Following is an article that Adir Zik wrote in the BaSheve newspaper a year ago. I've translated his article from the Hebrew, since I thought it very well written and an interesting read.
Translated by Shifra Shomron
20 Tishrei, 5766.
The Hellenists versus the Hilltop People
Also in Judea of the Hellenistic empire days they walked around with chest thrust out. Also in the days of the Slovaks and the Telomeres they wore their diplomatic suits – look at me, people, see how much I am a son of the big world. These were the Hellenistic Jews.
The great changes that happened in the world following Alexander Macedon's conquests, (he was good to the Jews and respected the Temple and the High Priest), brought the leaders of the small provincy Judea to begin their efforts 'to fit in with the modern world'. The Hellenistic culture was cosmopolitan, pretty, and full of fascinating idols and the stories of their deeds. It had temples which were charmingly beautiful, sport, athletics, fighting and horse races.
The statues of male and female idols caught the eye and the heart. The Greek language was the international language of literature, culture, trade and diplomacy.
And here, in Jerusalem, all the Hellenists felt that the time had come to stop the religious and cultural isolation that existed between the people of Judea and the big world. In a process that lasted only a few decades, the Jewish society turned into a gentile society. Jerusalem was written down as a 'polis', a city run like Athens, Tzidon and Acre. The 'progress' conquered every part. No Shabbat, no Pesach, no Kashrut, no Jewish festivals. Everything like the Hellenists: idol worship and business.
The complete assimilation of Judea into the Greek – Slavic idol worshipping society was only a question of time.
With the influence of the rich political leadership, with the influence of the High Priests who turned into the leaders of the reform, the vast majority of the Jews in the land became Hellenists. The leaders of Judea sought to give to the kings of the Slovak house a provincy that completely identified with them and that blended in with the new middle east of then.
It worked well. The Hellenistic progress captured the hearts of the Jewish masses. The social elite were in the lead. Behold they are turning into part of the modern world and not just some small and weird nation with an invisible G-d.
All the power centers were in their hands, the government and the courts. Only in the Jewish fringes were there a few problems. In Bnei Brak, in Gamzo, in the poor neighborhoods of Jerusalem, in Hevron, in Beit Zacharia, in a few settlements in the Galilee and Golan were uncultured bearded Jews, extreme nationalists, that didn't understand the greatness of the time and with shameful conservatism refused to join the social-religious process of the Hellenistic progress.
With the stubbornness of fools they continued keeping the customs and commandments of the old fashioned Torah given by Moshe. These fanatics struggled fiercely against the peoples' leadership and against the High Priests.
It can not continue this way, thought the progressive people of the Jewish state. There is a need to disengage from the Jewish extremists and there is a need to destroy the uniqueness of the Jews.
How is this done? The Judea autonomy did not have an army to fight the extremists. Therefore they invited Antiochus Epiphanies to down-trod the progress refusers. The Hellenistic leaders explained to him the important customs which are the backbone of Jewish identity and advised him which laws to decree so as to destroy Judaism. He acted according to their advice. His laws forced sacrificing pigs to the Greek gods in the Temple in Jerusalem and in every city and village in the land of Judea. His laws forbid observing Brit Mila, keeping Shabbat, learning Torah and eating Kosher. And whoever transgressed a law was sentenced to death. No less.
The Hellenists did a good job: they knew exactly what keeps the Jewish nation separate, different and special. The brutal carrying out of Antiochus's laws caused the 'extreme' Jewish minorities to flee from the settled areas and to turn into 'hilltop people'. There, in the Judean and Samarian hills, in the edges of the Galilee and Golan they hid and fought for their Torah which didn't have a chance.
The soul of the sane Jewish public was disgusted with these stupid extremists, who didn't understand that the world had changed, that there is a need to blend in with it so that the culture will blossom and so that the economy will develop.
The decisions of the Hellenistic leaders in Jerusalem were: disengagement from the uniqueness of the isolated Jew, and disengagement from those who refuse progress. They wanted to accomplish all this quickly, decisively, without delays.
Only one refuser, Matityahu son of Yochanon, an elderly and extremist priest, from Modee'een, a small village in the hallucinated borders of the state of Judea, he and his five sons ruined their entire celebration.
And all the rest is told in the books of the Maccabbees 1-4 (exterior books) and in the history books.
From The Holiday of Bravery to the Holiday of Parties
Tel- Aviv. The end of the forties. I am a child from a secular house who believes in G-d and starts to become religious.
My family is full of socialist Zionists, people of the HaShomer HaTzair and regular secular. Not one of them observes commandments.
The Chanukah holiday arrives and small Adir Zik asks his uncle thus: but Matityahu and his sons started the rebellion because they were forced to eat pig – so how is it that you in the Shomer HaTzair Kibbutz light candles and celebrate Chanukah and at the same time gobble pig?
My uncle, Zlig Atinger, a member of the Evron Kibbutz, explains to me thus: look Adir'le, today is a different period. Today people are wise. They don't need stories about G-d in heaven in order to express their Jewishness. We are the Macabbees of today. Without kipot and without beards. We are warriors and builders. We are the even- guard of the Jewish nation. To be a heroic Maccabee one needn't keep the old fashioned commandments that you are being taught at the 'Bilo' school.
My uncle Zlig was a loved and loving uncle; he opened the doors of western culture and the best Hebrew literature wide before me. It pained him that Adir'le had become crazy and wanted to become religious. "The boy is really being wasted", he explained to my worried parents.
Yes, they raised a generation of "The Strong Tzabar, the healthy, the erect, and the warrior – the Maccabee of today." For them Yehuda the Maccabee was a youth with a forelock and khaki shorts. And the female Maccabbee – a maiden with a braid and with shorts. The generation of Palmach symbolized for them the generation of the modern Maccabbees. "A miracle didn't happen to us. We didn't find a jug of oil. We delved in the stone until we bled – and there was light."
Chanukah had turned into a holiday of physical bravery of the new Jew being raised in Israel.
Only fifty years have passed since then and Chanukah has turned from a holyday to a holiday. A collection of festivals and tasteless jokes. No bravery, no values worth fighting for. No heroes. Nothing. 'Maccabbee' is one of ten players that kick a ball, or five colored Americans playing basketball.
In the reality of today there isn't even the cheeky audacity to be 'the Maccabbee of today'. What happened then doesn't interest anyone.
The Cleverness of the Date
In Yiddish they say: "El'as in bashert" – nothing occurs by chance in the world. Even the date on which we celebrate Chanukah has meaning upon meaning.
G-d's hall, the second Temple was established on the 24th of Kislev.
In the book of Chagai chapter 2 verse 18 it is written: "But now consider from this day onwards, from the twenty fourth of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the L-ord's Temple was laid, consider it."
The book of the Maccabees 1 verse 59 tells us that on the twenty fifth of the month of Kislev Menelaus, the Hellenistic High Priest, sacrificed a pig on the alter in the Temple, and killed the women who had circumcised their sons.
The Temple was defiled by the Hellenists purposefully on the date on which it was established in the days of the prophet Chagai.
And in the book of the Maccabbees 4 from verse 52 it is written: "And they rose on the morning of the twenty fifth of the ninth month which is the month of Kislev in the 148th year and they sacrificed a sacrifice according to the Torah on the new Olah alter which they had done.
"In the season and day in which the gentiles had defiled it in that day it was dedicated with songs and with harps and with fiddles and with cymbals. And the entire nation fell on its' face and prayed and blessed to the heaven that succeeded for them and they did the dedication of the alter eight days and they joyfully sacrificed sin offerings and they sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving."
Happy Chanukah to you Jews.
Shabbat Shalom Jews.
With G-d's help we will win.
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