Jewish and Greek Eyes
Rabbi Hershel Reichman Rosh Yeshiva, RIETS
The confrontation between Israel and Greece that is at
the heart of the story of Chanukah is of a spiritual rather
than physical nature. In Al Hanisim, we commemorate this
conflict by saying, “Ke’Sheamda Malchus Yavan Al Amcha
Yisrael Le’Hashkicham Torasecha U’Lehaaviram Mechu-
kai Retzonecha.” These words clearly delineate the goal of
the Greeks—namely to destroy us spiritually by separating
us from our Father in heaven. In fact the Ta’’z explains that
this can help us understand why Chanukah and Purim are
celebrated in different manners. On Purim we celebrate our
physical salvation with physical things. We partake in a fes-
tive meal, send gifts of food to friends, and give money to
the poor. However on Chanukah, we celebrate our spiritual
victory with the more spiritual activity of lighting the Me-
norah.
The following beautiful idea of Shem Meshmuel helps us
understand the difference between Greek philosophy and
the wisdom of the Torah. Shem and Yefes covered the na-
kedness of Noach, and were therefore blessed with the bless-
ing of the “Eye” which they sheltered from looking at their
father’s nakedness. The eye is the human organ which most
appreciates beauty. Both the Greeks and the Jews appreci-
ate beauty, however there is a basic difference. The Greeks
display beautiful things, for example they believe the hu-
man body is beautiful and therefore made many nude stat-
ues. The Jews on the other hand, because they believe that
the human body is beautiful shelter the body in clothing.
Greek temples were open areas, while the Jewish Temple
was walled. These differences characterize the fundamental
difference between Greek civilization and Judaism. Greek
civilization emphasizes the physical beauty, the accessible
beauty whereas Judaism emphasizes the inner beauty, the
inaccessible beauty. Reb Tzadok Hacohen illustrates this
idea by teaching that the more someone squints his eyes, the
further he can see. When this phenomenon is carried to the
extreme it indicates that when a person’s eyes are shut the
person will see furthest. He will see furthest, for at the point
the person’s eyes are shut he will be forced to look within
himself and discover himself. A prophet is called a Chozeh,
someone who sees hidden things. The Chozeh sees by clos-
ing his eyes. True beauty is hidden from the naked eye. We
see this in science, in the beauty of the microscopic world,
in the beauty of the world of the stars which also cannot be
seen by the naked eye. In the hidden worlds that surround
us are where the greatest beauty is to be found.
This idea is a reflection of our awareness of Hashem. We are
aware of Hashem in an apparent way, but we know that this
is at most only a glimpse of His holiness. Hashem’s real place
is totally beyond us and totally hidden.
People have a tzelem Elokim. We are a reflection of Hashem.
Our discussion tells us that people are not superficial and
contain much more than what hits the eye. Our real selves
are hidden deep within us, even from ourselves. A person
is really an endless universe, full of boundless potential.
Because of this we are told Hatzenaa Lechet Im Hashem
Elokecha, just like Hashem is private, modest, shy and hid-
den so should we be as well.
This leads us to another idea. People are holy contrary to
Greek belief. Holiness is a deep quality that is found at the
root of the human soul as it connects to Hashem. Because
the soul is holy the body is holy as well. Judaism emphasizes
tzniut because kedusha deserves protection, reverence, and
awe.
Another expression of the difference between the Greek
and Torah view of man is that the Greeks wanted man to
become the most man he could be. He should be the most
attractive, strongest, smartest, and resourceful. For the To-
rah this is a superficial display of man’s abilities. The Torah
wants man to be the most G-d like he can be. Strength, ac-
cording this this view would not refer to a warrior’s muscle
but rather to an inner strength, Eizehu Gibbor HaKocvesh
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Es Yitzro. Likewise, wealth would not refer to money in the lieved that their achievements justified conceit, therefore
bank but rather to a person’s contentment, Eizehu Ashir tyranny developed. On the other hand, if the intellectual
Hasameach Bechelko. is humble, than tyranny will not develop. The Torah says,
VeAnavim Yirshu Aretz. Many of the great Jewish scholars
Based upon all of this, the Greek games are the antithesis
have been humble people, from Moshe to David HaMelech
of Judaism. Because for the Greek, the hero is the one who
to present-day Torah scholars. This is the message of Cha-
wins the game. On the other hand, in Judaism there is no
nukah, to realize man’s humbleness in front of the light of
competition between people at all. There are no winners or
Hashem. The lights of Chanukah teach us this lesson. Let us
losers. Every person has his own unique mission given to
hope that these lights will light up the whole world.
him by Hashem. Every person is different at their root level;
their soul is different from any other soul. A person is an-
swerable only to Hashem, who sees man’s internal self and
cannot be judged by other people who only see his external
self.
This leads us to another important difference. Greece liked
to use it’s eye to focus on that which man does know, par-
ticularly in the science and arts. However in the Torah it is
very important to focus on what one does not know. The
Torah demands of people to be students their whole life and
to continuously aim to learn new ideas. The whole approach
of Torah is to ask questions and discover answers. The To-
rah thereby emphasizes the mysteries surrounding us. This
explains why Jews are always at the forefront of research and
development, because our basic attitude towards knowl-
edge is to focus on the unknown. Torah learning empha-
sizes the creative dimension of learning, which contrasts to
the Western/Greek approach to learning which emphasizes
the aquisition of facts. Therefore the Torah teaches that the
we must be humble, since there is so much we simply do not
know. In this way the Torah scholar is very different than
many modern day scientists. A scientist who makes a dis-
covery puts his name on the discovery like “Halley’s comet”.
On the other hand, the Torah scholar does not put his name
on his discovery.
We can now understand how the original Greek culture of
philosophy, democracy, beauty, and games produced the
fascist state that dominated the Greek empire. The answer
lies in the Greek’s disregard for modesty; the Greeks be-

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