A Derechological Chanukah Vort: Chanukah as a Response to Greek Philosophy ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

A Derechological Chanukah Vort: Chanukah as a Response to Greek Philosophy

(This Chanukah thought is heavily based on my work on extracting Jewish wisdom for today's world, which I am calling Derechology.)

The Chanukah menorah is not only a lesson in the miracle of the oil. It is a lesson about how the world should be.

Greek philosophy, from which all Western philosophy is based, treats light as the primary metaphor for good and truth: knowledge is illumination, ignorance is darkness, and once truth is fully seen, order is expected to follow naturally.

Judaism approaches light very differently.

The Chanukah lights are not one large torch, but multiple distinct flames. This mirrors Creation itself: the first thing God did after creating light was to separate it from darkness. Light alone was not enough. God imposed structure around it.

Greek “holiness” (aretē, excellence) is about perfection, maximization, and the fullest realization of an essence.

Jewish kedushah is fundamentally different. As Rashi defines it, kedushah means separation - and as Ramban explains, restraint even within what is permitted.

Greek ethics seeks the fullest expression of capacity. Jewish ethics sanctifies the withholding of capacity.

This difference becomes concrete in halacha. According to Jewish law, the lights of the menorah may not be used for any purpose other than to be seen. Each flame has its own role. Using them instrumentally invalidates the mitzvah. When they are used only for the mitzvah and nothing else, they are holy - kodesh heim.

Kedushah means that things belong in proper categories and roles - sacred and mundane, human and animal, child and adult, man and woman, obligation and permission. Moral societies depend on such distinctions not to flatten human beings, but to assign responsibility, limits, and purpose.

Chanukah makes this unavoidable. The light is there, yet we are forbidden to use it.

Greek philosophy assumes that absolute knowledge is attainable through reason alone. Jewish thinking holds that only God knows the full truth, and that human beings approach truth not through certainty, but through structure. The menorah has precise placement, strict order, defined timing, and limitations of use. It must be lit whether or not we grasp all of its history and symbolism. Actions and responsibilities are not dependent on complete understanding.

This rule is what makes morality possible. If moral action depended on full understanding, then anything could be justified once the story was told persuasively enough. We see that failure of morality everywhere today.

Structure is what prevents entropy - and creating structure is how human beings imitate God, who created a bounded universe out of nothing so that we could complete His work by building moral order within it.

That is the Jewish answer to Athens.