Are We Still Fighting Greek

Elephants? Chanukah 2013

What is Chanukah?When the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of pure oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day’s lighting only;

Yet a miracle occurred, and they lit the menorah with this oil for eight days.On the following year, these days were appointed a festival with Hallel and thanksgiving.

Talmud, Shabbat 21b

Understanding the Struggle…

A meeting of two rich cultures, much to share, much to contribute to the world, much collaboration that could happen…Instead, a disaster -- The extremists of both sides hit the battlefield.The Greeks were Universalists, open to new ideas from wherever they came.They spread knowledge, culture, art, wealth, rationalism, geometry, drama, appreciation of beauty, and most important, a promise of universalism to the Mediterranean.

Here was an opportunity to take Jewish values to the world, to go public. Alexander had a dream of universal peace, people live happily in peace and working together toward a common prosperity.This idea was not so much Greek, Isaiah in the 8th century B.C.E declared: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4)

The Jews were progressive universalists too, they fostered a concept not only of universal peace, but of universal law. Yet surprisingly enough, Jews more than any other people, rebelled against, and undermined Alexander’s dream. The Chanukah story was completely out of character for ancient Greece. There was no other culture the Greeks ever oppressed or prevented from practicing religion.Greeks were syncretists – that is, they absorbed other religions and cultures into their own.

When they clashed with the Jews they discovered their weakest trigger point. Greeks, and Hellenist Jews saw the Hasmoneans as a stubborn obstacle to progress, as disobedient and as shortsighted retrogrades.When Jews clashed with the Greeks, it was a defining experience, the red line became clear, God’s word was the bottom line.The struggle was not over culture and art, geometry and literacy—those we embraced and even preserved, just as the idea of peace between nations. It was the warning that we were not willing to swallow.

The Temple was to remain a Jewish Temple, Jewish homes would remain Jewish, and the Torah would stay intact- a Jewish Torah. We believe that our individual mission in life is not dictated by social norms and conformity to Hellenist-Western standards—but the role that distinguishes each one of us.Many reasons for the conflict. But it was something about the Jewish mind that brought out the worst in the Greek.Something that didn’t mix and match, and at the same time pushed the Maccabees to revolt.

Jews have also borrowed from every culture they have come in contact with. Whatever your grandmother tells you, Abraham did not smear his gefilte fish with horseradish on a bagel. One culture we borrowed more from than perhaps any other was that of Ancient Greece. The Talmud tells us that the only language the Torah could be translated into elegantly is Greek. Of all peoples, the Greeks had ideas closest to ours. But why such a violent clash? Why were the Jews unable to work out some sort of compromise with a Hellenist ruler?

We need to know because in a very real way, Chanukah lives on. We are surrounded by Hellenists.Our society today is a bizarre grafting of these two cultures, Hellenism and Judaism. If this conflict existed back then, the question is, has there been some resolution over time? Or are we still fighting Greek elephants? Let us examine major differences in the Greek mind Vs. the Jewish mind.

Greek Mind vs. Jewish Mind Greek

Many visible gods

Cosmic minds, creating from matter. Nothing is higher than a Cosmic MindNothing higher than reasonWorld of Cause and Effect, Everything has LogicImpossible a world without substanceHumans are the center

Jewish

One invisible God, no form, no descriptionGod higher than Cosmic Mind, creates something from nothingBelief, obedience without a reasonNothing has to existGod is the only truthWorld - no real substanceGod is the center

And that is why the Greeks did not forbid Jewish practice altogether. What they initially forbade were those practices that they saw as irrational. Those practices that Jews do simply because they believe they have a relationship with a Being who is higher than reason. That, Greeks could not tolerate.Of course, as you know, today there are theories claiming that parallel lines meet; cause and effect is out of quantum physics, and the world was discovered to have had a beginning.

Even now the world it still nothing because of this formula:

The Sum of all Energy – Mass of Universe = 0 Most of us have accepted that things are the way they are not for any reason, but just because that’s the way they are. Not everything must have a reason because:

Reason is not the Foundation of Reality. So, what is so absurd about connecting to the Foundation of Reality through God’s commandments and Yeshua’s teaching that are beyond reason?

Nevertheless, the battle continues the Greek mind that worships human intellect, is a great syncretists, it can hammer together the strangest ideologies without blinking an eyelid. When there’s nothing higher than intellect, intellect has no guiding light. Everything, as long as it does not deny intellect -- can be tolerated. Aristotle knew that the pantheon of Athenian gods was nonsense. But what is wrong with the common people, who cannot understand any better, having their way?

You can see today that a knowledge of an absolute Divine Will beyond reason has become a necessity for human survival. Without the supposition of a Divine Will, whatever you wish to make sense can make sense. If your system of logic cannot support an idea, just change the guesses and rethink the data. Anything can be made to make sense when you determine the assumptions. Every society has philosophers who justified everything imaginable -- from the Coliseum killing games of Rome to gas chambers of the Nazis.

This kind of thinking has wicked results: when you marry intellect and materialism (a good description of Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany), that is quicksand.Today, we have Hellenists who wish to marry materialism with God’s word. When these ideals of science and globalism replacing faith, what point is there in celebrating the victory of those who resisted progress into the future?Materialism is the ultimate of Greece “stuck in the mud.” It is the idea that all that exists can be observed, described and explained.

What happens when people became disillusioned with religion, the church and with faith? They need an explanation of existence that relied on Chance and Necessity alone, without alternative of G-d. The Bible teaches us that behind the world lies a Divine Will, unrestricted by the limitations of nature or human logic -- because it is the source of all things. Why are there laws of nature? Because G-d generally chooses to work in consistent ways.

Why did history unfold the way it did? Because that is all in God’s plan.The Greeks amongst us try to provide a materialistic explanation for our faith in Yeshua and in doing so, killing all sense of faith in the process. Yeshua commands us to think deeply, to immerse our intellects in study and comprehension. Whatever we can fit into intellect, we must strive to do so.

Whatever explanation we can give, we must give it. But understand also that with every new grain of understanding, we have expanded the infinite boundaries of the unknown, and that which we do not understand.You can have a thousand reasons for praying for your enemy, or loving your neighbor as yourself, or even keeping Kosher. But when it comes down to it, we do it because that is our personal connection with Yeshua, the Life of all things, and as long as we keep doing it, we continue to defeat the Greek Elephants.

Look at the Chanukah miracle: Jewish identity became yet more indestructible, more timeless and eternal. Timeless, because we belong to modernity as much as we belong to our ancient roots.Eternal, because in essence we do not change. We were born as a people not out of geography or circumstance, but out of a mission.And that sense of purpose has kept us always alive and unique. And so it should be with every human being.

The Lessons of Chanukah…Is the lesson of Chanukah no longer necessary? The truth is, in our present state we need Chanukah more than ever. The Jewish people have made many valuable contributions to humankind, but this is one of their most vital: That it is okay to be different To cherish your identity Even to die while protecting itWe did not allow anyone to dictate our relationship to God.

We as believers must continue to fight modern Greek Elephants. Chanukah is about sharing these ideas with all other peoples, to show them that even as the majority culture swamps your life with its commercialism, narratives, and ideology. You can still bear proudly the traditions of your own heritage and know who you are. Chanukah challenges us to look within ourselves and find heroism and determination.

The Lessons of Chanukah…

Chanukah primarily marks the willingness of every believer to put his or her life on the line for the sake of preserving the faith.That is, to remain loyal to the teaching of Yeshua, and the commandments God has given us as the blueprint of our mission in life.And so we celebrate that victory of the survival of the unique, the personal and the human within the vast melting pot of globalism.And that, my dear brothers and sisters, is the victory and miracle of Chanukah.

The Lessons of Chanukah…