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Chanuka
on our Philadelphia Street
Rebbetzin
Ruthie Karlinsky
Chanuka
5763 (2002)
As a child growing up in Philadelphia, I remember
well the long bus ride home from school in the dark
December evenings. As we passed from one Catholic
neighborhood through another, we would marvel at
the array of gaudy holiday decorations, blinking
lights, tinsel balls and life size reindeer. The
amount of electricity used could have provided power
to a third world country.
For a Jewish kid, the world outside was overwhelming.
It challenged and tested our Jewish pride. When
we stood around our Chanukah menora, first lighting
one candle, two, three. it was a declaration of
faith that a "little light can chase away a lot
of darkness". The small wicks drawing from the golden
olive oil created lights that were far brighter
and stronger than the flashing decorations on the
neighbor's lawn.
The story of Chanukah, the whole concept of the
Greek culture versus the Jewish culture was played
out on our Philadelphia street.
What exactly happened in the times of the Chashmoanim?
There were three major decrees that the Greeks made
against the Jews: forbidding the observance of Brit
Milah, Shabbat, and Kiddush Hachodesh - the sanctification
of the new moon upon which all the Jewish holidays
are based. Of all the 613 mitzvot, why did the Greeks
single out these three? In addition to these three,
the Greeks also prohibited the Jews from studying
the Oral Law - the Torah She'baal Peh, while at
the same time the Written Torah was appreciated
by the Greeks. They had it translated into Greek,
for they viewed it as valuable wisdom, which they
also wished to acquire. Why?
The Greeks believed in nature. They worshipped nature.
They worshipped and believed in externals: strength,
the physical body, beautiful buildings and architecture,
majority subjugates the minority, etc. Man must
operate within the laws of nature, try to dominate
nature, and, when necessary, pay the required homage
to the gods of nature. The Greeks felt that it is
what is outside that counts. There is no reality
beyond that which man understands.
Of the three sons of Noach, the forefathers of the
world's cultures, Yefet was the ancestor of Greece.
Yefet derives from the word 'yofi' - beauty. And
it was external beauty that the Greeks admired and
worshipped. Our ancestor was Shem, which in Hebrew
means "name." In Chazal, the shem, the name, represents
what is inside, the essence of a person, the internal
aspect, the 'pnimiut'.
Now we can start to understand the radical conflict
between the Greeks and the Jews: Pnimiut or chitzoniut?
The outer surface of life, or its inside dimension?
This conflict obviously affects how to view nature.
But it also relates to Torah, which has an external
dimension - Torah Shebichtav - the external representation
of the Torah, as well as an inner dimension and
meaning. The Bible is accessible to all the nations.
It is not uniquely reserved for the Jewish nation.
After all, the Bible is the best seller the world
over. What makes the Torah uniquely belong to the
Jews? Torah She'baal Peh - the oral law that contains
the inner dimension of Torah. The written law, the
external Torah, without the inner dimension of the
Oral Law, has little impact on a person's moral
behavior. That is the Torah that the Greeks believed
in, wisdom with no internal effect. The Jews with
their inner wisdom proved to be a threat to the
Greeks, who therefore wanted to eradicate the Oral
Law.
So, too, with Shabbat, Kiddush Hachodesh, and Brit
Milah - if, as the Greeks believed, nature is an
absolute, then the world is propelled by fixed forces
and G-d has no input in the universe. We, on the
other hand, believe that there is an ongoing relationship
between G-d and man, and that the laws of nature
are related to a spiritual reality. Shabbat testifies
to this unique ongoing relationship between man
and G-d. Kiddush Hachodesh involves man's influence
over the spiritual dimension of time. Brit Milah
represents man's ability to transcend his natural
lusts and instincts and to control and elevate them.
There is more to the physical body than what is
apparent. There is a 'pnimiut' to the external shell.
Before the Greeks, the unity of the physical and
the metaphysical was obvious to the Jews - there
was no dichotomy. The Jews knew that the laws of
nature were influenced by moral behavior. When there
was no rain, it meant that there was moral corruption.
It was the Greeks who introduced a dichotomy between
the supernatural and the natural worlds. So when
the Jews came to the Beit Hamikdash on Chanukah,
it was crucial that they rededicate and redefine
the concept of 'pnimiut' without which the externals
are meaningless.
Today, I walk the streets of Yerushalaim, and thousands
of Chanukah lights wink to me from every window
and ledge, from little glass boxes standing outside
in front of doorways, in Geula alleys and also from
Beit Hakerem porches. These lights still challenge
the outside, the externals. It is up to us to preserve
and cherish the pnimiut. |
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