I sometimes wonder if other ethnic groups and religions spend as much time worrying about their ultimate survival as we Jews do. I think the Dalai Lama has and I think the Sioux Indians have. Other than these, I just don’t know. Tucked comfortably away in a safe society such as ours, it becomes easy to view such concerns, at best, as a vestigial fear, irrational in our place and time. Perhaps earlier generations of Jews felt the same sense of security at one time or another as we do now.
Although not a part of our Bible, the book of I Maccabees (1:11-15) gives us a clue that Jews at the time of Antiochus IV in 175 BCE certainly began to worry about such things. These verses state:
In those days certain renegades came out from Israel and misled many, saying, “Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles around us, for since we separated from them many disasters have come upon us.” This proposal pleased them, and some of the people eagerly went to the king, who authorized them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to the Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant.
These passages indicate that some Jews were justifying a breech of the covenant by claiming that such a change was best for Jewish society. II Maccabees (4:7-17) presents an even more intriguing possibility; that the process of official Hellenization was started by the High priest himself:
…Jason, the brother of Onias, obtained the high priesthood by corruption, promising the king at an interview 360 talents of silver, and from another source of revenue, eighty talents. In addition to this, he promised to pay 150 more if permission were given to establish by his authority a gymnasium and a body of youth for it, and to enroll the people of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch. When the king assented and Jason came to office, he at once shifted his compatriots over to the Greek way of life. He set aside the existing royal concessions to the Jews, … and destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced new customs contrary to the law…
We may never know whether the High Priest or a popular movement of the common people led to Antiochus’ Hellenizing campaign, but we do know the outcome. Mattathias and his sons, including Judah the Maccabee, revolted and drove out the Syrian Greeks, establishing the last independent Jewish government to exist in Jerusalem before 1948 CE.
In many ways, today’s situation is similar to that which our erstwhile ancestors encountered nearly 2200 years ago. The allure of American society, like Hellenization, is so completely irresistible, that we stand in danger of loosing our connection to the covenant our ancestors made so long ago at Sinai. One particularly noble trait of the American people is our obsession with tolerance for people and customs. Even when we don’t practice this forbearance, we argue it in court, pass laws protecting it, and endlessly argue its merits. However, even too much tolerance can become a dangerous thing. For example, the ready acceptance as Jewish of those professing to be Jewish, even while possessing patently non-Jewish beliefs is not tolerance; it is suicide. To accept into our midst the Jew for Jesus, the Christian Jew, or the Messianic Jew, none of whom are Jewish in any way, is not the indulgence of one whose customs are slightly different than our own, but rather, the embracing of a doctrine that is bent on the destruction of the Jewish people and their proud 4000 year old history to which we are heir.
If one needs to find a basis for such inflexibility in the Torah, I would remind them of the story of Cosbi and Zimri (Num.25:1-18) wherein Pinchus slays Cosbi and Zimri (without a trial!) saving the Israelites from a severe plague. However, an even more cogent statement can be found at the end of the portion of Vietchanan. At the very end of the reading, following the towering themes of the Decalogue and the Shema, we find the following verses:
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; above all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a special people to himself: The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were the most numerous of people; for you were the smallest of all peoples: But it was because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt: Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations: And he repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them; he will not be slack to those who hate him, he will repay them to their face: You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command you this day, to do:
What are these statutes and judgements that we are commanded to keep? I think we know. They include, among other things, observing the laws of kashrut, observing the Sabbath, and celebrating the festivals and holy days. To neglect these customs, no laws, and to justify this disregard in the name of convenience is no less a transgression than what occurred at the time of the Maccabees. That affair had a happy ending for our people חנכת הבית, the rededication of the holy Temple. May the God who wrought such miracles for our ancestors in those days imbue us with the same dedication and drive at this חנכה season that we, once again, may feel the urge to attend minyans, observe the Sabbath and support our Temple. May God grant all of you a joyous, healthy, and above all, kosher new year.
Shalom uverakha (peace and blessing),
Rabbi Ronald B. Kopelman