Timeless Wisdom - The Meaning of Rosh Hashanah, The Meaning of Hanukkah

Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com. And we'll see, uh, if we get anything out of this. That's the question, uh, folks, and we don't know what the answer is. Shabbat shalom, everybody. Thank you. Normally at this time, the rabbi or the non-rabbinic substitute, as I am, once a month or once every 5 weeks, will talk about the parsha. However, since I know the story is generally well known to you, and it's certainly worthy of many commentaries—Joseph and his brothers and Pharaoh's dreams—I decided, however, given that it is the one Shabbat of the year that is Chanukkah, to speak about Chanukkah, or Hanukkah as it is better known. And I would like to make a public apology, not actually to a person, but to the holiday of Hanukkah. Because until I decided that I would speak about it and really study it, I had profoundly, and I mean profoundly, underestimated its significance. I feel silly that at middle age I should finally realize how important the holiday I've celebrated since I'm one is, and yet perhaps that's the way of life, that you realize the obvious only when it's late. Anyway, lest others fall into the same trap as I, and I certainly don't assume that every Jew has, but I have long seen it basically as a minor holiday which got to be bigger thanks to Christmas. As I've often said, if Jesus were born in March, Purim would be the big Jewish holiday. The whole country would have happy Purim signs all over the place, which would be touching But ironically, it's gotten better known, Hanukkah, than any other Jewish holiday, but I'm not sure how much people know about it. The general miracle of 8 days of oil instead of 1 upon reentering and reconquering the temple is known, but that is really just symbolic of what I've come to realize is historic historically, as opposed to theologically, the most important Jewish holiday. I mean, this, I am surprised that these words are coming from my own mouth, and yet that is my case to prove to you today, the immense, immense significance to not only Jewry, but to the world, that Hanukkah is. What happened on Hanukkah to give us Hanukkah? Notice I said to the world. This is really shocking to me because I have seen Jewish history as, of course, giving the world the greatest world-shaping ideas, namely one God, one ethic, etc. But the holidays I have seen as purely Jewish. Generally speaking, Tabernacles or Sukkot is not a world-influenced missing holiday. But this is, and lest you think I have made that up, I will do something I don't normally do. I will read to you a fair amount of sources today. I want you to leave as impressed with Hanukkah as I now am and more knowledgeable than you came in. Let me begin because I have quite a few. This is from the Encyclopedia Judaica, not known for being an apologetic for the Jews or for Judaism, certainly. Under Hasmoneans, or Chashmonaim, that's the family that led the revolt, and I'll explain what revolt in a moment, though I know many of you know. Well, I'll tell you right now. Let me give you the background so that it's all even clearer. The Greeks were dominant in the Middle East. One of their dynasties was in Syria, and it's known as Seleucids. S-E-L-E-U-C-I-D-S. The Seleucids are Syrian— it is the Syrian Greek dynasty. Generally speaking, it was Greek policy: if you worship chairs, then by golly, keep worshiping chairs. It doesn't bother us Greeks. We're like all other pagans, tolerant. One of the things that I will really, uh, hit on later is that when you're told, as the general phrase is, this is the holiday to affirm a religious tolerance, that is not at all what this holiday is about. Pagans had religious tolerance, and I will talk about that as well, so you'll understand how extraordinary this whole thing is. Because of what the ruler, the Seleucid ruler, the Greek-Syrian ruler Antiochus IV— the III was okay, the IV wasn't— the IV is Antiochus Epiphanes, and he is a bad guy, to understate the case considerably. He's a rather horrible man. Man, actually, uh, and he suppressed Judaism, as I will read to you specifically what he did. Then there is the revolt led by this family, the Hashmonaim, of whom Judah Maccabee is the son. Okay, I'm going to begin with the end, tell you the significance of the day, and then go into more detail. Encyclopedia Judaica, under Hashmonaim or Hasmoneans: The Hasmoneans headed the rebellion against the Seleucid Kingdom established an autonomous Jewish state, annexed the most important regions of Eretz Yisrael, and absorbed a number of neighboring Semitic peoples into the Jewish people. These achievements were not only of major importance to Jewish history, but also left their impact on humanity as a whole. The successful rebellion of the Hasmoneans assured the continued existence of the Jewish religion and contributed to the decisive influence of monotheism in Western culture and history. Not bad. And this, and this, we're walking around, some of us thinking you light 8 candles and have latkes. It's— we have— I mean, I have chills as I talk to you. It's this— I mean, there was no other holiday that can be described this way. Assured the continuity of belief in one God in Western history and culture, and assures the continued existence of Judaism specifically, and brings in many converts to Judaism, and expands the borders of Israel, and gives the Jews political autonomy. Not bad for one revolt. Through the policy of the Hasmoneans initiated after the rebellion, The Jewish people ceased to play a marginal role in history and exercised influence for generations to come. That's the Encyclopedia Judaica. Jeffrey Wigetter of Hebrew University in his Encyclopedia of Judaism: The Hasmonean revolt and its aftermath were more in the nature of a revolution, drastically affecting both Jewish and world history. For the Jews, it meant their re-emergence on the world political scene as a sovereign nation to be reckoned with by local and global powers. The Hasmonean century, 167 to 67 BCE, witnessed the re-establishment of a Jewish presence throughout the length, length and breadth of the land of Israel, with its cultural and physical imprint on the face of the land. The most far-reaching consequence of the revolt was the perpetuation of the monotheistic idea, which was threatened by the Hellenism, the Greek religion, as it were, and culture that Antiochus would have imposed by force and that certain Jewish circles would have accepted voluntarily. The idea of Hellenistic forces among the Jews, Jews who wanted to adopt the culture the outside culture and give up Judaism, that it resonates to our day is actually eerie in its power of recapitulating history. Now from the History of the Jewish People, the finest one-volume history published by Harvard, taken from the history by professors at Hebrew University Jerusalem, all of whom secular, to the best of my knowledge. The continuation of the Jewish nation's existence, with all the impact it was to have on world history, was secured by the struggle of the Hasmoneans and the valiant stand of the population of Judea in the 4th decade of the 2nd century BCE. Okay? Antiochus's decrees and the indignation they aroused among those faithful to Judaism changed the entire course of Jewish history. Contrary to the king's expectations, the large majority of the Jewish nation remained loyal to its religion, and at all social levels there were people ready to give their lives for the sake of their ancestral faith. I'm going to talk to you about giving up your life for God in a moment, because we take it for granted it's done. You will see something remarkable. I just want to see if there's any more. Okay, that is the significance as described by these people. Now let me tell you why they revolted and what, what happened. Let's begin with what Antiochus Jesus did. Okay, and then I will read to you the, uh, the origins. Actually, I will read to you from where we get most of the information. There are books that are not in the Jewish Bible that are called the apocryphal books. They are books written after the canonization, or written when they— and they simply didn't want to put them in what's called the biblical canon. But they are critically important in that, especially in like the First Maccabees, they tell real history. This has been confirmed by archaeology. This is not storytelling. We do not know much about the historicity of Purim. We know immense amount about the historicity of, uh, of Hanukkah. So now let me, uh, tell you what they did. What did Antiochus do? From the words of 1 Maccabees itself: On the 15th day of Kislev— that's the month that we are in, that's when Hanukkah is— in the year 145— that's 145 of their calendar, not precisely the same as ours— the king had an abomination of desolation built upon the altar And in the outlying towns of Judah, they built illicit altars. In other words, what you must understand about what Antiochus did against the Jews, he would allow Jews to live. The reason for the staggering importance here is not Hitler's antisemitism was against Judaism and against Jews, right? This was solely against Judaism. If you became a Hellenized Jew, they totally let you live and prosper. The hatred was directed specifically against the Torah. On the 15th day, again, of Kislev year 145, the king had an abomination of desolation built upon the altar, and in the outlying towns of Judah they built illicit altars It ached them that Jews worshiped an invisible God. It was actually an annoyance to Antiochus. You can't see your God? There's something crazy about you. This has to be stopped. Now you, and I will explain how odd that is because he let every other different non-Greek religion prosper. The only one The one the guy picked on was Judaism. This is critically important. This is not a bigot, "Anybody who isn't Greek and worshipping like me, I hate." No! Only Jews. Only with their monotheism. And at the doors of their houses and squares they offered illicit sacrifices. Whatever scrolls of the Torah they found, they tore up and burned. And whoever was found with the scroll of the covenant in his possession or showed his love for the Torah, the king's decree put him to death. Through their strength, they acted against the Israelites who were found in the towns each month, as on the 25th day of the month they would offer sacrifices on the illicit altar which was upon the temple altar. The women who had their sons circumcised they put to death according to the decree. Merely circumcising your son means you die. Hanging the babes from their mothers' necks and executing also their husbands and the men who had performed the circumcisions. It's fascinating in the history of antisemitism how important it has always been to kill Jewish babies. It's just Because if they live, they carry it on. And so a Jewish baby is as big an enemy as a Jewish adult. Many Israelites strongly and steadfastly refused to eat forbidden food. They chose death in order to escape defilement by foods and in order to keep from violating the Holy Covenant, and they were put to death. That's from the First Maccabees. Then, so this is what Antiochus legislated, that none of these things be allowed. Now let me tell you another thing that Antiochus introduced into the world. This is from Salo Baron, the greatest history of the Jews ever written, a social and religious history of the Jewish people. It's in about 18 Volumes published by Columbia and JPS. When Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, the Jews' outburst of indignation found a ready response in the whole Hellenistic world, in which sacrilege committed even in a foreign sanctuary was regarded as an unpardonable crime. Even the non-Greek non-Jews found it incredible that Antiochus did this. You don't go into somebody else's temple and desecrate it. This was unheard of. The pagans didn't even understand. What does he have against the Jews? Why is this so important? To defend the actions of their king, the Antiochian publicity agents initiated a campaign. This was eye-opening to me. It shouldn't have been since I wrote a book on anti-Semitism. I feel embarrassed that I didn't know this. But what are you going to do? Initiated a campaign of vilification of the Jewish people and their religion. It was then that the myth of the ritual murder originated. Not with Christians, with the Greeks. Combining several current folkloristic and ritualistic motifs, the Seleucid fabulists, those who make up fables, composed a dramatic story of how Antiochus Antiochus, on entering the Jerusalem sanctuary, the Jews' temple, found the Greek captive awaiting immolation, waiting to be burned in sacrifice to the Jewish God. The king learned to his amazement that the prospective victim had been informed by temple servants that it was an established practice of the Jews that, quote, they would kidnap a Greek foreigner, fatten him up for a year, and then convey him to a wood where they slew him, sacrificed his body with their customary ritual, partook of his flesh, and while immolating the Greek, swore an oath of hostility to the Greeks. I'm sure you are all familiar with that ancient Jewish practice. So Now here, why, why would they do this? And here Salo Baron, who was the giant of Jewish historians, writes, "So unprepared was the Greco-Roman world for monotheism and imageless worship that it found in such tales, combined with Antiochus's other contention that he found a donkey in the Holy of Holies, a means of grasping rationally what it thought was the real object of worship of Jews and later Christians, namely the donkey. If Tacitus, the great Greek historian— no, a Roman historian, excuse me— knowing that Pompey, on entering the temple, found no divine statue there, implied that the image of the donkey had merely served as a votive offering rather than an object of worship, his formulation was so equivocal as to mislead Tertullian and most modern writers. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Certainly the unsophisticated masses never drew such fine distinction, in other words, between a picture and an object of worship, but believed in outright Jewish donkey worship. In this way, the Hellenistic party of Jerusalem, which partly because of fear that Jewish persistence in the traditional way of life would increase anti-Jewish feeling, had invoked the aid of Antiochus and thus embroiled him in a protracted war with the loyal Jews unwittingly contributed to the spread of the most vicious form of ancient antisemitism. In other words, the assimilating Jews helped spread this horrific myth that Jews fattened people up and sacrificed them and ate them. But the key point here to understand what Jew hatred has historically been. The idea that a people worships an invisible, imageless God— you, it is not possible for any of us today to understand how incredible that was in history. They didn't believe it. They must— it must be a donkey, it must be they're sacrificing people, it must be anything, it must be magic, they must be witches, they must be devils, they must be Crazy! An imageless God? I cannot make up an idea so crazy to any of you as that seemed to the world in which the Jews lived, that God could not be seen. And that is why it has been such a big deal in Judaism. God can't be seen, because that's the compromise that you make in order to de-godify God, as it were, in Judaism. So that, now that is part of the reason for it. I gave you some of the decrees. Let me give you more of the decrees of what Antiochus did. What, here, this is now back to the Hebrew University History of the Jewish People. In 167, Antiochus took a decisive step. He forbade observance of the Jewish religion in Judea and later also in other districts. And imposed the death sentence on any Jew who circumcised his children or observed the Sabbath. The authorities even forced the Jewish population to participate in pagan rites and eat forbidden foods, particularly pork, and the temple was desecrated and rededicated to Olympic Zeus. Let me continue though for the important thing of of what, what is done here that is pointed out. From the very first, Antiochus displayed a great interest in all that happened in Palestine and a tendency to intervene in Jerusalem's internal affairs. The high priest Onias III was deposed by Antiochus's order and replaced by his brother Jason, a man of Hellenistic inclinations who moreover had promised the king to raise more taxes than his predecessor. With Antiochus's consent, Jason— this is now the high priest who was on Antiochus's side. Can you imagine that? Remember, the high priest is the head of the Jews. This is— it's quizzling. It's a classic example to the Norwegian head of government who sided with the Nazis. Uh, with Antiochus' consent, Jason also introduced far-reaching changes in Jerusalem's political and social structure. The aim of these changes was to convert Jerusalem into a polis—that's the Greek term—which was to be named Antiochia. In other words, make it a Greek place culturally and every other way, politically. Establishing the new polis required the introduction of Greek political and cultural institutions into the life of the Jewish capital. The most outstanding of these institutions was the gymnasium, or gymnasium, one of the hallmarks of all Greek cities and the center of their social life. The atmosphere surrounding the gymnasium gave serious offense to Jews who had kept their faith. For the traditions of the gymnasium were rooted in Greek paganism and connected with the cult of Heracles and Hermes. While it is unlikely that Jason actually introduced the cult of foreign gods to Jerusalem, in Jerusalem, the atmosphere that the gymnasium imposed on Jerusalem must have been imbued with paganism. It did not take long for the gymnasium to replace the temple as the focus of Jerusalem's social life. Now let me tell you about the gymnasium from the First Maccabees book, as written at the time that it happened. Therefore, at that time— this is chapter 1, verse 11, First Maccabees— at that time lawless men arose in Israel and seduced many with their plea: Come, let us make a covenant with the Gentiles around us and because ever since we have kept ourselves separated from them, we have suffered many evils. Thereupon they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the customs of the Gentiles and underwent— listen to this— underwent operations to disguise their circumcision. Rebelling against the sacred covenant, they joined themselves to the Gentiles and became willing slaves to evil-doing. It's very interesting phraseology of evil slaves. In a Greek— this is the commentator now on gymnasium— in a Greek gymnasium, all the physical exercises and sports were performed in complete nudity. Greek acceptance of nudity was in striking contrast to the attitudes of most of the non-Greek peoples, including the Jews. On the other hand, many peoples of the Near East besides the Jews practiced circumcision, but Greeks tended to view it as an unseemly mutilation, exactly as people in San Francisco now view it, which is leading an anti-circumcision movement in the country. And it is not odd that it would come from our most Hellenized city, a movement against circumcision. It's mutilation, I'm told, just as the ancient Greeks found it. The idea that you would do something because an invisible god was wanted, and you have a covenant with this God, and you want to raise the human being from an animal level is alien to that mentality. The Greeks are more natural than the Jews. Judaism is not natural. To be holy is not natural. To believe in an invisible God is not natural. I have emphasized emphasized this in the past, the battle with nature. Baron, who was not religious, says the difference between Judaism and every religion in the world— and I just read this last night— was that Judaism was the only historical religion. All other religions were nature religions. It's— and the difference between them is enormous. And the movement back to nature is the Hellenizing of our society taking place with the decline of Christianity, which is another monotheistic, non-nature-based faith. Why did the rebellion succeed? Oh, excuse me, before the— why did the rebellion succeed? Let me read you this. Forgive me, there's just so many sources I have. Okay, yeah, more on Antiochus. Oh, I told you that. Yeah, so what he— what he forbade. Now listen to this. This is again from the, the Hebrew University professors. Polytheism is in general regarded as naturally tolerant. And it is a fact that Antiochus did not resort to religious compulsion in respect to other nations in his kingdom. The priests of the Babylonians and other nations continued to live their traditional religious lives and to serve their gods. Antiochus himself was particularly inclined toward the cult of Olympic Zeus, as is evidenced by the coins he struck. Now listen, but there are no grounds for assuming that this attachment induced him to humiliate other cults, with the exception of the Jewish religion, which he persecuted mercilessly. This is not rabbi speaking. These are the secular scholars of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Apparently, the long-lasting tension in Judea made the king realize that the Jewish religion, with its militant monotheism, lay behind the stubborn resistance of the Jews to the innovations that he wished to introduce in their country, and that this resistance endangered the security of his southern border. It also seems likely that his personality was strongly repelled by the Jewish religion, which contradicted his his entire outlook on life. Other than that, he liked us. This combination of power politics and personal revulsion from Jewish monotheism offers an explanation of Antiochus' new policy. It's a revulsion at monotheism which underlies ultimately Jew hatred historically. And to this day, it's It is the culture war, I am convinced, the basis of it in America today. Antiochus' decrees— well, I read you that part about the significance. Now, a few more things. Why did it succeed? The outcome of this conflict in military and in political terms was determined by a series of internal and external factors. Perhaps the most important of these was the boundless loyalty of the Jewish masses to their religion. The ideals that had evolved in Jerusalem and Judea during the centuries preceding the persecution had penetrated to the masses of the nation. The Torah had become part of the everyday life of tens of thousands of farmers in Judea and was regarded as an essential element in their existence. This spirit inspired the ranks of the insurgents with an enthusiasm and confidence that stood them in good stead in times of trial. It is incredible that the Jews won. The prayer in our prayer book, you gave little big numbers and little ones strong weak people is true. It's historically accurate that the Jews should not have won against Greece. I mean, this is— if you look at it, it is— it does defy explanation. But there is one critical point needs to be made about what the Jews did and what they were willing to die for that will really again show you for a moment the uniqueness of Judaism. Here it is. The wholehearted and uncompromising dedication of the Jewish masses— again, from the Harvard history, the Hebrew University— to give their lives for this. And all, again, contrary to the king's expectations, the large majority of the Jewish nation remained loyal to its religion and at all levels, there were people ready to give their lives for the sake of their ancestral faith. The wholehearted and uncompromising dedication of the Jewish masses to their beliefs was deeply rooted. Even in earlier times, the Jews had proved that they would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives when the religion commanded it. But now— now get this phrase— for the first time in in human history. The world witnessed a spectacle of mass martyrdom. The deeds of the martyrs and the devout in these times of religious persecution were to become an example for Jews and non-Jews in all ages to come. There is no pagan— in other words, no one in the world, because the whole world was pagan, who would die for his religion. It would have been considered idiotic. "Oh, you don't like my Babylonian god? I'll take your Greek god." That was the attitude that prevailed. "You win the war, your god gets my worship." The idea was, since gods are in nature, when nature wins, that god must be right. He's the most powerful. Your paganism won, I worship your god. That's how it worked. The idea, "I will die for the God of the world even though I may lose," was again bizarre, just bizarre that anybody would think in this way. And it was another— the word unique is overused— unique. Nothing else like it. Nothing preceded it that was comparable to it. I wish again to make the point, this was not a battle for— this is not a holiday of religious tolerance. It's a holiday for monotheism. The Jews were not dying for religious tolerance. Pagans had that. The Jews were fighting and dying for a Monothéism. The invisible one God of all humanity. You can't say that today because in our age that's not believed in. Tolerance is what's believed in, which tolerance is lovely. I like tolerance, believe me. Thank God for it. But tolerance is not new to America. Tolerance was a very pagan idea because there was no truth. And when there's no truth, it's easy to be tolerant. Oh, you like worshipping a horse? Beautiful. Please continue. One final word. There was another interesting thing that the Hashmonaim did, the Hasmoneans. Remember, they kept saying it changed Jewish history and world history, this revolt? How did it change Jewish history? Well, it kept Judaism alive. Jews would have assimilated. That's the most obvious. But I'd like to show you one other way, and now you'll understand why Judah the Maccabee is so popular in Israel. He did something. He brought Judaism— they brought Judaism into the world. I was reading 1 Maccabees, and it was very interesting what was related. Just listen to this. I'm going to read you, uh, 3 12 verses. This is Mattathias' guerrilla campaign, chapter 2, verses 27 to 41. He's again from the family of the Hasmoneans. Mattathias cried out throughout the town in a loud voice, all who are zealous for the sake of the Torah, who uphold the covenant, march out after me. Thereupon he and his sons fled to the mountains leaving behind all their possessions in the town. At that time, many went down to dwell in the desert, seeking justice and vindication, they and their children and their wives and their cattle, hard-pressed by their persecutions. A report came to the king's men and to the forces in Jerusalem, the city of David, that men who had violated the command of the king had gone down to the hiding places in the desert. In other words, Jews had fled against the command of the king. With a large force they pursued them, and on coming upon them, they encamped and formed in battle line against them on the Sabbath day. The Greek forces came to fight the Jews who were hiding on Shabbat, saying to them, come out to us and obey the word of the king and we'll let you live. Again, this is not Nazi antisemitism. This is pure anti-Judaism. Violate your Sabbath, join us, we won't touch you. They, however, replied, the Jews, we shall neither come out nor obey the word of the king to profane the Sabbath day. Accordingly, they advanced quickly upon them in battle line, but the Jews neither replied to them nor hurled a stone at them nor blocked the entrances to their hiding places, saying, let us All die in our innocence. Heaven and earth bear witness over us that you condemn us unjustly. It's so pathetic when Jews appeal to justice with these people around them, as if there is an ear that can hear this sort of complaint. It's very sad. Not just Jews, anyone crying out for justice when people are coming to butcher you. At any rate, they didn't fight back because guess it was Shabbat. He— the, the writer, I suspect, is not pleased with that, and you will see in a moment. They attacked them in battle line on the Sabbath. They were killed with their wives, their children, and their cattle, to the number of 1,000 human beings. When the news reached Mattathias and his friends, they were deeply grieved over the victim's fate. They said to one another, if we all do— now I'll show you another way in which he changed Judaism. He said, if we all do as our brothers have done and do not fight against the Gentiles for our lives and our laws, they will now quickly wipe us off the face of the earth. On that day, they came to a decision. Quote, if any man comes against us in battle on the Sabbath day, We shall fight against him and not all die as our brothers died in their hiding places. There is a part of Judaism which is nonworldly. I don't mean otherworldly, which is wonderful, but I mean nonworldly. And just like our Hellenizers exist among Jews today, your local Jewish professor at your university. So too, our Jews who would not fight and die on the Sabbath exist. They are the Jews in Israel, for example, who, and their followers here, who will say, "Oh, we don't need an army. If only all Jews studied Torah, then we would never be killed." The reason that we celebrate Hanukkah is ironically, among many other reasons, to celebrate the attitude that you live in this world and you fight in this world. Studying Torah— if every Jew became an Elohim, a genius of Torah and Talmud, it would not affect the enemies who wish to destroy Jews. You still have to bring out your rocks to fight them back. And that is a massive change in Jewish history that this, that this Chachmonaim, that these Chachmonaim did. And so I leave you, my friends, with the realization that Hanukkah changed history. And we ought to know that next time we light the candles. This really is a holiday of lights. We lit up the world with an idea which, if it embraced, would be a beautiful world. In the meantime, they're just 8 small lights that we fight for. And as they had to do, we better fight for it. Thank you. Shabbat shalom. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. 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