Comments on: Un-hijacking Hanukah

By: LAWRENCE KAPLAN

LAWRENCE KAPLAN — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:53:02 +0000

Noam, IIRC, the article was translated into English by Dr. Marc Shapiro and appeared in either The Torah U-Madda Journal or Tradition.

By: Noam

Noam — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:52:02 +0000

Yefet in the tents of Shem was the topic of one of the inaugural lectures at the Berlin Theological Seminary, delivered, I think, by Rav David Tzvi Hoffman zatzal. It was reprinted in the last few years.

By: Chaim Wolfson

Chaim Wolfson — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:18:00 +0000

I haven’t had a chance to see how Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch makes his point, but based on my understanding of TIDE, I think that as the “beauty of Yefes” relates to Jews, he would have preferred Rabbi Belovski’s formulation. Non-Jews do not “dwell in the tent of Shem”, but history has shown that they, too, require some sort of moral compass to ensure that they do not distort “the beauty of Yefes”. Germany is a case in point. And for all the positive aspects of Greek culture, I’m not sure how comfortable any of us would have been living as Jews in ancient Athens.

By: Danny Rubin

Danny Rubin — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:13:18 +0000

Reb Harvey,

Thank you for this beautiful post.It seems the height of irony that American society uses Chanuka as a vehicle for assimilation into the Christmas season ( I’m sure it is not the only thing Americans do that you find peculiar :-)). Are there any sources that discuss the unfortunate timing of Chanuka adjacent to what is proported to be the birth of Christianity?

Danny Rubin

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:16:42 +0000

I’ve heard it put this way: The Jews are compared to a dove, which is yonah, the same root as Yavan. Yavan is Tzion without the Tzaddik. (not just talking about the *letter*.)

By: dr. william gewirtz

dr. william gewirtz — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:38:09 +0000

Very well said! I would only change: “The beauty of Yefes can and must live only within the tents of Shem.” to: The beauty of Yefes unconstrained by the tent of Shem can (perhaps even often) be distorted. There is certainly Chachmah BaGoyim, but there are even Tzaddikim in their midst.

And I wonder if the syrian/greeks who were the protaganists in the chanukah story were to the idealized, authentic culture of greece somewhat like reform jews to orthodox, same family different values and practices, very much outside the tent of Shem.

a freilichen chanukah!

By: Avi

Avi — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:21:55 +0000

Beautifully put! R’ Shamshon Rephael Hirsch had a similar point of
view—see Collected Writings I or II, Kisleiv.