Oil is probably the most politically incorrect of all liquids. It simply refuses to compromise its uniqueness.
If oil were a person it would almost certainly be condemned for its stubborn unwillingness to blend in with others. It chooses to remain aloof, separate and distinct. Mix it with water and it stays apart and maintains its own identity.
No matter how hard you try, oil stays true to itself and just won't assimilate.
Perhaps that's why it deserved to become the ultimate symbol of the Chanukah miracle.
When we celebrate the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrian Greeks, we need to remember what was really at stake in this major confrontation. This was a war unlike any other. It wasn't fought to conquer more territory. It wasn't meant to capture more booty or bodies. This was ultimately a conflict between two totally different ways of viewing the world.
The story of Chanukah is all about a clash of cultures. The Greeks weren't out to kill the Jews. Their intent wasn't genocide of a people. It was rather a battle against those who threatened their commitment to hedonism, their infatuation with the body, their obsession with athletic competitions to prove superior worth. In these they found beauty – and the very meaning of life.
Keats summed up well the Greek ideal in his magnificentOde On A Grecian Urn:
For beauty is truth and truth is beauty; that is all ye know and all ye need to know
What the Greeks worshiped was the holiness of beauty. What the Jews wanted to teach the world instead was the beauty of holiness.
The Greeks worshiped the holiness of beauty. The Jews taught the world the beauty of holiness.
It was the battle between these two ideas that defined the war of the Maccabees. Sad to say, there were Jews who were seduced by the seductive wiles of secularism and forsook their ancient heritage. They sold their blessings for a mess of pottage. They renounced the message of the prophets for the glory of the games. They chose the temporary rewards of the body over the eternal blessings of the spirit. They are known as the Hellenists. They assimilated – and haven't been heard from since.
The victory of the Maccabees was the triumph of those who exemplified the unique characteristic of oil and refused to assimilate, and instead chose to remain steadfast in our mission to bring the moral vision of Judaism to the world.
That is what makes the story of the Maccabees so very relevant to our time.
In the past few weeks we've been witness to a rather bitter debate about a provocative advertising campaign sponsored by an Israeli Ministry. It seems that the Ministry of Absorption thought it would be a good idea to convince Israeli expatriates living in the United States to come back home by dramatizing the risk of assimilation of their children and grandchildren in the Diaspora. The theme of the ads promoted the idea that living outside of the Jewish homeland threatened their link with the Jewish past, with Jewish tradition and with Jewish culture.
Related Articles: Beauty and the Greeks
That led to huge fireworks. A prominent Jewish spokesmen declared, "I don't think I have ever seen a demonstration of Israeli contempt for American Jews as obvious as these ads." Critics assailed the campaign as a vicious attack on "the Jewishness" of all those outside of Israel.
So strong was the hue and cry of outrage that the ads were quickly removed. The campaign obviously touched a delicate nerve. In what may very well have been viewed as an over wrought slander on the possibility of Jewish life outside of Israel, the reaction nevertheless vividly demonstrated the powerful fear generated by the thought of assimilation.
And if the ads were wrong because of the way they seemed to differentiate between life in America as opposed to Israel, their message should surely be acknowledged as a wake-up call to Jews no matter where they may be living.
Because the bottom line is that after more than 2000 years, the spirit of the Maccabees seems to be losing in its battle to prevent Jews from assimilating into a fervent embrace of secular culture and ideology.
The Greeks gave us the Olympics. In an irony that defies all logic the Maccabees, who fought for the supremacy of the Temple over the sporting arena, were chosen as the name for the Maccabiah, the international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics held in Israel every four years.
Athletic contests are wonderful venues for physical recreation. They cease to be admirable when they take over our lives, as they sometimes do, not only in professional settings but even in collegiate contexts.
Please don't distort what I'm saying. Sporting events are fine if they are understood as adjuncts to a spiritual life. But when they become an end unto themselves, we adopt a foreign value and assimilate.
Assimilation today takes many forms.
We've assimilated when all we want is to party, never to pray.
We've assimilated when all we care about is what we look like on the outside, not what we feel like on the inside.
We've assimilated when our greatest goals are fame and fortune rather than love and learning.
We've assimilated when more than anything else we want to envied by the eyes of our fellow man instead of being treasured in the sight of God.
We've assimilated when our chief goal is to accumulate more goods rather than simply to be good.
We've assimilated when we are far more interested in our inheritance than in our legacy, by what we get from the past rather than what we give to the future.
We've assimilated when we consider our children burdens rather than blessings and when we believe the best things we can give them are valuables rather than values.
Our tradition teaches us to revere the beauty of holiness. That was what the Maccabees fought for as they confronted an alien culture that stressed the body over the soul, the material over the spiritual. That remains our challenge.
Like the oil of the Chanukah story, we dare not assimilate.
As we bring ever greater light into our homes every night with its flame, we affirm our belief that we will succeed. We will maintain our uniqueness that has enabled us not only to survive but to be the torchbearers of morality and civilization for all mankind.
(15) Lory Horn, September 13, 2018 9:22 PM
Such great spiritual truths!
Thank you for sharing this. I will retain the visual picture of oil and it unique properties. One thing about oil, it survives in water, but does not assimilate. We are to be in the world but not like the world. Great piece!
(14) M, December 22, 2011 1:43 PM
About those controversial ads ...
This is a beautiful article. Thank you. However, how can the Rabbi suggest the ads "were wrong because of the way they seemed to differentiate between life in America as opposed to Israel"? The ultimate goal in Yiddishkeit is for the Jewish people to inhabit the land of Israel. Every four amos walked in Israel is a mitzvah. The air of Eretz Yisrael makes one wise ... I could go on and on. One may disagree over policies of the modern state of Israel. One may even have perfectly valid reasons why it is better, even spiritually, given one's individual circumstances, to live in America, but there is no denying that there is a huge difference between Jewish life in America and Jewish life in Israel. Life in the land Israel is something we pray for three times a day. There is a difference. And those ads? They hit people where it hurts, because deep down, people knew the ads were true.
(13) robertpo, December 21, 2011 3:30 PM
amen
Summarizes what I've been feeling for a long time but have never put together in words. G-d is One.
(12) JUANITA WHEELER, December 21, 2011 2:20 PM
ENLIGHTMENT
THIS ARTICLE GAVEME ENLIGHTMENT ON CHANUKAH'S TRUE MEANING I HAD UNDERSTOOD IT TO MEAN THE JEWISH CHRISTMAS,NOW I UNDERSTAND THE WILLINESS TO FIGHT UNTO THE DEATH, TO VALUE GOD'S HOLINESS AND NOT THE WORLD'S VALUES THANK YOU FOR ENLIGHTMENT!!
(11) achel, December 20, 2011 4:40 PM
perfect
this is just the reminder i need for today. its the internal things, not the externals, that truely matter. i fight this war inside myself every day.
(10) Anonymous, December 19, 2011 7:14 PM
Thank you
I appreciate your desire for G_d's people to return to holiness in your recollection of this great Jewish event in history. Yes, G_d must be the center of our life each and every moment.
(9) Anonymous, December 19, 2011 3:18 PM
OMG was that written beautifully. What a well thought out symbolic reference to oil and our life. I love when ever symbolic ideas are compared to our daily life in our tradition. Thank you. I thought the writer wrote a lovely piece.
(8) Mark Gary Blumenthal, MD MPH, December 19, 2011 1:19 PM
Issues of Assimilation
Bravo for explicitly stating what most American Jews would not dare write. Most unaffiliated, reform and conservative Jews scratch their heads and wonder why the 'mainstream' American Jewish Community is self-destructing and losing members. Were it not for Orthodox Jews and those of us who have become ba'al teshuvah, I believe that the American Jewish Melting Pot would self-extinguish within the next two generations. Chanukah did not merely occur during the cultural conflict between the Hellenists and the Macabees. Chanukah is here and how.
(7) Bracha Goetz, December 19, 2011 1:22 AM
Thank you
for this wonderful piece!
(6) Kerry, December 18, 2011 10:11 PM
Tolerance
Actually, Jew do accept the culture they are living in, but practice their faith, fine. Jews do not demand that the host country change its mores to suit them. The problem is that many Muslims demand that the host country bow to their needs: footbaths, no dogs or alcohol in taxis, segregated gyms and pools. This I oppose.
(5) Maxine K Winston, December 18, 2011 8:27 PM
Great article
Thank you for writing this article. As for as I'm concerned assimilation is the freates threat our children & grandchildren face. We were discussing the ad campaign today in my shul's adult ed. class & I asked the Rabbi to speak more in another class about the danger od assimilation. He said he would do so. Maxine
(4) ruth housman, December 18, 2011 6:58 PM
assimilation nation
Assimilation is happening, and it is happening at a rapid rate. We see it here in the United States and we see it abroad. We see children with the features of many cultures, and as all children, they have a particular beauty, and it is astounding how one face can incorporate the many in haunting, graceful new ways, and yet be, recognizable as the child of these parents. My son is married to a woman whose family is Episcopalian. I have two beautiful loving, sensitive, grandchildren. I wouldn't change this gift, for the world, as they ARE, and I AM, their grandmother, their Jewish grandmother. I do deeply perceive, the beauty, the holiness, and the special ness of being Jewish, as this is my culture, my tradition, my roots, but maybe, if the soul travels, I have been around the world, in other shoes, weaving a trail through many tents. Who wrote this script? I see the world, as Created the way it IS, and I also see, that we're here to debate on all levels, what we should be doing, who to love, and who to carry on these valued and deep roots. But the routes we take are varied, and some remain within, and some venture, without, Judaism and some, who venture out, teach their children the routes that brought them into being. I think this is important, to teach our heritage, and yes, I do not want to lose this. There is a dilemma. We must confront this. Maybe we're meant to embrace the paradox. It's a mixed bag. I think we have a lot of continuing discussion with respect to all of this. And surely, I would maintain, my journey, in the now, is important and cherished, and here I am, on this site, a Jewish site. So there is a draw. But the big picture, the one involving my grandchildren, who are so dear to me, is one I did not draw, but one G_d had to have drawn, to bring us all, to this place, and into this discussion. I see that ALL is G_D, and I respect all peoples, and choices made in love, for love. I also love the parents of my daughter in law. I love her MOM.
Jewish Mom, December 24, 2011 8:50 PM
Ruth, love of G-d - not love - is above all.
You are in a quandary. On the one hand, you understand that if every Jewish male would make the choice that your son made, the Jewish people would cease to be. Yet, you love your very own, very dear grandchildren, who are not Jewish. I'm sure you read the Aish article "My Big Fat Greek War." The Maccabees fought an impossible battle to ensure that the Jewish way of life would endure. G-d made the impossible happen, giving victory to this band of physically weak but spiritually strong Torah-scholar priests. No one can tell you that you should not love your grandchildren or any other loving and caring non-Jew, for that matter. But that does not make intermarriage and assimilation a non-issue for the Jewish people. G-d definitely cares that Jews should marry only Jews - the only way we Jews can carry out our G-d-given mission. Intermarriage and assimilation run counter to that mission. G-d, who created us in love, sustains us in love and will gather our soul in love when our time comes, knows what our physical, emotional and spiritual needs are because He created them. With great love, He gave us the Torah so that we can live by it's commandments, and thereby achieve fulfillment, love and happiness in this world and for all eternity by having the closest possible relationship with G-d. It is He who sets the rules how we can build that relationship, not we. Love of a human being cannot override love of G-d!! Loving G-d means living according to His Will, which He made known at the Sinai Revelation. And it is definitely His Will that Jews marry Jews. The closer we align our lives with G-d's Will, the deeper relationship we will have with G-d now and forever.
(3) Dan, December 18, 2011 5:51 PM
One thing that was left out
It's too bad that the Rabbi didn't mention intermarriage, the most serious threat to Judaism today.
(2) Anonymous, December 18, 2011 3:11 PM
The ongoing symbol
Yesterday, at services, a discussion arose as to what is the ongoing favorite symbol of the Jewish People? Many say it is the MAGEN DAVID but no, it's not. The ongoing symbol of all time to be THE Jewish icon is the Candelabra - BUT not the 8 branched candelabra of Hanuka but the 7 branched one that stood in Tmeple. The point is missed. It is that 7 branched candelabra the oil of which was TAMEI that is the symbol of Hanuka. The 7 branched candelabra leads right to the 8 branched one we light this month. Oil doesn't assimilate. Jews do. I have heard people say that they cannot understand the TORAH when it says that HASHEM will visit the sins of the fathers on the children to the 3rd and 4th generation of them that hate Him. What does it mean when the TORAH say "hate Him."? HATE does not necessarily mean "hate" as we know it. The less favorite wife is call the "hated one" in the TORAH. It doesn't mean the husband actually hates her. It means he doesn't give her as much attention as to the favorite wife. "Those who hate Me" means those who completely ignore the TORAH and the Jewish way of life, and it is THEIR 3rd and 4th generation who are visited by the sins of their fathers. But how? Moishe comes from Easterm Europe. He is fully observant. But when he arrives in his new country, he gives up many of the TORAH ways that informed his life in the old country. His son, Steven [Shloimey], knows he is a Jew. He even goes to SHUL on the HIgh holidays and he even goes to or makes a SEDER on PESACH. But for most of the year, he doesn't seem to act like a Jew. His son, John [no Hebrew name], also knows that he is Jewish but he is not exactly sure what that means. No one taught him. When his dad goes to SHUL on the holidays or has a SEDER, it's not exciting to him. He has no passion for those things. His son, Christopher, is the 4th generation. he marries a nonJew. His children are not even Jewish. Thus has the sins of Moishe been visited on the 4th generation.
Kerry, December 18, 2011 10:14 PM
Etymology
I am asking because you seem to know a bit about etymology; does the name candelaria stem from Jewish roots?
(1) Anonymous, December 18, 2011 3:05 PM
From the Philosophy Branch
Though oil and water doesn't mix, they are in the same jar together. Would like to share this literary piece by Jacques Barzun: "A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line (or in line). It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three dimensional at least."