(Rabbi Moshe Dov Heber / VINnews) Chanukah is when we celebrate our existence as a nation separate from the goyim. A special nation with our own “culture”, the culture of the Torah and not of the goyim that surround us.
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Yaakov Kramer is a nursing home administrator in Greenwich, CT, an hour drive from his home in the vibrant Waterbury community.
Last week, Yaakov was conversing with a speech therapist employed by the nursing home and the discussion turned to music. Yaakov is very into music, even singing on a professional level, and organizing the music at the last siyum hashas. The woman asked him if he is into music, to which he answered “yes, I listen to Jewish music and not the music of the general world”.
She asked “what style of music, country? classic”? To which Yaakov answered they have many different styles but it’s all of Jewish genre. She proceeded to ask “so you don’t know any country singers?” Yaakov answered “not really”.
She then starts listing off name after name, which Yaakov didn’t know or maybe vaguely heard of. The woman looked at Yaakov and with shock she said “It seems that you live under a rock”. To which Yaakov said, “it’s not that, it’s just we live differently”.
She then corrected herself jokingly, “you don’t live under a rock, you live under a yarmulke”!
Yaakov was so taken aback and realized that yes we may not know the “world’s” country singers but we know what’s going on in our world, the world true to the Torah. We are not oblivious to what’s going on, because it’s simply not our world.
The Yevanim wanted us to be cultured in their world, but we remain in the world under our Yarmulkes!
Rabbi Moshe Dov Heber is presently a Middle School Rebbi in Yeshiva K’tana of Waterbury, the Director of the Mishmar Evening Program in Waterbury and Division Head in Camp Romimu. He is a frequent contributor to various publications on areas related to education. Trained by his grandfather, Rabbi Paysach Krohn, he lectures widely on an array of topics. Rabbi Heber could be reached via email [email protected].
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there are many Greek ideas that worked their way into Jewish culture. (I’m no Rabbi just stating facts).
For the Greeks the stadiums were the church. Teams from 2 cities would meet at a stadium & before the game the anthem of each city was sung. Whichever team won their supporters saw it as their G-d being stronger. (Again, not a Rabbi) but the closest thing you can get to “Chukas Hagoyim” is attending a pro sports game. At camp what is one of the most important parts of Color War? The “Grand song” Literally 2 teams coming together & representing themselves with their “Anthem” exactly like the Greek religion did.
Our Torah is written as one long uninterrupted scroll (Parsha, Perakim, etc. came later). While the Gemarah has categories, sub-catagories, chapters, etc. (Nashim-Gittin-Perek Aleph-Mishna Aleph). This comes directly from the Greek way of organization.
There are other instances as well.
The lesson of Chanukah is that we didn’t allow Greek culture to overwhelm us but we kept it at a distance & only cherry picked those attributes of Greek culture that enhanced our Jewish way of life.
We can not afford to live under a yalmaka. Too much is happening around us to put our heads in the sand and pretend Hashem will make it all go away. Israel is at war and we are losing Israeli citizens and soldiers everyday who are protecting our land. How do you turn a blind eye to that news and pretend to not hear it?