Miketz/Chanukah – Defending the Maccabees from a New York Times Opinion Piece

Defending the Maccabees from a New York Times Opinion Piece

Mikeitz/ Chanukah 5779

Rabbi Steven Saks

Please note that this d’var Torah is by Rabbi Steven Saks.  Further discussion of this New York Times article including comments by Viewpoints Contributor Rabbi Noah Gradofsky can be found in this post on the UTJ Facebook discussion group.

Novelist Michael David Lukas claims that, “the Maccabees would have hated me” in his December 1 New York Times opinion piece, The Hypocrisy of Chanukah. Lukas explains that the Maccabees would have hated him because he is “assimilated” and “Hellenized,” meaning he is Americanized. Why would this cause the Maccabees to hate him? According to Lukas, Chanukah celebrates the Maccabees’ success in “subjecting assimilated Jews.” The claim is that Maccabees, who hailed from the rural town of Modi’in, forced their more cosmopolitan Jewish brethren to adhere to the Maccabees parochial version of Judaism and in doing so deprived them of the choice to live a highly Hellenized life. It is certainly true that one could view the Maccabees’ as small town “Bible Belters” who opposed the assimilationist practices of urban Jews. Similar tensions still exist today as cities have increasing become “blue” and rural areas increasingly “red.” Similarly, Barack Obama received much push back when he stated in 2008 that people in small towns are “bitter” due to economic stagnation and therefore “cling to their guns and religion.”

However, viewing the Maccabees as religious oppressors is anachronistic and shows a misunderstanding of the power dynamics of the day. Menelaus, the High Priest (who was a Benjaminite and therefore had no right to serve as a priest under Jewish law) bribed his way into office and is believed to have encouraged the Seleucid Empire to proscribe Jewish practices, which served as barriers to participation in Hellenistic culture. Think of Kashrut, Shabbat and Brit Milah (Circumcision):

• Kashrut – Can’t eat at your local Greek diner in Jerusalem if you are strictly Kosher.
• Shabbat – Can’t go to see the Greek tragedy performed on Saturday.
• Brit Milah – You would stand out as different in a Greek gym in which people worked out in the nude. It has been said that some Jews tried to reverse their circumcisions.

Though Menelaus likely believed that these reforms were necessary to ensure Judaism’s relevance in a changing world, his top down proscriptions of some of Judaism’s most basic laws was an act of tyrannical coercion. Nowadays, Menelaus would be quickly labeled “intolerant.”  The Maccabees fought to save Judaism as it had been practiced and in doing so preserved the Judaism we know today.

I do not know what the Maccabees would think of Michael David Lukas. While they certainly would encourage him to observe the Jewish practices they fought to save, his assimilationist life style would not pose the same threat that Menelaus posed. The reason is that unlike Menelaus, he doesn’t hold a position which allows him prevent others Jews from practicing Judaism as they wish.

It should also be noted that Judaism doesn’t require us to choose between Judaism and the greater world. Yosef (Joseph), whom we read about on Shabbat Chanukah, serves as an example of one who was able to integrate into the greater culture while safeguarding his identity as an Israelite. He served as Pharaoh’s viceroy, even taking on the Egyptian name Zaphenat-paneah, while simultaneously raising two sons who become patriarchs of tribes of Israel.

Rabbi Menacham Mendel Sacks comments that when Noach (Noah) left the ark he realized that the world needed a combination of his son Shem’s gift of Torah & ethics and his son’s Yefet’s gift of wisdom & culture. According to Jewish thought, Avraham (Abraham) descends from Shem and the Greeks descend from Yefet. Rabbi Menacham Mendel Sacks in Menachem Tziyon to Parshat Noach writes:

Therefore, he presented the world with a program of the beauty of Yefet in the tents of Shem. He stressed the word “veyishkon” – let him dwell – to emphasize that Yefet should know and recognize his place – that he is only dwelling with Shem, but under no circumstances is to be the host.  The guest should never have the audacity to expel the host.

The point being made is that we Jews should integrate the dominant culture, symbolized by Yefet’s Greece, into Jewish life without allowing Judaism to become secondary to that dominant culture. The Torah is the cake; the best the dominant culture has to offer serves as our toppings. Thanks to the Maccabees we have been able to do just that. Jews said “no thanks” to the nude gyms “but we like your universities.”  The ideas of having houses or schools of thought such as Bet Hillel and Bet Shammi (the House of Hillel and the House of Shammi) are Greek ideas which successfully enhanced Judaism. The concept of a yeshiva (Jewish school of Torah study) is based on the Greek university.

Our challenge is to continue to take advantage of the good that the dominant culture has to offer and use it to enhance Judaism without comprising it.