Religion & Beliefs
Oh, That Christopher Hitchens
By Tamar Fox / December 10, 2007
On Friday we spotlighted Ariela M’s apt deconstruction of Christopher Hitchens’s Slate piece Bah, Hanukkah, but I wanted to briefly discuss what about that piece I think is worthy of attention.
Mostly, I think Hitchens is full of crap, but when he points out that the Hasmoneans were imperialistic, and brutal, it’s not something to be ignored. We tend to tell the stories surrounding our holidays as if they had clear beginnings and endings the way fairy tales do, but that’s just not the case. The miracle of the oil is not the end of the story of the Hasmoneans. The warriors still had a great deal of work to do to protect the Jewish people from Greek influence, and if that meant killing Jews who had assimilated—so be it. I do understand that was pretty much the war aesthetic of the day. People killed other people for disagreeing with them all the time. That doesn’t make it okay, though, and I am frustrated by how much we glorify the Maccabbees and generally side with the Hasmoneans when the Hasmoneans really were tyrants. Chanukkah is a holiday that simply does not acknowledge any kind of middle ground between religion and secular life, and that the problem with it, and with the time period it glorifies. Hitchens may be a gasbag, but when he condemns the Maccabbees for slaughtering the Greeks and the ideas about reason that they brought with them he’s not just whistling Dixie.
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It’s about transcending the material world. Very cool. It’s important to stand up for that or things can get very icky in the material world, oddly enough. Happy eighth candle. TWO prayers, not just one. The Nissim, remember? The miracles. Miracles are all around.
Tamar says that Hanukkah does not acknowledge the existence of a “middle ground” between religion and secular life. Shriber1 says that Hanukkah is in fact a purely secular holiday.
I disagree with both of you. Hanukkah is a holiday that, like much of Judaism, finds religious meaning in secular events and applies it to secular activities. After all, the Hasmonean rebellion was led by priests. Also, it was resistance not to foreign sovereignty per se, but to _religious_ perversion (idolatry in the Temple, foreign sacrifices by Jews, and, at least according to the Rabbis, suppression of particular religious practices — circumcision, Rosh Hodesh, etc.). And finally, it culminated in the capture and restoration/rededication of the Temple. Then, when our normative religious tradition (the Rabbis) looked at the events, in at least one of their accounts (that of the Gemara), they repressed the miracle of the military victories and emphasized (or even manufactured) the miracle of the light.
When I wrote, "There is an easy way to get rid of anonymous postings" I didn't mean to force posters to give us their name rank and social security number.
What I meant is that posters should have to choose a nickname for themselves. Even a name like Zbird is not anonymous as any reader can identify the poster by his chosen name and carry on a dialogue with him or her. Even if one were to chose a number they would still not be anonymous in as much as they would use the same number each time they posted.
By anonymous I meant allowing posters to post under the same label. One "anonymous" poster is like another. lazy people and cowards chose to post under such a mass label.
Anonymity doesn't just hide one's identity, it abolishes all identity.
"…deconstruction is not taking something apart. that's just critique." invisible_hand
Well, no IH.
Deconstruction is an intellectual discipline in Philosophy and some humanities departments which has a precise history and logic.
It goes back to Heidegger though it was first systematized by Derrida who worked out a logic of deconstruction.
You can read about it in Of Grammatology.
I don't much care for the discipline as I think it has corrupted the humanites, but it's out there and we have to deal with it.
"I was referring to far more shrill (usually anonymous) commentators who seem to troll these pages 24/7. "
There is an easy way to get rid of anonymous postings.
I wish they weren't allowed.
I'd really like to see good thoughtful and learned (i.e. based on historical fact and logic) discussions here.
but it annoys the crap out of me when people misuse the word deconstruction. what you mean is "fisking," or "break-down," which translates directly as "analysis." remember 10th grade chemistry?
deconstruction is not taking something apart. that's just critique.
History repeats itself–at least a little bit. Back then, a portion of the Jewish community was swept up in the Hellinization of the Kingdoms–while a portion was holding onto the Jewish way of life. Men were actually seeking ways to undo their circumcisions. A Jew in the 'modern world' of ancient Greece despised Jewish traditions and instead hung out at the gymnasium and acted the part of a modern sophisticated person.
Today, our community is split again–only the majority cares a whole heck of a lot more about the quality of their rear ends than the quality of their souls. The majority worships the latest in modern science and is up to date on the metrosexual man while the minority studies Torah and honors our history and traditions.
The Greeks decreed that the Jews could not be Jewish and started the first religious war in history. It was certainly not something that came from the Maccabees–they were simply willing to defend Judaism. Today, we have a broader and less obvious threat to Judaism and it is in the media, the university and the culture.
Perhaps many of our young people struggle to be Jewish against a background that finds contempt against Jewish values and in favor of secular humanist ones. They seek to kill Judaism by shame and soft contempt and not by the sword.
It is obvious that some of our people today sympathize with our oppressors. It is tragic to read about it nonetheless.
"Chanukkah is a holiday that simply does not acknowledge any kind of middle ground between religion and secular life, and that the problem with it, and with the time period it glorifies."
Excuse me Tamar, but I never celebrated Hanukah as a religious Holiday. It's totally secular: dreidels, chocolate gelt, songs, latkes, candle lights, and one prayer (for lighting the candles).
Compare this with Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, or even Passover.
I have no idea what Tamar is talking about.
Perhaps she means that Hanukah is a national and even a nationalistic celebration. In that case, I agree. However, the Jews deserve at least one national holiday, were they celebrate a victory attested in history, don't you think?
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