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What Can We Learn from Chanukah? - Part 1 - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb
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Follow us: https://www.hidabroot.com https://www.youtube.com/@Hidabrootcom https://www.instagram.com/hidabroot_global https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbCYZjl1CYoa4ulQIK2q What is Judaism’s perspective of the Greek culture? Are there any valuable ideas we can learn from Greek wisdom? Rabbi Gottlieb discusses the Torah approach to Greek culture and philosophy. For more inspiring content: @Hidabrootcom
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I want to start by telling you a very
bitter fictional story appeared in The
Daily newspaper my Reeve about 40 years
ago but like all good fiction describes
an altar present reality this story
describes a child coming home from
school where they are learning about
Hanukkah secular Israeli school he says
to his father I but were the Maccabees
da te religious Jews says father says no
of course not the Maccabees were
military heroes revolutionaries fighting
for freedom and social equality they
were a team the child says but I but
they taught us in school that the revolt
was triggered by the offering of pigs in
the temple and that the revolt was
started by kohanim who felt that this
was a desecration of the temple and in
the end they lit the menorah that's why
people light candles I'm konica because
of the menorah that was lifted in the
temple so father thinks and he has to
backtrack it is as well I guess I guess
they were that team I guess they were
religious the child says Allah do you
think that they kept Shabbat the files
as well I guess if they were that Ian
must capture bad and kashrut and
holidays and you go through a list of
standard missiles and the father has to
agree that they probably hid then the
chest was Father Abba we don't keep
Shabbat do we
and the valid of course not that
old-fashioned it superstition
superstitious it boards the little ages
you know it's antisocial and some of
this on and we don't keep cash shoot
either no cheeseburgers are wonderful
and he goes through the various holidays
Mary Smith salt and of course the father
has to admit that they don't I was proud
of it they don't keep those missile
finally child says to the Father Abba if
we had lived in those days which side
would we have been on with we have been
on the Jewish side or the Greek side
what do we look more like in today's
contemporary Israel do we look more like
classical Judaism or more like classical
Greece that's the end of the story with
that question now my Reeve was and still
is a secular daily so it was quite brave
of them to print that piece I don't know
if it could be done today it was then 40
years ago when the world was more open
and less politically correct but I think
it raises a serious question about how
to understand contemporary Israeli
society and that is one of the questions
that we will discuss over this week have
a chance to talk a little about Zionism
I want to give one illustration also
that we worthwhile thinking about every
few years in this country there is an
international sports competition called
the maccabi games who invented
international sport competition who
invented it what culture invented that
ancient Greece okay now the last time I
checked the Maccabees were the people
who fought to push Greek culture out of
this country ok so now I put two and two
together and try not to get six the
Maccabees are fought against greek
culture and now we have a contemporary
expression agreed
culture international sports competition
so what title do we give it the Maccabee
in games the model is term I can think
of as irony I can think of more severe
terms to describe this this belongs to a
certain a certain category of activity I
carry the activity is called propaganda
and here's that propaganda works you
take a term which has honorific
associations for a population and you
apply it to the exact opposite of what
it's supposed to designate so as to
borrow the honorific associations for
the opposite of what it it's supposed to
designate the maccabees fought against
the greeks today you have a celebration
of greek culture so you take the name
which has high honor in Jewish society
MacCabe and you apply it to expression
expression of recapture something I
won't even say it's odd because the
world is full of propaganda but when
you're aware of that you think it
through it begins to give you a certain
sense of perhaps distance that one ought
to have from some of the ways in which
the contemporary State of Israel and the
culture of Israel presents itself this
is just a headline and as the week goes
on we will talk about this in detail I'm
wondering a second introductory remark
many people are talking about Athens
versus Jerusalem and the Greeks versus
the Torah I think there is a trap that i
would like to dot not not to fall into
and that is to paint this as an absolute
confrontation and of course everything
in the Torah is is right and good and
true that's correct and then the
conclusion would be that everything on
the Greek side is wrong and bad I must
be negated and that's incorrect that's
incorrect it's not an attitude that the
Torah has towards anything and in
particular it's not an attitude that the
Torah has towards Greece because when
the children of Noah I having their
futures described and this is prophetic
the verse says the app that will keep me
llevas nichkhun were all ashamed God
should enable EFS was one of the Knox
children and who's descended is java
Greece God should give him the ability
to develop he should develop grow huge
combo all the shame and he should dwell
in the tents of shame shame is the
progenitor of the Jewish people so that
the oral tradition takes as applying
particularly to your phone Greece was a
child of the fs and he should grow and
he should develop spread his
understanding and his expertise but he
should dwell in the tents of shame which
means that you cannot simply categorize
it as evil the the tradition calls the
darkness but even darkness has its role
the world started with darkness and
unlike light came into a world of
darkness and they still both function in
the world even though they had to be
separated by they both function that
means that that the challenge is to find
something in the world of the fs of
Greece which is positive together with
healing out the negative and discarding
it criticizing and discarding it one has
to identify what's positive and show a
way in which that can play a role in the
tents of the Torah the Gemara says a
moment of reh talk about going of timing
if you are told that the non-jews of the
world have wisdom believe it it's true
it's true Hoffman Huck was a very strong
term in our tournament and in our
tradition they have Kozma a moment a yes
turban going out timing if they tells
you that they have Torah don't believe
it the rough difference is
wisdom is a means understanding of how
the world works is only a means it
doesn't tell you what you should do it
only tells you how to do what you set
yourself to do really we should do Tori
tells you what you should do which is a
wisdom unto itself but the non-jewish
world has wisdom as well as long as that
wisdom is used in the tents of the Torah
then it has a positive role now I don't
know if you've how much you've looked at
the archaeology in this country if you
go to the north and you see synagogues
from 2,000 years ago 1800 years ago very
often they the roof is supported by
pillars which are in the Greek
architectural style and I like certain
naive archaeologists and historians who
think that this was a compromise this
shows Greek influence on the Jewish
religion on the contrary this attitude
goes back to Noah 4,000 years ago that
the Greek has a place yes greek-style
pillars can hold up the roof they can do
that didn't tell you what you should do
there what's your take a place there but
they can be used for the architecture of
the building that's contributing a means
but not taking over the ends um there
was a fellow and if he's still alive
maybe still alive Jacob Posner who at
last count wrote to infinity of books he
was writing one a year for many years
and he claimed the position of having
understanding of Jewish history and
Jewish philosophy Jewish religion and he
wrote about the Greek influence on
judy's on the grounds that in some of
those setting augs that were uncovered
there were mosaics and some of the
mosaics were mosaics of the zodiac
with the zodiacal pictures which come
from Greek culture so said here you see
obviously that Greek culture and Greek
religion had inroads into Judaism as
over the so on one very careful
archaeologists noticed that these
pictures of the zodiac had labels some
of the labels were wrong there's a wrong
constellation for the label she said you
know if you were compromised with Greek
religion if you're trying to show that
you had some desire to express week
religion you wouldn't get the labels off
this was an artistic style and they put
it up as an artistic decoration and the
labels to get it right get it wrong
didn't matter so one has to be very
careful not to be overwhelmed by these
borrowings of trappings of Greek culture
as long as they are just artistic
collaborations or their architectural
styles and not infiltrating into the
goals which is up with your story and
alito so I don't want to be caught in
the trap of thinking that everything
Greek has to be bad because Greece
opposed what we stand for no we have to
be careful to be selective and
identified the parts of Greece that can
be used elevated incorporated identify
the parts the can't and those that can
we have to see how that can be done ok
that's the introduction to the whole
series now I want to start with a key
piece of Greek philosophy this comes to
fruition in our sole ruler and Plato and
Socrates but it comes to parishioner
Aristotle and it is a very radical idea
and here there will be a great a great
opposition and that is the status of
nature in Aristotle's philosophy nature
is everything nature's everything
everything that exists is natural there
are laws of nature the laws of nature
govern everything nothing escapes nature
even though the laws aren't aren't
universally deterministic but nature is
everything that transcends nature you
may read if you if you read some
excerpts of Greek philosophy I'm not
recommending this but if you happen to
you'll see that they mentioned God
careful translators write it with a
little G God in that not corpus does not
mean creator there's no creator the
world has no beginning Paris title the
world has no beginning goes back forever
and will continue forward forever and it
runs on certain principles of those
principles have always been running the
world I will always be running the world
there'd ever be any any overall change
in the structure of the world now
different areas of the world are under
the control of different types of
nature's if it aspects of nature the
heavens which are very regular
repetitive and for the Greek unchanging
the Greek picture the heavens is that
they never change their constant
Universal always have been and always
will be the same as anybody here heard
the word quintessence they may have a
clue with quintessence means Quint means
five essence means essence surprise the
Greek picture of the world was in our
part of the world there are four basic
elements earth air fire and water
everything that's in the world is a
combination of those four elements
anything that's combined of different
elements eventually comes apart the
combination of different elements is
inherently unstable and the stability
can be purchased only at the cost of a
certain amount of energy and the energy
runs out the stability is lost and the
thing comes apart everything falls apart
sooner or later because it's a
combination of
or different elements uneasily
cooperating but the heavens aren't like
that the heavens aren't combinations of
different elements they are a single
fifth essence quintessence means fifth
essence and heavens are each thing in
the heavens the Sun Moon Stars all of
them are made out of only one essence
not four elements but one a thing that's
made out of one has no reason to fall
apart there's no tension there's no
incompatibility and therefore the
heavens are forever exactly as you see
them so they always have been and so
they always will be only in things of
the earth all fall apart eventually
because they are combinations of these
four elves and of course they are being
recombined by the same forces to put
them put them together same forces are
continuing to put the other cycle of
building up and dissolution that has
been going on from forever and continues
to go on and we'll go on and say wait
forever so whatever you want to believe
whatever you want to make to incorporate
your whatever your picture it's got to
fit into the idea of nature so then why
do they use the word God at all what's
g-o-d doing for them well there's ten
picture is that if you want to explain
why things happen there are four
different elements of explanation for
different things you take into account
when you explain why things happen three
of them are familiar to us as I will
describe to you and the fourth is not
familiar because modern science has
tried to eliminate it Oh some are urging
that she'd come back in like Thomas
Nagel you want to know why logs burn
well they burned because wood the stuff
they're made out of wood has certain
qualities which enable it to combust to
oxidize and that's what burning is
the kind of stuff that wood is when you
aren't explain why something happened
sometimes you explained on the basis of
the material you're dealing with he lit
a match and there was an explosion why
is that because there was fuel vapor in
the air which he was unaware of and it
ignited because that's what fuel vapor
does when you give it a spark it
explodes that's an explanation the basis
of the side on the nature of the
materials now if you've had this
experience if you travel a lot you may
have this experience was up ahead a
number of times check out a coin put it
in the slot the machine comes tumbling
out anything gee I wonder what happened
the answer is that you're standing in
front of Israeli machine and you're
using a leftover American coin in your
pocket which looks roughly the same it
looks about the same size and you just
took it but the machine doesn't get
fooled it knows it's not exactly the
right shape exactly the right size so
it's been two back there the
explanations are the basis of the shape
of the item not what is made of it could
be made of copper or nickel or or tin
machine won't care about that the cajun
just care but that should be the site
right size and shape so that's the
second type of explanation a third type
of explanation that we're all familiar
with is where an event a cause another
event someone comes home and he sees his
big plate glass window in shards and
pieces on the floor and there's a big
heavy stone on his floor anything wonder
what happens and somebody says you know
are you living within the vicinity of an
Arlen don't talk about that that's just
politics I'm somehow somehow he has to
Kurt political authorities maybe there
was a gust of wind that lifted up the
stone and wife did it through your
window you know couldn't be a person
through it with person I was certainly
no we won't tell you but obviously the
stone what broke the window so the
stones motion hitting the window cause
the window to break those are three
types of explanations which we all
recognize and Aristotle enshrined all
three but then he had a fourth type we
take an acorn
now you take a see-through winged seed
from maple tree you plant it and guess
what the a crowd grows into an oak and
the sea from the maple tree grows into a
maple tree why did he do that because
the Acorn wants to be an open it has oh
goodness drawing it in the future a goal
of oak this draws it to develop in a
particular way whereas the wing it seed
from maple wants to be maple tree and
it's drawn by the end of maple pneus to
develop into a maple tree and not into
an oak things have goals built into them
and that future goal is one of the
explanations for why things do what they
do now if that sounds fun for the
Earth's because as I said modern science
banish that maybe not correctly but
that's what they did they were they
opted in favor of past events causing
future events but in human in the case
of human action we do this all the time
why did he do that because he wanted to
get cute that's why he did beginning of
Kyo is what motivated him to do it now
it's the future cue that draws him to
act in that direction this is what's
called officially teleological
explanation at a loss is an end a goal
some future state and that's a fourth
way in which things happen things happen
because future states call them to
develop in that direction now as I said
human action that's that's why we talk
about human action all the time indeed
in Lahad ID which we sing Friday night
there's a phrase soph maya sieber
macabre tila that which is last in
action is first in thought last in
action is first in thought what kind of
item is that think of the items that
there are in the world what kind of item
could you call last in action at first
and thought the answer is a purpose a
purpose is last in action at first and
thought he asked a kid in high school
what are you what kind of profession you
want to have when you grow up now you
don't say that because he thinks he's
already growing up but and he says I'll
be a doctor oh really so what are you
doing about it i'll listen to be a
doctor means I've got to go to medical
school go to medical school means I
gotta go to a good undergraduate pre
medical program so I've looked into the
universities to have good undergraduate
pre-med programs like Johns Hopkins
where I used to teach and I've
discovered what kinds of criteria they
use for admissions and I'm taking
science courses in high school and I'm
doing science projects that I'm trying
to form a relationship with the science
teachers and show them how gifted I am
how responsible I am and so on and so on
so that I can get into johns hopkins and
you had a good undergraduate pre-med
education get into a good medical school
and then become a doctor now look at his
his when we come out of my shovel look
at his mental is mental flow the goal is
be a doctor how do I get there well
medical school how do we get there good
undergraduate program and how do I get
there a good high school record and
that's what he's working on now and in
two years he'll go to johns hopkins and
four years later he'll go to johns
hopkins medical school and eight years
later become a doctor so becoming a
doctor was first in thought but last in
action that's what a purposes that's a
typical way to explain human action now
aristotle saw that functioning in the
world as well i told you about the a
corner and the maple animals want to
survive and the survival and
reproduction is what draws them to act
in the way that they do and not only
that not only the individual things have
purposes built in but the world as a
whole has a general purpose built in and
that general purpose is that the
functioning of each thing and its
relationships to everything else should
be idealized that's a goal built in
of the world some of the things that
happen in the world are the result of
that idealized go pulling things forward
that's g-o-d with a little G that's part
of nature that beyond nature doesn't
dictate to nature it's part of nature I
don't know if you follow the evolution
wars and the intelligent design Wars but
one of the great thinkers of our time
Thomas Nagel who happens to be Jewish
and for these purposes happens to be
beneficial that he's if you think
because he's a great critic of standard
evolution and if you're religious that
they were dismissed him as a crank they
can't dismiss him because he's a
top-notch philosopher and he wants to
revive this our Sicilian idea it's not
enough to talk about X pushes why but
why falls on z and z cracks and breaks
and then that trips the alarms and so on
and so on it's not enough to talk about
that you have to talk about the world
developing towards certain ends
naturally as part of nature and he says
I know that someone with a religious
point of view could use my argumentation
to get a different result I know that
but I'm not religious I don't want to
follow that with that line so I want to
try to mimic it within the world and use
this idea of an end drawing things
forward and yes it's a resurrection of
our stuff quite right so the world's
books not closed on Aristotle even
though the vast majority are screaming
in pain and trying to discredit him but
they're not spreading it with arguments
there just discrediting which is the
standard of debate today now this is
very important for us because little
g-o-d sometimes to be confused for
capital g OD and we will have a very
careful to distinguish between them keep
them clearly separate in our minds now
one more point on I make today and it
will fill in these things in the coming
days
we have a tradition that at a certain
point in the oppression the Greeks
opposed three Jewish mitzvahs shabbos
Mila bris milah circumcision and rosh
chodesh beginning of the month I don't
think that's obvious at all okay shabba
celebrates the creation creation of the
universe I understand very well why
Greeks are not going to put up with that
because creation could only be the
result of something that stands outside
of the created world outside of nature
superior nature they're not gonna stand
for that bris milah circumcision that's
to mutilate the body that nature
produces that's crying as a matter of
fact it was a rule in the Greek sport
competitions that it was circumcised you
couldn't compete because you had
performed a mutilation a violation of
nature and of course she's not going to
take that lying down there were Jews who
invented a surgical procedure to erase
the sign of circumcision because you
really want to compete you really wanna
compete and by the way Israeli army I
think this is still true when they do a
medical exam and theoretically you could
get 100 if you are in perfect medical
shape if you're circumcised the top you
can get is 97 you can't get 100 but you
also could be questioned I think could
be questioned ok but then Rose coldish
cleaning of the month who cares about
that why would that be the third choice
of something that the Greeks want to
wipe out the Greek attitude here is this
you have a religion you have holidays
that's fine we have a religion also any
holiday any Mitzvah that you have that
can be naturalized
that can be reinterpreted as an
expression of nature we're prepared to
tolerate you had a revelation your God
told you what he wants you to do we have
God's also and they tell us what they
want us to do that doesn't mean it can't
be part of nature idea that the God
communicates to his people and tells of
what he wants to do it's not it's not
necessarily beyond nature you have a
pacer which is a liberation day terrific
you were slaves now you're liberate is
celebrating your freedom there's no
reason why they can't be natural you
have laws of Kostas every ancient
civilization had food temples every last
one of them so welcome to the club fact
that you have food taboos doesn't mean
that you are doing something to
transcend nature only the ones that are
impossible to reinterpret as natural did
they oppose so shabbos as we said it's
obvious because shabbos is the
celebration of the creation can't be
creation from a natural point of view
bris milah because it violates the body
as its created by nature as its
delivered by nature what about the first
of the month the beginning of the new
month the new month was was started when
witnesses saw the new moon that's
perfectly natural then no moon the
monthly cycle of the waxing and waning
of the moon but there happens to be a
law and the Jewish books that the court
is not bound by the sighting of the
witnesses it's not bound by the sighting
of the witnesses the witnesses can come
and they can say this other moon they
can be cross-examined and their
testimony passes all the tests and the
court says yes you saw it your
testimonies perfect we don't want it
we're pushing it off till tomorrow or
the court can say no witness has
appeared there's no testimony at all
we're starting in any way the court is
not bound by the witnesses therefore the
court is not bound by the moon it's not
bound by the moon it can override them
all
now let's imagine we are starting the
month of Nissan in the month of the semi
celebrate pesach Purcell is the 15th of
nisa pensive is the anniversary of the
exodus from Egypt now the wit to succumb
or they don't come and court over rides
what would have been a testimony it says
we're starting it today no witnesses no
testimony no moon we're starting it
today Tuesday so two weeks later on
Tuesday will be pesach is that the
anniversary of the exes from Egypt the
moon says no because the moon wasn't
there on Tuesday and the court says yes
that means according to Jewish law the
court has control of time the court can
create dates time is under the control
of the court not under the control of
the moon but under the control of the
court the Greeks were stupid they saw
that they understood that and they said
we can't have that we can't have that if
you would make your dates out according
to the moon that would be fine but
you're not making your days according to
the moon you're overriding them on then
this is something which is anti natural
its built-in to be anti natural this we
cannot tolerate the rest of it we can
tolerate but this we cannot and
therefore they opposed all three of them
this sets up a conflict concerning the
what could be called the nature of
nature what status does nature have for
the Greeks nature is everything what we
need to do is analyze what nature is for
us as Jews and then see how the two
ideas relate to one another
you