The aim of the Greeks is described in Al haNissim: ‘l’haskicham torasecha ul’ha’aviram mei’chukei retzonecha’, to cause the Torah to be forgotten and to cause us to violate the chukim of G-d’s will. The Shem m’Shmuel and others are medayek that it was not Torah in toto that the Greeks objected to, but specifically chukim. The Greeks were philosophers, logicians, the great minds of the ancient world. They respected statutes of the Torah they saw a rational and necessary to form an ethical and lawful society. What they could not accept was the Jewish people’s stubborn adherence to laws which are unfathomable. What is the purpose of law which is not a handmaiden to reason, morality, or social structure? The lesson of chok is that Torah law is obeyed because it is G-d's will, and will/desire is irreducible to reason and logic.
Ironically, we tend to think of mysterious things as shrouded in darkness, and the process of understanding as "shedding light" on a problem. Chanukah is all about light which celebrates the mystery of the incomprehensible.
The Shem m'Shmuel's vort sets up a dichotomy between ratzon/will and seichel/reason, but that is perhaps a bit of an oversimplification - maybe more later.
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Lehashkicham Torasecha, to me, indicates a direct response to the excessive application of "yofyusoh shel Yefes be'ohelo shel Sheim," the focus on esthetics at the expense of learning Torah.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the Greeks who oppressed us in the Hanukka story were not great philosophers, they were materialistic idolatrous hedonists who felt threatened by the unique lifestyle and worldview of am Yisrael.
ReplyDeleteSee that's what bothers me. One could bring a proof from Bar Kochba's people that physical prowess is a great thing. One could bring the Rambam to prove that deep involvement in non-Jewish philosophy is a good thing. We can bring a raya from Rebbi and Antoninus that close friendship with a non-Jew is a good thing. We can bring a raya from the Maharitz Chayatz that it's good to be buddies with maskilim. But the specific message of Chanuka seems to be that loyalty to our particular way of thought and behavior is paramount, and being a misyavein is a bad thing. Maybe you can incorporate a lot of things from other cultures, but everything has to be tinted with our unique traits and ways of thought.
ReplyDeleteI have always had a problem with this seeming need to distance Ratzon from Sechel. Why is it necessarily true that if hashem gave us a mitzva without telling us the reason that it is therefore irrational? Just the fact He did not give a resaon does not make it necessarily irrational but rather part of the mitzvah is to find the reason(s). That is how the kiyum of the mitzvah is meant to be.
ReplyDeleteBarzilai, Rambam did not teach that "deep involvement in non-Jewish philosophy is a good thing." He tausht that the Torah is a way of life "chukei Chayim" and therefore needs to be understood in the context of our existence. unfortunately, our later scholars abandoned that knowledge and we are therefore compelled to turn to the secular world to understand it. He postulates that the scholars of old "bnei Yssachar yode'ey binah la'itim" were the ones who did this work originally and transmitted it to the Greeks who took up the baton and carried it forward. Of course this is a legend but it tells us where he is coming from.
>>>Why is it necessarily true that if hashem gave us a mitzva without telling us the reason that it is therefore irrational?
ReplyDeleteSee the Midrash on Parah Adumah "achakma v'hi rechoka mimeni". No human being can fathom the reason. As the Seforno puts it:
וְהִנֵּה כְּבָר אָמְרוּ ז"ל 'לְכָךְ כָּתַב בָּהּ חֻקָּה, גְּזֵרָה הִיא מִלְּפָנַי וְאֵין לְךָ רְשׁוּת לְהַרְהֵר אַחֲרֶיהָ'. וּשְׁלמה אָמַר עָלֶיהָ "אָמַרְתִּי אֶחְכְּמָה, וְהִיא רְחוקָה מִמֶּנִּי" (קהלת ז, כג).
>>>The problem is that the Greeks who oppressed us in the Hanukka story were not great philosophers
Yavan is a paradigm which certainly through the ages has come to represent Western thought/culture.
>>>our particular way of thought and behavior is paramount, and being a misyavein is a bad thing. Maybe you can incorporate a lot of things from other cultures, but everything has to be tinted with our unique traits and ways of thought.
Perfect summary.
This discussion crystallized, for me, a good way of dealing with TUM issues and the Rambam's interest in foreign philosophies. Sometimes we see things that are worth incorporating, but we have to give them a "yiddishe ta'am." Chazal often seek Jewish meaning in Greek words, like Apotekei, (which is a pure Greek word, to Hypothecate/collateralize) becoming "poh te'hei ko'i." I'll bet they knew that their etymology was artifice, but they wanted to co-opt the word as a Jewish one. Rav Wolbe might have lifted entire themes from Wittgenstein, but there is no question that he wasn't a misyavein-- when he's done with it, it's Jewish through and through.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, the whole idea of Chanuka, as the Gemora in Avoda Zarah 8a says, reflects, to some extent, the natural inclination to celebrate the passing of the winter solstice. So while Chanuka certainly commemorates our rejection of non-jewish influence, it also alludes to a realistic acceptance and incorporation of things that just make sense. Just put a yarmulkeh on it.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that Chanukah turned a pagan celebration into a Jewish holiday like the Christians did with their holiday for this time of year?
ReplyDeleteNo, it is not a pagan celebration made kosher. It is holiday that commemorates a miracle that incorporates our natural inclination to mark the change of seasons.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the answer to your question is yes. But this does not diminish the significance or dilute the religious aspect of the holiday. After all, the Shalosh Regalim also are agriculture related-- Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky says that the themes of the holidays reflect equally the religious commemoration and the agricultural celebration.
Certainly. But it's possible to see the cause and effect in two different ways. Based on the view that Torah forms the blueprint for the world, one would have to say that Hashem was planning on the shalosh regalim and foresaw Chanukah, etc., and planned the seasons based on them. (Actually, according to interpretations of verses relating to post-mabul, the seasons were only set at that point. My theory is that the earth's tilt may have been modified at that point.)
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about why the dual elements of the holidays coincide, and whether the relationship is causal or casual or teleological. It's something to consider, and I would like to see something in print on the issue, because it so easily lends itself to speculation.
ReplyDelete