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NOVEMBER 25, 2021 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
The Eternal Victory of Chanukah BY R’ YAAKOV KLEIN
One,
less than serious, answer to the question of why we eat an abundance of fried foods during the glorious days of Chanukah is that we do so to counter the Greeks and their worldview. Because the villains of the Chanukah story exalted the human body and the beauty of its form, we eat particularly fattening foods to demonstrate our lack of concern for physical appearance! While meant as a joke, the premise of this response is a solid one. The Greeks did, in fact, glorify the human body, and the military victory of Chanukah which culminated in the miracle of the oil during the rededication of the Beis HaMikdash does embody a deeper triumph over the worldview the Hellenists sought to force upon the Jewish nation. Indeed, it is this underlying battle between the Jewish and Greek worldviews that transforms the Chanukah tale from a set of historical events into a living fountain of insight and relevance for our holy nation in every place and for all time. In order to appreciate the nature of this conflict and its meaning for us, today, it is important first to dig beyond the surface of the Greek fascination with the human body and its external appearance. Our sages teach that the human being is a microcosm of the world. One implication of this foundational concept is that, just as the human being is a composite of body and soul, so too is the world similarly composed of two elements – an external layer of physicality, the world we can see, feel, hear, smell, touch, and thus comprehend, as well as an interior layer of spirituality, a fountain of ineffable essence from which all perceptible reality derives. The tzaddikim explain that the Greek esteem for the strength and beauty of the human body was only the most specific expression of a more general worldview, one that denied the existence of a spiritual realm and recognized only the tangible, physical layer of reality. Whatever couldn’t be sensed, whatever couldn’t be explained or understood was flatly presumed not to exist, and a cultural senti-
ment echoed in every crevice of Greek life, “whatever there is to know, that we shall know someday.” This perspective is, of course, absolutely antithetical to the fundamental foundations of the Torah. The same Torah that describes the first man as having both an earthly component, “afar min ha’adama,” as well as an animating spiritual essence rooted in the infinite Creator, “vayipach b’apo nishmas chayim” (Bereishis 2:7), goes on to outline a lifestyle that often frequently defies human comprehension and places on a pedestal those things which, to the Greek mind, seem absolutely pointless. A prime example of this approach is the primacy of Torah study in the life of a Jew. Consider this
There is more to life, more to reality, more to the human being than what meets the eye or can be grasped by the mind. individual, slumped over an ancient text for hours on end, pondering hair-splitting dialectics which often carry no consequence even within the realm of Jewish observance. What is he accomplishing? What did he create, invent, originate, produce? How does this scholarship benefit the world? Even within our very own communities, there is often a sentiment of scorn; a feeling that those who have
devoted their lives to Torah study (within the parameters of reasonable responsibility, a subject beyond the scope of this article) are somehow less-than, that they do nothing all day and then rely on the financial success of those who actually accomplished something in the world for support. The ancient Greeks may have been long defeated, but their influence lingers still – the common assumption that the value of a thing depends on its perceptibility, on the import of its functionality for the physical world. To the Jewish mind, the exact opposite is true. The soul’s invisibility does nothing to detract from the reality that it alone powers the body with all of its remarkable processes. On the contrary, this invisibility is an effect of the soul’s ability to animate – it derives from a realm beyond this world, a realm of life-force that transcends the physical reality around us. And the stronger the soul grows, the more vibrant the body will become, the more its capacity to function will increase. Similarly, while the effects of Torah study may not be readily perceivable in the physical realm, it is Torah study that keeps funds in the bank accounts of those who support yeshivos and kollelim, not the other way around. “Were it not for My covenant day and night, I would not maintain the strictures of heaven and earth.” (Yermiyahu 33:20) All lifeforce and vitality in the world, that then allows for development and accomplishment in the physical layer of reality, is a result of Torah study, not despite the fact that our eyes can’t see exactly how this works, but because of it. The yom tov of Chanukah represents the rectification of the Greek perspective on existence and its residual impact on minds and hearts, even today. In Parshas Vayishlach, Yaakov Avinu battles the angel of Eisav, a battle from which he emerges victorious – but not before the angel succeeds in damaging Yaakov’s thigh. The Zohar HaKadosh (Vayishlach 171a) teaches that the thighs, which represent the traits of Netzach and Hod, are the
