Humble Opinions

For one who thinks about the Jewish holiday Chanuka, there are a few obvious questions: What exactly are Jews celebrating, and why do they celebrate it? If you’re a history buff, you’ll answer the holiday is a commemoration of the Maccabean revolt successfully repelling the Syrian Greek army of Antiochos Epiphanes in the year 170 BCE. But I’ve got news for you - the fighting did not end there. There were battles for years that followed the events of Chanuka. And another thing, the Greeks did not declare a holocaust decree against the Jews. The Greeks felt the Jews were standing in the way of “the future” - namely, the progressive philosophy, architecture, and beauty their society was trying to bring to the world. The Greeks never attempted to wipe out the Jews.

Furthermore, do you know how many thousands of mini-battles the Jews have won in their history? Why don’t Jews celebrate their victory over the Amaleki army that occurred shortly after their exodus from Egypt? Why not their miraculous conquer of the city of Jericho? If anything, we should at least celebrate the 1976 Raid on Entebbe. That was quite a victory in my opinion.

So the question stands: what is so special about Chanuka?

First, we need to make a distinction. There is an enormous difference between non-Jewish holidays, and Jewish holidays. Non-Jewish holidays are celebrations to recall earlier events that coincidentally happened on the same day of the calendar that Pope Gregory XIII created in 1582 - a nice coincidence indeed. Jewish holidays are something entirely different.

A fundamental Jewish belief is that the physical world as perceived by us humans is merely a manifestation of a spiritual dimension. Thus, when a person smiles at you, and it makes you feel happy, you are not actually feeling that joy as a result of the other person reshaping their mouth into a U-shape. Rather, that U-shape is a representation of a deeper essence that cannot be clearly defined in the physical dimension of the universe. But we already knew that.

Now let’s expand that concept to time. Time is not a method of accounting. Time actually has personality to it. Winter feels different than Summer. Spring feels different than Fall. Thus, time carries with it specific energies that enable a person to better accomplish certain things at certain times. That is why in the Jewish calendar, we have set periods of judgment, periods of mourning, periods of great striving, etc. Jewish holidays are not merely celebrations. They are opportunities.

So what’s the deal with Chanuka?

Chanuka is a prime example of the Jewish situation in the world. One of the first things the Greeks occupying the Land of Israel banned was circumcision of male babies. They felt it was a defilement of the human body, which was naturally perfect and beautiful. Greek culture also promoted public nudity, and the beautification of the human body (hence their art). This stance was entirely opposed to Jewish thought, which believes true beauty comes from within, and as a result of refinement of one’s self.

The Greeks did not deny the existence of god. But they gave their gods human attributes. Greek gods were womanizers, murderers, and had all the failings a human being could have. This was a diametrically opposite view of the world than the Jews had. Thus, the battle between the Jews and the Greeks was something far deeper than an exchange of firepower - or whatever weapons were cutting edge back then. It was a conflict of stance.

Where are the Greeks today? Modern day Greece has no connection to ancient Greece, and Greek philosophy can be found for the most part in whatever book has collected the most dust. Did the Jews win a guerrilla warfare battle? Yes, but that is not what Jews celebrate. Jews celebrate their everlasting view of the world, their mission to uplift it spiritually, and the fact that no empire or madman has yet to extinguish them.

And I’ve got some bad news for Mahmoud Ahmedinejad: You’re going to lose, trust me.

Happy Chanuka!

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I would like to bring to your attention a man I greatly look up to. Among many other things, I find him extremely knowledgeable, realistic, well researched, and insightful. He has written 19 books, produced 13 movies, given thousands of lectures on History and Jewish topics, and writes weekly for one of the most prestigious media outlets in Israel, the Jerusalem Post. He has also served as the executive vice president and Chief Rabbi for the most recognized Kosher certification on earth, the OU. Lastly, he has also founded and run a high school, has served as the rabbi for multiple Jewish synagogues, and has traveled the world extensively. I introduce world renown author, historian, and educator Rabbi Berel Wein (buy his products, they’re sick).

Among his many accomplishments is a 116 hour audio lecture series on Jewish history that spans from the creation of the world until 1984. I have listened to all of it, and can attest to its magnificence. I would very much like to share the concluding 9 minutes of the entire series. Press play to begin playing:

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It is not very often that we get an opportunity to break from our busy lives, and reflect on the world and its trends. A topic I believe to be vastly under appreciated is mankind’s ongoing development of technology, and its impact on the lives of the civilized world.

Realizing the unbelievable advancements made in the past few centuries, and even decades, should give a person pause, and leave them in wonderment. The inventions of the printing press, railroad, automobile, automatic weapons, airplanes, video cameras, the industrial revolution, and the birth of computers / the Internet have all irrevocably changed the face of the world and life forever.

There are a few areas of change I would like to highlight:

(1). Information

We are currently living in an era that has been named the Information Age. It denotes the global economy’s focus shifting away from the production of physical goods to the manipulation of information. To consider the amount of information that has been made available through the Internet, and the speed with which that information can be disseminated could give a person a headache.

As I have mentioned previously, Europe during the dark ages (which was sparked by the fall of Rome) had an almost 100% rate of illiteracy. The rest of the middle ages was not much better. Up until the last few centuries, it was practically unheard of to own a book. Aside from the fact that few could actually afford a book, most people were not particularly interested in books. Let’s compare that with our time: The Internet offers pretty much anyone access to more information in a single day than their grandparents probably came across their entire lives. I read a statistic that more information will be added to the Internet in 2009 than all of the information known in all of human history before 2009 combined.

In the Babylonian Talmud, it is recorded that during the 3rd and 4th centuries, questions regarding Jewish law were sent by messenger from the land of Israel to Babylonia (modern day Iraq), and the messenger would then return with the answers to the questions. This process took 2 years. Meaning for a piece of information to travel from modern day Israel to modern day Iraq, and back, took 24 months. Compare that to today, where pages of information, as well as photographs and videos can be transmitted across the globe via email in a matter of seconds.

If one were to approach a person from the 1300s, and tell them that on a tiny portable screen, they could see and speak with a person hundreds or even thousands of miles away, I believe they would classify it as a miracle on the scale of the splitting of the red sea. Today, we’re upset waiting more than 10 seconds for a song to download and start playing. Namely, a song that was composed and created primarily without the use of real instruments.

(2). Time

Thanks to modern technology, we all save incredible amounts of time, leaving us with enormous spans of what we call “leisure” time. Instead of heating food up in an oven (let alone a man-made fire), we can make food steaming hot in seconds by using a microwave. Instead of washing dishes and clothes by hand, we now have dish washers, laundry machines, and driers that do it for us. Instead of traveling by boat for several months in horrendous conditions, we can now travel the same distance in hours via airplane, while watching a movie, and eating hot food with dessert.

All of these inventions create the opportunities for a person to accomplish more with their life than those in previous generations could ever have imagined. In this void, the modern day entertainment industry has blossomed into the #1 most profitable industry by filling (ahem, wasting, ahem) people’s time with movies, celebrities, amusement parks, and all the other activities vital to a healthy existence.

(3). Accomplishment

Like I have already said, using technology, people are able to accomplish many times more than those of previous generations, and still be left with far more leisure time than they had. This blog is a perfect example. I can create a piece of literature (by literally pressing buttons), and it can instantly be accessed by millions or even billions of people (don’t worry, almost there). That creates amazing opportunity for accomplishment. I could write a one page article in 20 minutes, and spend the remaining 23 hours and 40 minutes of my day playing video games and drinking slurpees, and I’d still have wider publication than my grandfather probably could have gotten in 200 hours of work in his time.

(4). Quality

In addition to being able to accomplish far more nowadays compared to earlier points in time, we also have the ability to produce at far higher qualities. Thanks to computers, and the slick geniuses that write computer programs (that’s right!), we are able to create amazing slideshows that incorporate all kinds of charts, graphs, video clips, audio recordings, and animations, rendering the presentation of information far more home-hitting. We can also do incredible calculations far beyond the ability of any human that further the study and prediction of things like medicine, weather, DNA, and more.

A great example application, I think, has to do with the tractate of the Mishna (see my post on Jewish literature) called Yevamot. The tractate spends much of its time discussing the relationship scenarios that are acceptable and forbidden to a Jew. At a certain point, these scenarios begin to grow enormously complex, involving cousins of cousins, cousins of half-siblings, descendants of brothers of cousins of half-siblings with questionable conversion to Judaism… you get the point.  Today, amazing companies such as Artscroll have produced great charts that make it far easier to understand each of these scenarios. Thanks to these, many more people can now learn that tractate of the Mishna with far greater clarity and understanding. And that’s just one example.

Food For Thought

It’s always great to stop and realize all the wonderful things in our lives. What would we do if G-d “pulled the plug” on electricity? I think we’d all be in a bit of a bind. Unfortunately, some people (probably inclusive of myself) would be completely lost. If you are Jewish, the next time you make a blessing before biting into a slice of pizza, identifying G-d as the source that brought what you are about eat into existence, feel free to additionally identify G-d as the source of the unbelievable technology that helped refine and perfect every ingredient in that pizza.

Considering all the brilliant points I have made in this post, it is easy to see the immense opportunity for accomplishment in our day and age. As with all things in life, these advancements can be applied for the betterment or destruction of our world and species.

I implore everyone to be careful with their time. It’s so easy to waste away getting involved in things that essentially will be gone tomorrow, and have zero effect on anything. Glad will be the person that lay on his death bed atop a mountain of accomplishment. Sad will be the person that lay on their death bed with nothing but quotes from Adam Sandler movies, and the names of the drinks from Starbucks memorized.

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