Unique among the nations, the destiny of Israel is not bound by the constellations, but by Hashem’s direct Divine Providence

T

he classical portrayal of the development of Western Civilization is as a combination of the road from Athens and the road from Jerusalem. From Athens, the Western world derived the investigation of natural phenomenon. And from Jerusalem, the inquiry into the metaphysical or transcendental realm.

In a classic maamar (Pachad Yitzchok, Chanukah 9), Rav Yitzchok Hutner explores the differences between these two realms. Science, beginning with the Greeks, is the exploration of the world in a static state. By contrast, the science of Torah is the study of a world in a state of becoming, of movement to an ideal. That is why, writes the Ramban in Milchemes Hashem, there can never be a perfect proof in Torah, comparable to proofs in geometry. Because the subject of Torah is the world in a state of flux, conclusive proofs are impossible; the subject matter is ever changing.

More, that study, talmud Torah, itself brings about a transformation in the subject of inquiry. As Chazal say, there is no mitzvah in the Torah that does not carry within it the power of techiyas hameisim — revivification of the dead. Techiyas hameisim represents the end of the natural order and the final revelation of Hashem, Who became hidden through the sin of Adam. “Machatzti” — I obscured Myself within Creation through death; “v’ani erapei” — and one day I will cause that barrier to be removed and bring an end to death (Devarim 32:39).

The difference between the two forms of inquiry is indicated by the respective covenants between Hashem and mankind and between Hashem and the Jewish People. The symbol of Hashem’s promise after the Flood to never again destroy all mankind is the rainbow. The rainbow already existed in nature. Hashem merely pointed to the rainbow, in the shape of an inverted bow, as a symbol of His promise to leave the world in a static state, with the seasons duly following one another.

The covenant of Avraham Avinu, however, involves the deliberate alteration of the human body from its natural state. Unlike the rainbow, bris milah is “unnatural.” In addition, we are active participants in the bris; we cut our own flesh. The symbol does not remain external to us — something to which our attention is directed.

The bris of Avraham contains the promise of a new world coming into being and an indication of the crucial role of the Jewish People in that process.

THE TWO FORMS of inquiry are not necessarily incompatible. We make a brachah upon seeing a great scientist, on the one hand, and on the other, upon seeing a great Torah scholar. But the two blessings are different. On the former, we say, “Who gave of his wisdom to flesh and blood.” Whereas on the great Torah scholar we say, “Who shares His wisdom with those who fear Him.”

The wisdom of the great scientist is “given"; it does not imply an ongoing relationship between the giver and the receiver. The wisdom of the Torah, however, is “shared,” and involves an ongoing connection between the source of that wisdom and its recipient in the form of access to the Divine mind.

The first place that both Israel and Greece are mentioned in the Torah is in the context of a cooperative act between Shem, the progenitor of the Jewish People, and Yefes, the father of Greece, when they covered the nakedness of their father Noach. For which Yefes is blessed by Noach, along with Shem, “May G-d extend the borders of Yefet, but he will dwell in the tents of Shem” (Bereishis 9:27). Chazal say that the only language into which the Torah may be translated is Greek, because of its beauty.

YET AT THE TIME of the Chanukah miracle, the Seleucid Greeks had no interest in dwelling in the tents of Shem. Rather their intent was to wipe out Jewish civilization root and branch, and to destroy the unique Jewish identity based on the study of Torah and the performance of the mitzvos.

Unlike the other three exiles, the Greek exile took place in Eretz Yisrael. The battle was not over land but over identity. Chanukah is thus the only holiday based on a conflict of civilizations and worldviews.

The Greek decrees were directed initially at the mitzvos of bris milah, Shabbos, and the declaration of Rosh Chodesh (Megillas Antiochus). For the Greeks, the natural human form was necessarily the ideal. Bris milah asserts the opposite, however. Only after he joined himself to Hashem through the performance of the mitzvah of bris milah did Avraham Avinu become complete.

The Greeks believed that time extends backwards and forwards infinitely, and that the world has no beginning. In the same vein, Rav Moshe Shapira used to emphasize, they denied the possibility of miracles — i.e., radical departures from the natural order.

Shabbos, however, attests to the Creation of the universe and therefore to a Creator, who can alter the natural order at His will. And finally, Rosh Chodesh, which must be declared by a beis din, demonstrates that we are not mere observers of natural phenomenon in the world, but have an active role in partnership with Hashem in establishing reality and in bringing a new world into existence.

Chazal tell us (Bereishis Rabbah 2:4) that the darkness referred to in the second verse in Chumash refers to the Greeks: “‘And darkness’ refers to the Greek exile, for they darkened the eyes of Israel with their decrees, and they said to them, ‘Write on the horn of an ox that you have no portion in the G-d of Israel.’ ” (Chevron rosh yeshivah Rav Dovid Cohen explicates this Midrash in Mizmor L’Dovid 8).

The Sfas Emes points out the internal contradiction: If the Jewish People have no portion in the G-d of Israel, then, chas v’shalom, there is no G-d of Israel. The Greeks denied any special status to the Jewish People as Hashem’s chosen nation.

That special status refers to the Divine Providence that guides the Jewish People and provides them with their Divine mission to reveal Hashem to the entire world. As a prelude to the Covenant Between the Parts, Hashem took Avraham to a vantage point above the heavenly spheres, and told him that under the realm of the constellations, he would not have children. But above the constellations, he would.

In other words, the future of Avraham and his descendants would not be exclusively determined by the natural order. Unique among the nations, the destiny of Israel is not bound by the constellations, but by Hashem’s direct Divine Providence. That relationship reached its height with the giving of Torah at Sinai. And conversely, it was nearly lost with the Cheit Ha'eigel which constituted a turning away on our part, as a consequence of which Hashem told Moshe that Israel would be led into the Land by an angel and not by Him directly. Only Moshe’s pleas succeeded in reverting that decree.

The “horn of the ox” in the Midrash, according to the Maharal, refers to the Cheit Ha'eigel and the (near) severing of the connection between HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Bnei Yisrael that took place at that time. The Greeks sought to achieve the same result as the Cheit Ha'eigel — i.e., to break the connection between the Jewish People and Hashem.

That connection is hinted to in the command to deny any cheilek (portion) in the G-d of Israel. That denial flies directly in the face of the verse (Devarim 32:9): “Hashem’s portion (cheilek) is His people; Yaakov is the chevel (rope) [delineating the bounds] of His inheritance.” Similarly, the collective soul of the Jewish People is described as “cheilek Eloka mi’maal — a portion of the Divine from above.”

It is that Divine spirit located in the collective soul of the Jewish People that provides us with such understanding as we can muster of the Divine, of His great deeds and wondrous ways. That understanding derives from being connected to the Divine mind: “It is the soul from the Almighty that gives them understanding” (Iyov 32:8).

That understanding is transmitted downwards from the upper realms to the lower, into each individual Jew. That is the meaning of the comparison of Yaakov, the perfection of the Avos, whose visage is on the Divine chariot, to a rope. At the top of the rope, all the strands are closely entwined into one collective Jewish soul. Only at the bottom of the rope do the individual strands separate and connect to each Jew. And just as when one shakes a rope at one end and the effects are felt at the other, Rav Chaim of Volozhin explains, so too do all our actions in this world reverberate in the upper realms.

The Divine influences are transmitted downwards into our individual souls through the study of Torah and performance of mitzvos. They enlighten and purify our souls so that they are fit receptacles to connect with the Divine: ki ner mitzvah v’Torah ohr — for a mitzvah is a candle and Torah a light” (Mishlei 6:23).

Precisely to break the connection between Hashem and the Jewish People, the Greeks sought to darken the eyes of Israel. How? By “causing them to forget Your Torah and compel them to stray from the statutes of Your Will,” as we say in al hanissim throughout Chanukah. For without that connection, without our recognition of the special Providence that guides the Jewish People in the fulfillment of their Divine mission, that Providence is absent.

ONCE AGAIN, we the Jewish People find ourselves under attack wherever we turn. Much of the thrust of campus demonstrations against Israel and Jews is designed to make young Jews embarrassed to be Jewish, just as the Hellenized Jews were in the time of Mattisyahu, rather than rejoicing in their unique historical mission and connection to the Creator of the Universe.

May Hashem once again deliver “the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the wanton into the hands of the diligent students of Your Torah.” And may we all take pride in our centrality in the Divine plan for all mankind.

A lichtige Chanukah.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1091. Yonoson Rosenblum may be contacted directly at rosenblum@mishpacha.com)