Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M A S M I D niliciiuo (il (hi; era lies solely in lis peiiii.iiKni ami eiuliiiini; atcoinplislimenis. No ai liievemeni ol llu ' liasinoneans was dts- lineil lo lia ' e a greater ellecl on Jmlaism in par- lioilar ami on world thought in general llian iliur ilesinuiion of Hellenism as a serious factor in Jewish life. After the conquests of Alexamkr Ihe (ireal, ihe Hellenistic civilization liad spread ilirous ' Junii ihe entire Near IList. In the wake of iis iiinniphant march it left iIk ' shailered lieliri of oKler cultures and creeled on their ruins the slruciure of Clreek life, hs iidlucnce permeated Palestine and made itself fell even in Jerusalem, t Gradually many aspects of Hellenism crept int;) the Jewish life. The use of the Greek ian uat c ami ihe adoption in d.iily life of Greek custom continued apace. Gymnasia and Greek ames had been introduced into Jerusalem; races and wrest- lint; contests became for the younger element the order of the day. Amont; the wealthy Jews, Hel- lenism expressed itself in the apostasy of many :iu in the neglect of traditional practices on the part of others. With the growing influence of Hellenism its champions waxed bolder. A con- llict between those who espoused the external splendor of the Greek life and those who insisted on a rigid and uncompromising Judaism was in- evitable, for Hellenism and Judaism were two in- compatible forces seeking the allegiance of the lews. Hellenism fostered appreciation of beauty and love of art. It taught penetration into the natural cauics of the Universe and its phenonema. Its morals were based on a purely rational founda- tion. Making investigation its focal point, it bequeathed to the w orld philosophy, the sciences, and love for beauty. Judaism was founded on lo e of rnankind and righteousness, making mercv its underlying principle. Not love of the beautiful as preached by Hellenism but love of the good and the noble featured its doctrine. Hellenism made its appeal to the mind through the eye and ear. The decided superiority of Greek art coated Greek life with a film of splendor that stood in marked contrast to the sobriety of the Jewish mode of life. Ilic exploiiahoM of the jihysital instincts prac- tised by the Greeks witli the resultant freedom over one ' s body was incompatibit with the Ji u ish |ireoccupation with matters of the spirit. Hi lleiiisiii einphaM eil freedom of thought and lieliiiled .iiiihority. Judaism insisted on im- p|i(ii l.iiih 111 the word of God and obedience to His cominanils. Rationalism and revelation could not have harmonized. Their conflict was to de- termine which would establish itself as the pre- vailing mode of Jewish life. The revolt of the Maccabeans represents the final stage of that con- flict and most determined attempt to ste:n the on- rushing tide of Greek influence. The victories of the Maccabeans supplied the Jews with the strength to combat the inroads of Hellenism and finally to expel it from their land. The im- portance of this ejection of Hellenistic influence cannot be overemphasized. Judaism has made contributions to world civilization in the field of ethics and morality that place it in the very fore- front of the creators of culture. Through the Jews, the ideal of ethical monotheism was carried over the entire world. Its influence has been a universal one. The Jewish people, too, have sur- vived centuries of bitter persecution and deter- mined efforts at their complete destruction because Judaism acted as a bond cementing them into a unit -. The Torah served as a rallying point around which lews gathered and gave up their lives to prevent its defilement. Had Hellenism conquered Palestine as it did the rest of the Near East, the Jews would have remained but a small, im- poverished, religious community, a sect that could never have exercised any universal influence; or they would have succumbed completely to its on- slaught and have lost their identity. The Has- moneans, by ejecting Hellenism from Palestine thus made it possible for Judaism as a religion to be a light to the world on the one hand, and for the Jews as a nation to survive on the other. In the natural interplay of cultures that come into contact wnth each other, Hellenism may have left some impress on Jewish life. These influences.

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M A SMID consideration ot the importance ot tliis period on the development of Jewish history must therefore properly beijin not with the jirantint; of political independence to Palestine by Demetrius II in 143 or with the popular appointment of Simon as Hi h Priest, general and ethnarch in l4l but with tiie revolt of Mattathias and his sons at Modein in 168. The first phase of the period ended in 165 with the reconsecration of the Temple. The recogni- tion by Lysias of the right of the people to re- ligious freedom gained for the Jews what the Macc.ibeans had sought to achieve — the right to worship their own God, on their own soil, in their own manner. Till 165 the struggle had been waged for rehgious freedom. After its achieve- ment, the end sought was political independence. Nothing less than political autonomy could suffice to safeguard the national mode of life; and the realization of this led Jonathan to center his efforts on this goal. During his rule (152-144 B.C.E.) he united the quarreling factions in Judaea and made of the country a strong, self-reliant nation. In 152 Alexander Balas, pretender to the throne of Syria, made him High Priest. Concomitant with the growth of the nation ' s power was Jonathan ' s rapid advance in prestige and influence. And when he met his death at the hands of the treach- erous Trypho, it was but a short step from the position he had occupied to the High Priesthood of an independent nation — the role that his suc- cessor Simon was soon to assume. Simon consolidated the gains made by Jonathan and raised Judaea to the rank of an independent nation. The granting of practical independence to the Jews in Palestine by Demetrius II in 143- 142 B.C.E., and Simon ' s election in 141 as High Priest, general and ethnarch of the expanding na- tion are landm arks in the struggle of the Jews against the forces seeking their annihilation. With Simon ' s elevation to the status of an independent ruler, the second stage of this period, the fight for political independence, comes to an end; the Has- monean dynasty begins with this event. Judaea was now possessed of full religious and practically complete political liberty. The third stage of the Hasmonean rule is the story of the rising nation striving to preserve its hard-earned gains from the encroachment of foreign powers, the efforts of the various leaders to achieve territorial expansion and the conflict within the state of the divergent factions. The history of the latter phase, from the point of view of the later development of Jewish life, the most important factor of the Hasmonean era, bulks large in the general history of the period. The struggle for supremacy between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the alternation of both factions in the seat of power and the final triumph of the Pharisees is the story of the rise and fall of the Jewish state from the ascension of John Hyrcanus to the Roman conquest. The dissension between the two parties split the nation and ultimately resulted in the Civil ' War that once more estab- lished foreign rule in Palestine and raised the eagle of Rome on the soil of the Holy Land. Such, very briefly, is the history of the Jews in Palestine from the revolt of Mattathias to the pil- laging of Jerusalem by the Romans under Pompey — a period that was to exercise a profound in- fluence on the molding of the Jewish religion and on Jewish life. It is to the appreciation of the importance of this era in Jewish history that we shall now direct our attention. Many transitory benefits accrued to the Jews during the Hasmonean reign. Most significant of these was the territorial expansion of the country. The nation burst the bonds that had limited it to the narrow confines of Judaea and spread over all Palestine until its size was almost equal to that of the Kingdom of David and Solo- mon. During the rule of Simon and John Hyrcanus, a state of commercial prosperity existed in the land. The seaports, in particular, thrived on a flourishing commercial trade. But these gains were destined to be temporary ones and with the Roman conquest, went for nought. The sig- Sixleen

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M A SMID however, merely affected the external manifesta- tions of Hebrew civilization. The essence of Judaism was to remain strictly and purely Jewish. If the expulsion of Hellenistic influence from Palestine served to determine in part tlie nature of Judaism by preventing encroachment from with- out, profound developments within the nation it- self were to play an equally important role in shaping the future character of Jewish life. Fostered by the turmoil and instability of the period many divergent factions made their ap- pearance. Whether the accentuation of existing tendencies or the development of new thought, fundamentally different philosophies of Jewish life were brought into violent conflict with each other. And when the smoke of battle had cleared and Pharisaism had emerged the victor, the foundation was laid for the imposing and durable structure that Judaism was to rear. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the most important of these parties. While limitations of space prevent a discussion of the fundamental assumptions of both sects, of the development of the Pharisaic tendency from Ezra to the Hasmoneans or of the growth of the Sadducees, several factors must be noted. Ezra on his return from Babylon sought to make the religion which in former times had been mainly the collective expression of the nation ' s devotion to God, the personal concern of each individual. Successive generations of Sopherim worked out into fuller detail the implicit contents of the Torah as changing circumstances called for further interpretation of the original precepts. The impact of Hellenism weakened the hold of the people on Judaism; the revolt of the Maccabees strengthened their devotion to the religion of Torah. The Law became once more the core of Jewish life. With the increasing importance of the Jewish nation as a political entity, religion was mixed with politics to an extent which dis- pleased no small number of the people. There was therefore again a movement towards a stricter interpretation of the Torah and a more thorough- going obedience to its requirements on the p.irt of a minority on the one side, to correspond with the movement towards worldliness ' on the other side . . . Those who formed the governing class, the great families and the chief priests, were the Sadducees. Those who maintained the full strict- ness of the religion of the Torah were the Pha- risees. The Pharisees accepted the Oral Tradi- tion as implicitly as they did the Written Word and kept the religion of the Torah as a living principle, capable of being adapted to the fresh developments of religious life; the Sadducees held to the letter of the original scripture and refused innovation. The later years of the Hasmonean rule witnessed the decline in power of the Sad- ducees and with the War of 70 A.D. they passed completely from Jewish life. The importance of the Pharisees ' triumph cannot be overemphasized for the Rabbinic tradition which is so fully ex- pressed in the Mishna and in the Talmud and which through the medium of these monumental works became the foundation on which Jewish life has since rested is the embodiment of Pharisaism. Judaism as a religion has survived the vicissitudes of history because it has been able to adapt its fundamental principles to varying con- ditions and to changing circumstances. Any move- ment such as that of the Sadducees that would have clung stubbornly to the letter of the Written Law, that refused to accept the Oral Tradition and the interpretation of the Rabbis, and to which in- novations were tabu, would have sounded the death knell of the Jewish religion and, with it, that of the Jewish people. The attempt to deprive the Jews of their own religious life had resulted, as we have seen, in a new enthusiasm for the Law and in a more zealous application of its principles to every-day life. Similarily, the endeavor to destroy the sources from which they drew their inspiration, the Holy Writings, had the effect of rendering these treasures even more precious than they had hitherto been. The writings of the Prophets as- sumed a new importance in the eyes of the people. Eighteen