[Avodah] Hellenism and Judaism

[Yitzchok Levine]

Chanukah commemorates the triumph of Judaism over Syrian/Greek 
oppression. The Syrian/Greeks wanted to impose Hellenism upon the 
Jewish people. Therefore they forbade the performance of several key mitzvos.

However, what really is the philosophical difference between Judaism 
and Hellenism?  RSRH explains this in his essay Hellenism and Judaism 
which I have put at 
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/hellenism_judaism.pdf  YL

The following is from the end of this essay.

It was not Judas Maccabeus who defeated Antiochus of Syria; it
was the Jewish light which gained the victory over the dazzling luster
of Hellenic splendor. The spirit which Mattathias had harbored in his
priestly breast and had nurtured in his children, was the rock upon
which the Hellenic evil was smashed. This spirit-not the warrior's
sword nor the priest's tiara interwoven with the princely crown of
royal might-maintained the Law among the people.
Nor was it the Hasmonean dynasty of priests and kings who inherited
Mattathias' spirit of devotion to the Law. For soon this
dynasty, whose heroism had recaptured the land and the Sanctuary,
was no longer satisfied to be mere priests of the Law. Before long they
took pleasure in the use of the sword which they had raised enthusiastically
for Israel and the Law, and now brandished it over Israel and
the Law. Thereby this dynasty, in the vanity of its kingly splendor,
alienated Israel from the Law and in its fall dragged altar and throne
into the abyss.

But the people remained upright. Not in the palaces and temples
but in the humble dwellings of the people did the Hasmonean spirit of
loyalty to the Law survive, did the Hasmonean light find an eternally
secure place. When the debris of the altar and throne was cleared
away, the people, without throne and without altar, stood upright and
firm and rallied abo~t the Law of their God more enthusiastically than
ever before. They carried this Law with them from the wreckage of
their national greatness, and in the very enthusiasm for God's Law
proved themselves to be the true heirs of Mattathias' Hasmonean
spirit.

Thus if a glimmer of the false Hellenistic spirit challenges the
dominion of the timeless spirit of the Jewish Law over the dwelling and
hearts of Judah; if it estranges Judah's daughters and sons from the
splendor of God's Law and His Divine light and makes them fall prey
to the beguiling sensuality of Greek culture; if they are made to
abandon truth and insight, harmony and beauty and to adopt the
empty superficiality and sensual gratification of Hellenism-then let
us kindle the light of the Hasmoneans in our homes as a tribute to God
and His Law. Each Jewish home will become a bastion of God's Law
and rise triumphantly and victoriously over the futile opposition and
antagonism of an erring world.
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