Festivals | Chanukah
In which Mattathias hates his state and enjoys his family: Part
One
Table of Contents
It is the privilege of many old people - and I confess that I am
no more a young man - to feel that the times in which they live
are times of trouble. There are countless occasions when people
my age have said that "things are going downhill", or that "things
are not what they used to be", and more often than not it is possible
to dismiss such sentiments as the sentimental ramblings of old
men whose time has passed. No one likes to accept that it is time
to retire and to accept that power and authority have passed to
another - perhaps more able - generation. I have learnt many things
in my life and that is one of them.
But in the last years things really have gone from bad to worse.
There have long been new winds blowing in the country and these
winds are not just cold and uncomfortable, they are downright
menacing. There is evil in the nation already for a number of
years and it is quite unlike anything that we have faced for centuries.
This threat is new.
In my youth, I still can remember my father taking me to the Temple
for the holidays - my father was like me, a priest from the country
who visited Jerusalem on a regular basis - and l remember the
glory of what I saw. We were proud of the Temple then and of the
priestly family who had occupied the high priestly position for
generations. But that changed years ago; why, for many years those
who have sat on the seat of the high priest have prostituted themselves
to the rulers. They are not legitimate rulers - it is almost blasphemy
to call these men priests of God. It is a sign of the times in
which we live and it bodes very badly. Something is happening;
we people of Judah are losing control of our lives. We are at
the mercy of forces bigger than us and at this point, it must
be said, from appearances, God is in hiding. We do not see his
face.
For centuries we did control our lives. Political control, independence
- no, these were things ofthe past from the time before our punishment,
in Babylon. But we had no need for them. We do not need these
outer garments of power as long as we have real control of what
is important to us. And that we had. All of our rulers allowed
us our freedom on matters dear to us. We controlled our approach
to God; our priestly families were honoured both by their own
people and by the powers that ruled us. Initially it was the Persians
for many generations. They let us come back from the exile and
rebuild our Temple and under their rule we prospered and expanded.
Even when their rule was replaced by the rule of the Macedonian,
Alexander, the one they call 'the Great', the situation remained
the same. We acknowledged another earthly power in order to secure
freedom to follow a higher power in our own way. Looking back,
we see then the beginning of all our problems but that is to view
a situation with hindsight. We did not know it then. After Alexander's
death, we were ruled by the powers that ruled after him, first
by the Ptolemies from Egypt and then by the house of Seleucus
from Antioch in the north, and even under these rulers, we seemed
to have our freedoms and our privileges intact.
But the fact is that underneath the surface, evil things were creeping.
These last leaders, from Alexander on, brought new and strange
ideas, ideas which have no place in our area, in the east at all.
We in the orient have long developed our own ways of looking at
the world, and despite the fact that we oppose our neighbours
on many things including their foolish systems of gods, we do
share many assumptions about the world that have developed over
thousands of years of mutual contact. But not with these latter
rulers.
They have brought in new ideas and new fashions which have no place
here in the east. Their way of life is foreign; it developed elsewhere
in the distant lands of the west, in the place that they call
Greece. They bring the ideas of what they call 'philosophy' and
'science' - strange words these whose like we never knew before
and they insist that they have a higher, a better, a more 'advanced'
way of seeing the world and understanding it.
If they left us to ourselves they could keep their mistaken notions
and we would not care. But in recent years they have started to
spread these ideas with a crusading zeal, insisting that others
ought to recognise their truths. The worst thing is that many
of our people have begun to follow these lies and blasphemies.
In the cause of 'modernity', in the cause of 'progress' they go
away from our world- view and there are even those who are going
away from our way of approaching God.
Nothing is clear to me. Have our ideas not served us faithfully
since antiquity, since father Abraham? Then our ideas were modern;
then they were the basis of a whole revolution; we were the first
to recognise the living God. We are still the only ones who do
so. But suddenly our youngsters are filled with a feeling of inferiority;
they will only be accepted if they abandon our time-proved traditions
and run after these alien ways. But when was it ever important
to be acceptable to anyone else but ourselves and our God?
Some thirty years already, Jerusalem, our great and beloved city
has changed beyond all recognition. It is filled up with alien
institutions unfamiliar even in the days of my youth. There is
what is called a 'theatre' and an 'amphitheatre'; there is a 'gymnasium'
a place for sport and for what they call 'education'; God help
the world if that is the way to bring a child up in the world.
We have brought up our children with wisdom for hundreds of years.
Now, we have to see them sport naked, revealing their shame to
the world in the name of a better way of life?
Even the priests of Jerusalem are infected by this terrible shame.
It is aid that many of them finish their work in the Temple and
go off to the gymnasium! In fact, Jerusalem has become a symbol
of whoring after other ways of life. One day it will become a
place where other gods are worshipped.
The rulers are oppressive; they replace the high priest at their
whim, selling the office to he who bids the most. The evil king
Antiochus, wh has ruled for several years now, went into the Temple
and stole its treasures for his war treasury. Things like this
have never been.
There is a new rumour abroad now, though in these times one knows
not what to think. A rumour that our way of approaching God -
our sacrifices, our laws of purity, our circumcision mark of covenant
- are to be outlawed. Even for this king that would be hard to
believe.
Too many would be opposed; it would require too great an army to
suppress our People's wrath if that was to be the case. I look
at my sons, five strong boys, faithful to God and to their People.
They are not alone; men like them would never bow down before
an alien god. And there are many like that throughout our country
towns. Jerusalem might be lost; it might no longer be God's city.
Its people and its priests might have become its whores and harlots,
but there still beats a stubborn pride in the heart of the rest
of the people. They will not bow down. The banner of revolt will
be flown in this country; not because of Jerusalem, but despite
that corrupt city.
Back to Top
As mentioned in the last passage the times in Jerusalem really
were a changing. Hundreds of years of generally peaceful development
in which the whole community of Judah prospered under the self-government
given them by the Persians, had been called into question in the
last part of the fourth century b.c.e. when the direction of history
suddenly changed.
Till then the Orient had been fairly self-enclosed with cultural
and social developments being influenced by the dominant power
in north- east Africa, Egypt and by the great eastern powers that
rose and fell, such as Assyria, Babylon and Persia within the
biblical period. But with the rise of Alexander the Great, new
influences suddenly blew in fronm the west, from Europe, carrying
with them the fruits of the glorious period of Greek cultural
development of the previous centuries. The Greek cultural influences
were championed or used by a whole host of state leaders in the
ensuing centuries. These were men who traced themselves back to
those generals of Alexander who seized power after the break-up
of his empire after a very brief period. We call them the Hellenists
and it was with them that we enter the period of the spread of
Greek culture throughout the east, including Judah.
That influence started to make itself felt among the people of
Judah near the end of the third century b.c.e. It is then that
we start to see a new kind of Jew emerging, a liberal cosmopolitan
who was only too happy to embrace the new cultural trends. Greek
cultural, educational and recreational institutions began to appear
in the major city of Jerusalem, where there was a rich worldly
upper class to whom the attraction of the new ideas was very strong.
Among certain sections of the population, including the sophisticated
Jerusalem priesthood, Hellenistic ideas were turning into the
rage.
At this point the lines between loyal Jews who had been attracted
to certain cultural aspects of the Hellenistic world-outlook that
they felt to be compatible still with a loyal Jewish lifestyle and
others who were accepting the whole package deal, values, religious
ideology and all were beginning to become blurred. It is this state
of affairs that the author of the first book of Maccabees described
in these words.
In those days there arose out of Israel lawless men who persuaded
many, saying; "Let us go and make a treaty with the heathen around
us, for ever since the time we became separated from them, many
misfortunes have overtaken us."
The plan seemed good in their eyes and some of the people went
eagerly to the king and he authorised them to introduce the practices
of the heathen. And they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, in the
heathen fashion, and submitted to uncircumcision, and disowned
the holy agreement; they allied themselves with the heathen and
became the slaves of wrongdoing.
First Book of Maccabees; chapter 1
It was the beginning of a cultural war among the Jewish people.
Back to Top
We suggest a two-layered exercise to examine the question of Hellenism
and its relevance for today.
PART ONE
The first part is a trial in which one or more Jews from the period
is accused of disloyalty to the Jewish people, the proof being
the adoption of certain aspects of the Hellenistic lifestyle.
- The first stage is to give out roles and prepare the major
parts. These can be taken by madrichim or by chanichim, but
they must be well prepared. The major parts should be; one
or two defendants, a pair of prosecutors, a pair of defending
counsels, a judge and any witnesses that you might want to
incorporate. They should all read the relevant part of a basic
Jewish history, and the seventh chapter ("In the Gymnasium")
of James Michener's novel "The Source" is particularly worthwhile
as an interesting introduction to the subject.
- Each of the parts should be based on a particular identity
and we suggest writing out an identity card; for example,
one of the defendants might have an identity card that looks
like this.
Name; Jason Alexander
Previous name; Moses ben David
Age; Twenty three
Address; Jerusalem
Hobbies; Wrestling in the gymnasium; all sports
Favoured reading; Greek history, philosophy
Relations with parents; Very tense in recent past
Reasons for tension; Their disapproval of my leisure
activities and my lack of devotion to
traditional Jewish study.
Languages spoken; Aramaic, Greek, some Hebrew.
Self-description; A good Jew
Accusation; [for official use only]; The suspect is accused
of cutting himself off from the Jewish people and developing
a new loyalty to an alien culture.
Evidence; He has changed his name, his hairstyle and his style
of dress. He spends most of his time in the gymnasium and
none in the study-house. He was overheard arguing that the
Jewish way of life is old-fashioned and he has been seen reading
the works of Aristotle.
N.B. the trial should be balanced and thought
provoking. The issue is a very complex issue and it is by
no means clear that the above- mentioned Jason would be lying
as he described himself as a good Jew. There should be witnesses
to attest to the growing spread of the lifestyle among all
sections of the Jerusalem population and there should be those
who defend the adoption of the new lifestyle by stating that
they have taken an example from the priests, and that that
should be a clear indication of the new culture's legitimacy.
It is possible to have two different defendants. The first
could be a moderate who has taken the cultural elements but
totally dismisses the Greek theology, choosing instead to
understand the Jewish theological tradition in 'modern'terms
(to see the Torah stories in allegorical terms etc.). On the
other hand, the second accepts the essence of the Greek theological
ideas, and has reversed his circumcision as a mark of his
distance from the covenant with God.
The trial is on the question; "The accused has been disloyal
to the Jewish people".
The whole of the rest of the group should be the jury and
after the evidence has been presented, the jury has to discuss
the verdict and attempt to arrive at a unanimous verdict.
If such is not possible, there should be a 'Majority' report
and a 'Minority'report. Whether or not the verdict is unanimous,
the head of the jury should make a report to the judge showing
the sorts of things that had to be taken into account. If
there is not unanimity, the representative of the minority
faction should also submit a similar report.
If the group is too big for one jury discussion (the discussion
is really the part of the activity) there should be two or
more juries.
PART TWO
The second part of the activity is a modern trial where several
of the group have to defend themselves against exactly the same
charge.
- The first stage should be the request to everybody in the
group to prepare identity cards, similar to the ones used
in the previous exercise. They should include categories such
as;- - Name - Typical daily press - Distinctive items of jewish
dress or decoration worn reularly - Name - Jewish name - The
name that you go by - Reasons for prefering that name - Amount
of hours per week devoted to jewish studies - Amount of time
devoted to non-Jewish studies - Major Jewish activities -
Major non-Jewish activities
- After this, a fairly rapid trial should be conducted taking
four or five participants as the accused. We suggest not bringing
witnesses or drawing it out too long, since if this comes
after the first part of the activity, the trial format has
already lost its novelty. Nevertheless, the reason for preferring
the trial format again is to make a deliberate association
between the two layers.
- This should be followed by a discussion in small groups where
the participants should be asked to consider the question
in the light of the evidence which their own identity cards
suggest.
- Finally, there should be a summing-up section in which people
talk about their feelings when the accusation is made and
asked to draw conclusions.
Chapter Five of "Jerusalem Journeys",
Dreams, Dilemmas and Decisions of Jewish Leaders by Steve
Israel,
Published by the Division for Overseas Training and Educational
Material, Youth and Hechalutz Department, The Education Department
of the Jewish Agency for Israel,
Jerusalem, 1995.
Index
Enquiries and Feedback: pedagog@jajz-ed.org.il
Chapter Five of "Jerusalem Journeys",
Dreams, Dilemmas and Decisions of Jewish Leaders by Steve
Israel,
Published by the Division for Overseas Training and Educational
Material, Youth and Hechalutz Department, The Education Department
of the Jewish Agency for Israel,
Jerusalem, 1995.