RABBI WEIN ON Being Aware of Hellenism Today

he holiday of Hanukah marks the struggle between the Hellenistic view of the world and of life and that of traditional Judaism and the values that it represented and continues to represent. The Hellenistic world was a superstitious world. It was a world where human beings were represented as gods, and a world of paganism, where idols, icons and statues were all glorified and worshiped, many times even at the expense of human life. But it was a dominant culture, a culture that predated every aspect of human life. And, as all cultures, it had an attractive side. If it had been all bad no one would have followed it. But its positive elements, music, drama, art and architecture, its philosophy and new ideas, and the system of government that would eventually develop into what today we call democracy were all part of the Hellenistic world.