more advanced Egyptian agriculture. He is a politician and linguist, economic wizard and polished statesman. His more insular, naive and even religious brothers are wary of this favorite son of their father who dares dream of cosmic domination. True to their earlier forbears, they first attempt to murder him and are finally satisfied with banishing him into foreign servitude.

But this Biblical tale - as well as the Book of Genesis - ends in a crescendo of brotherly rapprochement. In the final denouement of Grandfather Israel's blessings to his sons-tribes, it is the religious, culture-charged Judah who receives the birthright scepter of ultimate leadership, and the beautiful, wise, consummately civilized Joseph who serves as his fruitful and blessed support. The brothers come together in harmony, with science acting as the respected handmaiden for Torah.

Now it is clear why our Sages emphasize the end of the Hanukkah battle rather than its beginning; the goal of Judaism is to overcome brotherly strife, not to eternalize it. And Judaism also stands for incorporating science, philosophy and esthetics within the rubric of Torah, to sanctify and ennoble them rather than denying and negating their potential value. In the final analysis, our dream is to bring the positive aspects of Greek civilization into the Torah tents of the holy City of Jerusalem.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukkah.

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