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December 7, 2001/Kislev 22, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 13
Hanukkah overcomes sibling rivalry
Torah Study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Vayeshev/Hanukkah Genesis 37:1-40:23
If you ask any child what happened on Hanukkah, you will hear how the Greek-Syrians wished to destroy the Jewish religion; miraculously they were vanquished by the heroic Israeli freedom fighters, the Maccabees.
However, a careful reading of the Apocryphal Books of the Macabbees, and of the writings of the historian Josephus Flavius, reveals a very different reality: the conflict surrounding Hanukkah was initially a civil war, a war of Jew against Jew.
The Jewish priestly leadership of the Second Temple gradually became more and more assimilated into the aesthetically attractive and materialistic, alluring lifestyle that emanated from Hellenized Syria.
One of the High Priests wanted to turn Judea into a Greek city-state and to import to Jerusalem the Olympic athletic games.
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 Talmud and liturgy gloss over the internecine nature of the controversy and make the entire conflict look like a battle of Greek Hellenist against Hebrew nationalist?
It seems to me that the answer is to be found in a recurring theme reiterated throughout 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.
However, Rebecca - the wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau - always understood that the ideal synthesis would be the combination of both civilization and culture, the hands of Esau servicing the voice of Jacob. But in order for this to occur, the sacred and ethical Torah must embrace science and philosophy; economic, political, military and technological advancement must serve as the infrastructure that will enable the values of ethical monotheism to influence the world.
This conflict comes to a head in the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph yearns to trade in familial shepherding for the more advanced Egyptian agriculture. He is a politician, economic wizard and polished statesman. His more insular and religious brothers are wary of this favorite son of their father. 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 ends in a crescendo of brotherly rapprochement. In the final denouement of Israel's blessings to his sons-tribes, it is the religious, culture-charged Judah who receives the birthright. The beautiful, wise, civilized Joseph serves as his fruitful and blessed support.
Now it is clear why our sages emphasize the end of Hanukkah rather than its beginning; the goal of Judaism is to overcome brotherly strife, not to eternalize it. And Judaism also stands for incorporating science and philosophy 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 tenets of the holy city of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
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