The Invasion of Hellenism

     One of the current events we talked about to begin class today was a recent European leader's visit to Israel. During his speech to the the Knesset (which was predominantly pro-Israel) he mentioned a statistic someone had told him about during his visit in the West Bank; Israelis use 70 liters of water per day while Palestinians only get to use 17. While this article suggests his numbers are wrong, it agrees that Israelis use much more water per person than our Palestinian counterparts. At first glance, it seems like Israel is not being fair to the Palestinians, and that may well be part of the issue, but it's more complicated than that. The last official agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was in the early 90s, when almost all of the water for both parties came from the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and/or aquifers. Since then the water situation has changed drastically. Israel has invested huge sums of money into both desalinization (removing the salt from ocean water to make it drinkable) and reuse of waste water. For example, Israel currently leads the world in the percentage of waste water that is treated and reused. We do this to around 75% of our water. In second place? Spain, at around 25%. The Palestinian Authority either hasn't had the resources to make this kind of investment and/or has chosen to invest their resources in different things (and probably some combination of the two).
     In the history portion of our class we'd finished talking about Shivat Tzion (the return to Tzion) and the reforms of Ezra and Nehemia to try and strengthen Am Yisrael. For the next hundred years or so (very roughly from ~440 BCE - ~340 BCE) we really didn't say much about Am Yisrael. In class I told the students we think of this period as "No news is good news." Then in the latter half of the 4th century BCE one of the most important generals in the history of the world arrived.
     Alexander the Great is one of the greatest generals who ever lived (and many would argue the greatest). He never lost a battle. He often defeated armies with 10 times more soldiers than his own armies. But he, himself, only ruled/conquered for slightly more than 10 years. His enduring legacy is the fact that he brought his culture, Hellenism, to the Middle East.
     In Jewish tradition we view Alexander the Great fondly. We tell a story that when he arrived to Israel he saw the high priest, jumped off his horse and bowed down to him. As you can imagine, this was not a general custom of the most powerful man in the world. As his entourage looked on, dumbfounded, he explained that it's the high priest's face that leads him into battle and ensures him victory. A less religious explanation for the historical fact that Jerusalem was left untouched might be that Alexander was tutored by Aristotle, a man who clearly valued education and believed in the idea of a "first cause." This is the idea that there is one, first cause behind the universe that set everything in motion and then stepped back and let things unfold. Assuming Alexander believed this as well (as seems likely), it's quite possible that upon learning about Jewish beliefs (monotheism, the importance of education, serious thought about the nature of the world) he felt at least some ideological affinity, and was positively predisposed toward us. Whatever the reason, it turned out well for Am Yisrael.
     Other aspects of Hellenism, however, were antithetical to Judaism. Consider some of these works of art (not all from Alexander's time, but representative of a Hellenistic worldview).

Discobolus

Laocoon and Sons

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Venus de Milo

     These sculptures, among other things, show how highly Hellenic culture viewed the human body. To them, it was beautiful. Another example of this viewpoint is the gymnasium, in which sports were played in the nude, so everyone could appreciate the beauty of the human form. But it wasn't just the human body Hellenism valued; it also puts a high value on the human intellect. For them, things like philosophy, math and logic were beautiful as well. For Am Yisrael, this was a serious problem. We value modesty, not the naked human body. And even in things like philosophy, in which there's some compatibility between the Jewish and Hellenistic views, the goals are very different. Hellenistic scholars want to understand the world for the sake of its beauty; Jewish scholars want to understand the world to create a just society and to grow closer to Hashem. In Hellenism beauty is holiness. In Judaism, holiness is beauty.
     It has already occurred to many of you, no doubt, that living as Am Yisrael in a dominant, alluring culture with different values (even if some of them are the same), sounds quite a bit like living in modern day America. This fact wasn't lost on the students either. We had an interesting discussion about what happens when our secular, American values and our Jewish values collide. When should our secular values determine our decisions? When should our Jewish values have the final word? Many of the students said that they often choose secular values over Jewish ones. If so, is there a line we shouldn't cross? Is there a generational pattern (ie do they think their parents/children will put more emphasis on a certain type of values?) As you can imagine it was a fascinating discussion, and some of them have already talked about it on their personal blogs. I encourage you to check them out!