Though Jews have a 6,000-year history of living peaceably (even as second-class citizens, dhimmi, or slaves) alongside people with vastly different religious beliefs, the meeting of the Greeks and the Jews in second-century B.C. Jerusalem catalyzed the remarkably explosive revolt we commemorate at Hanukkah.
Can you imagine the blissful orgy of literature, math, science and medicine that might have accompanied the coexistence of two of the most intellectual peoples the world had ever known? Talmudic study meets the schools of Aristotle and Socrates? Kabbalah meets Pythagoras and Euclid? The Greeks brought with them empowering notions of democracy, great food, a highly organized economy and long, lazy days at the gymnasium. Unlike the Egyptians or Babylonians, they had no initial interest whatsoever in killing or enslaving the Jews. However, instead of welcoming the Greeks, as almost all others under Hellenic occupation were pleased to do, the Jews were violently defiant.
The vague, dominant notion that Jews refused to assimilate "because of Greek polytheism" has obscured two concrete elements of Greek life that would have been utterly appalling to ancient Jews: institutionalized pederasty and infanticide.
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Homosexuality and homosexual relations between men and boys was not only condoned in ancient Greece, it was encouraged. The Greeks felt as if sex between man and boy, or "teacher" and "student," was a particularly noble expression of love. To the Jews, of course, it would have been unspeakably disgusting.
The only thing that could have bothered the family-minded, life-loving Jews more than institutionalized pedophilia also happened to be a critical part of Greek culture: infanticide. The Greeks were a superstitious people who treasured physical beauty – perfection of form – above all. They envisioned their gods as humans and believed that gods and men interacted. They believed that ugly babies were accursed, and that unwanted babies, babies with deformities and often female babies deserved to die.
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The method employed by the Greeks in killing their babies was called "exposure." The baby was simply taken away and left in a field, or on a rock, to starve to death, die of dehydration, or, more often than not, to be eaten alive by dogs or other animals. The practice was not marginal, it was completely normal, and it was, in fact, encouraged. The Greeks believed in beauty, in perfection, in convenience and function – and in the "greater good" of society. They embraced that black irony: "Every child a wanted child."
The Jewish revolts were something more than a high-minded battle in the name of a singular God. To be sure, Jewish heroes like the Maccabees, like Hannah and her sons, were martyrs. They died with the Shema – Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One – on their tongues and in their souls. At the same time, if a pack of baby-killing pedophiles moved in next to your family, would you be so concerned about their religious proclivities or the statuary on their front lawn? Of course not. You'd round up some friends and kick their a--es out of town. And that is exactly what the Maccabees did when they reclaimed Jerusalem.
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The Maccabees' desperate, bloody uprising against paganism, pedophilia and "planned parenthood" is what Jews now celebrate on the tranquil-sounding "festival of lights."
Those men surely knew that the Greeks would ultimately return and conquer, that the Temple would be destroyed again, and that the gutters would once again be filled with Jewish blood. They fought anyway.
At the time of the cleansing and rededication of the Temple, the Jews would have made the re-lighting of the seven-branched temple menorah – the trans-generational symbol of the light of God's word – a top priority. Only a small cask of sealed, purified oil could be found: enough to keep the menorah lit for only one day. They lit it anyway.
Making the choice to believe anyway, to fight anyway, to kindle the flame of God's word anyway, is the real story of Hanukkah. Philosophically, religiously, militarily, it is the story of the Jews.
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In Israel, they say, if you do not believe in miracles, you are not a realist. Israel's soldiers are used to being outnumbered and outgunned, but they expect miracles. There is nothing lofty or complicated about the process. Miracles happen when we recognize evil and fight anyway, no matter the odds, no matter the "dominant culture."
This Hanukkah, will you rededicate yourself to the light of His word? You may expect miracles.
Will you kindle the flame? Will you fight?
