INSIGHT
5757 - #4
The Battle of Chanukah
Clearly,
the Torah tradition favours tolerance. Al tadin et
chavercha ad shetagia limkomo, "do not judge your
fellow human until you have managed to try to put
yourself in his shoes."1 Even towards a transgressor,
the tradition is straightforward: any Jewish court which
convicted and put to death even one person in 70 years is
castigated as an abusive court by the Mishnah2. At the centre
of the Jewish view of tolerance must lie the recognition
that G-d's final evaluation of a human being's behaviour
may be the exact opposite of what was thought of within
earth's religious circles.3 No one has the exclusive
possession of truth, for only Hashem is infallible. We
have to be open minded because even the simplest truths -
the "plain" meaning, the peshat - in any verse
of scripture could come from any source at any time in
history, at any place, in any country.4 Kabail et
haemet me mee she'omroh, be prepared to admit to the
truth from whoever presents it.5
The only motivation Jews have to possibly harm others is
self defence. Habo lehargechah hashkem lehorgoh, if one
comes to kill you, rise up to kill him.6 We are not
commanded to make the world Jewish although Rambam does
maintain, in reference to the Seven Noachide Commands,
that we are obligated to make the world safe for
civilization.7 We don't proselytize. Even a
woman captured as booty, as a yefat to'ar, cannot be
forced to accept Judaism. We are not commissioned by G-d
to act as His policemen. We do not compel observance
through physical force. Our repugnance for the loss of
any human life is clearly marked. Killing one person is
equated to the destruction of the world just as saving
the life of one person is compared to saving the whole
world.8 Any priest who
commits manslaughter can no longer serve as a priest.9 Even though
King David fought his necessary battles to defend the
Jewish people, G-d did not allow him to build the Temple
because his hands were full of blood."10
It is, thus, not surprising that within our tradition as
a nation, we do not celebrate military holidays. Chanukah
is described in our liturgy as a victory which allowed us
to practice our religion and to study the Torah. It is
the ability to observe Torah and be Jews, not the defeat
of our enemies, that we commemorate. The Jewish
hellenizers, desirous of power,11 lobbied the
Syrian Greeks and received a mandate to impose Greek
policies and mete out the death penalty to any Jew who
would dare keep Shabbos, mila (circumcision), etc. The
Jews had to risk their lives for the right to study
Torah. This is the background of Chanukah and it
celebrates, not military success but, the survival of the
Jewish people and their traditions against all odds. War
was undertaken solely because there was no other option.
It is thus most surprising to find opinions that present
the Maccabean rebellion as an attack upon the liberal
Jews of that era who, like reform Jews today, were simply
seeking accommodation with the enlightened culture of the
day. The Maccabees, these opinions claim, applied
physical force to impose Torah upon others, assassinating
enough liberal Jews of the era to wipe out the reform
movement of the day. How removed this behaviour is from
the above noted Torah attitude of tolerance? Yet, the
Book of Maccabees itself does note that, with victory,
the Maccabees forced Jews who were uncircumcised to have
a bris mila. Those who wish to present the Maccabees as
super zealots bent on imposing their views on innocent
others do have their source.
The strange thing about the forces of anti-Semitism
throughout the centuries, was that it was never openly
stated, straightforwardly, that attacks on the Jews were
inherently desired. There was always the necessary
expression of a moral reason. Haman described the Jews as
mortal enemies of the kingdom whose insistent differences
threatened the greater unity. The Hellenists claimed an
attempt to end the backward domination of our people by
an archaic system (i.e. Torah) which prevented Jews from
moving ahead. There was always the reason that made
persecution the unfortunate only solution; tolerance, the
persecutor argued, would only lead to greater tragedy.
For everyone's benefit, the Jews and their traditions had
to be suppressed even by force.
Yet once these persecutors are defeated, they are the
first to cry for tolerance, the first to use the very
rights they ignored to protect themselves. Was there any
greater chutzpah shown then when the leader of the
Chicago Nazis cried "Freedom of Speech" in
order to allow his thugs to march in Skokie? While it is
true that we must be tolerant of others, any time a
persecutor arises who attacks our right to exist as
humans, or as Jews, this persecutor and his canon cannot
be tolerated. Tolerance can only exist between groups
within a framework of mutual respect. When one group,
however, is intolerant, it cannot be allowed to oppress
others when it has strength, and then call for tolerance
from the other group in times of weakness. The Maccabees
did not begin the battle but once the battle was ensued,
there could be no retreat. The Maccabees could not allow
this very cry of tolerance - ignored by the persecutor -
to be used to defend this vanquished persecutor and
thereby allow the persecutor to re-gain strength and to
persecute again. The Hellenists already demonstrated that
they did not wish to simply live with personal freedom
but that they desired to destroy Judaism. Applying the
Torah's ethic of tolerance, at this point, would be a
tolerance for a view that, ultimately, wished to destroy
Torah. Habo lehargechah, it is coming to kill you. Thus,
in battle, the Maccabees forced circumcision. This
Hellenism showed that it was a murderer - and the
Maccabees had to kill it, in self-defence. Tolerance is
fundamental within Torah - but not at the expense of
life.
How convenient to turn to the consequently forced
circumcisions and describe the Maccabees as equally
intolerant? How convenient to then make a connection to
Orthodox Jews today and extend this attack? Indeed there
are always super zealots, such as Yigal Amir, who
mis-apply Torah in their desire to achieve what is,
ultimately, their own ends. To colour the Maccabees in
the same light, though, is preposterous. The tradition
has established Chanukah as a spiritual holiday of
rescue. To claim that this holiday masks the mass murder
of open minded individuals is a tragic mis-construction
of facts.
History can be read in so many different ways to explain
and justify one's view. Haman could be described as
having his reason for attacking the Jews; he, it could be
argued, thus had his reason for intolerance too. There
are no doubt those who, in the future, will describe the
Warsaw Ghetto uprising as an attack by terrorists against
an army of soldiers who were attempting to establish law
& order. Even Hitler's point of view will, no doubt,
be understood: in his mind, the Jews were actually the
aggressors and dangerous to all of mankind. Hitler was
just attempting to end the Jewish conspiracy to take over
the entire world. So, too, Chanukah could be seen as the
celebration by Orthodox Jews of the murder of more
progressive Jewish elements who were attempting to work
out a modus vivendi so as to get along with the
government in power. Yet, in the story of Purim as in the
story of Chanukah, the Jews did only act in self-defence
after they were attacked. They did not just project a
reason for intolerance. It is not simply their point of
view that has to be understood, but the facts. The
Torah's value of tolerance demands reason and evidence
when, unfortunately, consideration has to be given to
supplant this value. Unfortunately, the initial
intolerance of the Hellenists provided the Maccabees with
their necessary path of battle; and the intolerant
Hellenists could not be allowed then to cry:
"tolerance - so that we can regroup our forces to
attack you again."
Rabbi Asher Turin and Rabbi
Benjamin Hecht e-mail
Notes
1 Mishnah
Avot 2:4.
2 T.B.
Makkot 7a.
3 See T.B. Baba
Basra 10b.
4 See Rashbam,
Bereishit 37:2.
5 Rambam,
Introduction to Avot (Shemona Perakim).
6 T.B. Sanhedrin
72a.
7 Rambam,
Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 8:10.
8 T.B.
Sanhedrin 37a.
9 See Shulchan
Aruch, Orach Chaim 128:35.
10 Divrei
Hayamim I 22:8.
11 And, according to
historians, tax revenue.
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