The Seduction of Hellenism

Today I shared the world that the Jewish People lived in some 2,200 years ago. It was a world very similar to our own in the United States today, in that most Jews lived outside of Judea (as the Land of Israel was called back then). They lived throughout most of the known Mediterranean world at that time, interacting every day with other people and other cultures, and spoke the lingua franca of the times - not English like today, but Greek. They read the Torah in Greek translation (the Septuagint), and enjoyed the dominant culture of their world - the Greek culture. They enjoyed helping their neighbors celebrate their festival days as their neighbors shared in celebrating Jewish special days.

After we viewed the 8-minute segment from the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program about the Greek culture (minutes 16:46-25:11), I introduced the term, "Hellenism" and asked the students to raise their hands if they believed they could have kept their Jewish identity and beliefs even as they enjoyed all or parts of the Greek culture described in the video. They all raised their hands. And, indeed, most Jews of those times believed the same - that they could be true to their Jewish beliefs and feel a strong Jewish identity, even as they actively participated in the Greek culture around them. Most - but not all Jews believed this.

There were a group of Jews living in Judea itself, who believed that adoption of any aspect of the Greek culture would lead to certain doom for the Jewish nation. After our Thanksgiving holiday break, I'll be sharing the specifics of who these Jews were, how they acted on their belief, and what the consequences of their actions were on the Jewish People and culture.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving holiday, and I look forward to seeing our Edot students again on Tuesday/Wednesday, November 29th/30th when JQuest resumes classes again.