Parasha - Miketz/Hanukka: Heaven and Hellenism

but Greek philosophy, science and aesthetics have found a place in the corpus of Jewish literature.

By SHLOMO RISKIN
parasha Hanukka_521 (photo credit: Picture from the Parsha.)
parasha Hanukka_521
(photo credit: Picture from the Parsha.)
As children, we learn that Hanukka is about the victory of the Judeans over the Greek- Syrians, Jews over gentiles. We know from the Books of the Maccabees and the Second Commonwealth historian Josephus, however, that the struggle began as a civil war, a battle between brothers, waged in order to determine the future direction of the Jewish people. Hellenistic Jew fought Torah-based Jew, assimilationist Jew fought traditionalist Jew, would-be Greek Jew fought old-fashioned committed Jew.
But after the traditionalists won, they did not banish Greek culture, never to allow it a foothold in the sacred portals of Judea. Not only have thousands of Greek words (and via those words, Greek concepts) entered the Talmud and Midrash, but Greek philosophy, science and aesthetics have found a place in the corpus of Jewish literature, especially through great commentators and codifiers such as Maimonides. And even a brief comment in the Midrash Shahar should mute the idea that Judea rejected Hellas:
The Midrash breaks the word “Zion” [Israel] into its two components. The first letter, the ... tzaddik, represents the holy righteous Jew, while the last three letters, yud, vav, nun, spell out ‘Yavan,’ the Hebrew word for Greece. We’re being told that at the very heart of everything revered in Judaism – Zion – there must be the beauty of Greece. The question is to what extent.
The Talmud cites the verse, “May God expand Japheth, and may he [Japheth] dwell in the tents of Shem” (Genesis 9:27) as proof that the Torah was not to be translated into any language except Greek (Babylonian Talmud, Megilla 9b). The verse is Noah’s blessing to Japheth and Shem for their modest behavior after he was shamed by their brother Ham. The Talmud’s reading of the verse turns Japheth and Shem into symbols; Japheth is the forerunner of Greece, and Shem the progenitor of Israel. The expansion of Japheth is the beautiful Greek language, which shall find shelter ‘in the tents of Shem’ when the Torah is translated into Greek. The Midrash adds: “Let the beauty of Japheth be incorporated into the tents of Shem,” which has come to mean the ability to extract the positive aspects of Greek culture and synthesize them with our eternal Torah.
Fascinatingly enough, the Festival of Hanukka always coincides with the Torah portions recording the struggle between Joseph and his brothers. A parallel can be drawn between Joseph’s struggle and traditional Judea’s struggle with Hellenism.
Joseph’s roots were nomadic, his ancestors shepherds. Pastoral life, as we know, allows the soul to soar; a shepherd has the leisure to compose music and poetry, as well as to meditate on the Torah and communicate with the Divine.
But even in the pastures Joseph was dreaming of a new world. His dreams are focused on agriculture – the Egyptian occupation which came after shepherding. What upsets the brothers is not just an event in a dream (their sheaves bowing to his), but the very fact that sheaves feature at all. Sheaves represent not only agriculture, but also modernism – a break with tradition.
Joseph’s second dream is about the sun, moon and stars. Again, it isn’t so much the events of the dream that disturbs, but its universalistic elements. The brothers could even have understood a dream of the cosmos with God at the center, like Jacob’s early dream of the ladder. But here Joseph himself is at the center, like the Greek message: “Man is the measure of all things,” man and not God. Moreover, the Bible says Joseph gloried in his physical appearance, his being of “beautiful form and fair visage”, “yafeh” (beautiful) like “Japheth,” Greece (Genesis 39:6). And as Heinrich Heine said, “for the Greeks, beauty is truth, for the Hebrews, truth is beauty.”
Everyone loves Joseph – handsome, clever, urbane, the perfect guest, dazzling you with his knowledge of languages, including the language of dreams. Joseph is the cosmopolitan grand vizier of Egypt, the universalist. Joseph is more Yavanlike than Shemlike, more similar to Greek Hellenism than to Abrahamic Hebraism.
Hence, the tensions between Joseph and his brothers are not unlike the tensions between Hellenism and Hebraism. But Joseph matures, and by the time he stands before Pharaoh he does see God as the center. “Not I, but rather God will interpret the dreams to the satisfaction of Pharaoh” (Gen. 41:15).
And Judah will remind Joseph of the centrality of his family and ancestral home, establishing the first house of study (yeshiva) in Goshen, Egypt (Gen. 49:22, and Rashi ad. loc.). Joseph and Judah will join, with Judah – symbolizing Torah and repentance – receiving the spiritual birthright (Gen. 49:10), and Joseph receiving the blessings of material prosperity (Gen. 49:22). The two will join for the glory of Zion and Israel.

The writer is the founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs, and chief rabbi of Efrat.