UTJ Viewpoints

The fight between the Syrian Greeks and their Hellenistic Jewish clients and the historically faithful Jews the “Hassidim” not a fight between Orthodox religion, the good old ways of the old time religion that is not good enough for everyone, and the new high culture, the Hellenism which is the culture of conquest, the domain of dominion, of insiders who are “betters,” aristocrats, who because they are better have the right to liver better.

The fights is about what culture ought to be, how civilization is to be maintained, and what it means to be a human person in a social setting. The ancient Sumerian king Gilgamesh was a warrior. He killed others for a living, he took young brides for himself, he made his kingdom suffer for his pleasure. In Israel, the prophet Samuel taught that the human king is an image, handsome, and a self-serving exploitative thief. For the pagan, Greek and Mesopotamian, European and oriental, Jew and gentile, the king is a god and people are slaves. For Israel, God is a just king and the king, to be a servant of God, serves and is not an enslaver of people. By preferring Babylonian–and Greek and German heroes– to the Bible’s heroes and ethics, Friedrich Delitzsch was not making an academic statement; this student of myth invoked the myth of academic authority in order to make the claim that selfish mean men of power are real humans, that the biblical ethic is weak, sickly, restrictive, and inhibits real men who want to live real lives. After all, how do we rise to the top if we do not climb over the shoulders, backs, and cadavers of others.

The Babylonians and Greeks lived by will. Hesiod took the Semitic stories to the West, teaching that:

• The gods are immortal, great in power and petty in petulance.
• These gods are not to be questioned, they do what they will because they are driven by will.
• Life is hard, short, and painful.
• Therefore, take what you can when you can.
• Stay on the good side of those in power.
• Lower grade humans are existing to serve and to be exploited.
• These cultures are egocentric, led by leaders who mislead, who by dint of station are always right and cannot by definition do misdeed.

The ancient Jewish Hassidim were not blind fanatics, they realized the threat that their Torah posed to paganism, challenging hierarchy, taking citizenship seriously and authority critically.

For Israel:

• There is only one God, Who is immortal, eternal, moral, just and fair. Pagan gods never resent human inhumanity because pagans confuse morality with utility; the God of Israel gives humans the image of God to render humans goodly and godly and intolerant of immoral, petty petulance.
• The God of Israel may be questioned regarding law and ethics because God wills to be a communal, constitutional king, with no human allowed to speak in God’s voice
• Being good sanctifies the good doer, making every good moment an eternity. The Jewish hero does not conquer peoples and cities; the Jewish hero conquers oneself.
• All people carry God’s image; therefore oppressing a person is an assault upon God
• The pagan is ego centric; the Jew is texto-centric
• We are on God’s good side when we act goodly toward each other
  • We are governed by God who authored a book, the Good Book.
  • We spar with words, we do not pierce with swords,
  • Power has to be just in order to be justified

It is well known that the Amorites conquered Sumer militarily but were conquered by the Sumerians culturally. It is also well known that the Romans conquered the Greeks militarily but were conquered by the Greeks culturally.

Similarly, the Hasmoneans fought off the Hellenizers at first but, once in power, became Hellenized themselves. In classical pagan habit, the Hasmonean priests assumed the role of kings. For the pagan, from Egypt’s Narmer and Sumer’s Gilgamesh, religion is the instrument of state that legitimates the human rulers as appointees of gods as vicars of the divine on earth. The job of religion is to justify those in power.

In contrast, Biblical Federalism limits the accumulation of power by separating Israelite monarchy, priesthood and judiciary. Sanctity flows from the individual up and not from the monarch down. For the pagan, being a member of the elite, being a robust imbiber of the vine’s fruit at Socrates’ Symposium on the meaning of love is for the [1] elite [2] aristocratic [3] male. At the Jewish seder/symposium, [1] the poorest of Israel gets wine for the freeman’s table, [2] the Jewish waiter joins the served for the ritual and [3] women sit at the table, with the men. When priests become king, religion becomes debated; religion is a commodity for sale. Rabbinates and Yeshivot become family businesses; in the “Tradition/Masora” of Simon Magus [Acts 8] there are those who paid for holy Catholic offices with cold, hard cash. In this world, treason is heresy, autonomy is revolution, freedom is chaos, and individuality is absurd.

Pagan cult pomp celebrates elites and power. Humans crave power, money and deference, the perks of pagan pomp. Hence the Hasmoneans, once in power, were intoxicated by magnetism of the Greek model.

This ancient conflict animates contemporary Israel. On one hand, Leib Tropper of the parochial Orthodox Eternal Jewish Family [that accepts only the Orthodox conversions of Haredi clerics because their Orthodox theological franchise assumes that modern Orthodox is fraudulent Orthodox] resigned his position because of what appears to be sexual improprieties. When power is centralized in an oligarchic elite, power flows to the head, the conscience is starved, and God’s commanding voice merges with the ego of the elitist. When religious and political power are fused, the mixed idealistic rhetoric and selfish policy are confused by the subject community.

The Hanukka message is that the light of the candle sheds light upon the book. Power resides in the people, who judge the elite. Real Jewish leaders teach by word and example and smile, not with coercion, dictation or scowl. The truth of Torah identifies the false king, the naked king, the enslaving, the “religious” king, for the idol that he is, empowering all Israel, every individual within Israel, with the light of Torah, to discern and show concern, to ask and to question, to probe and to point, to observe and to uphold the command of the King of Kings.