Hanukkah: Hellenism and Its Discontents
"We are all Greeks," Shelley once wrote, rather exuberantly. It's easy to see why he'd say that. As Rabbi Michael Lerner observed, "Along with Greek science and military prowess came a whole culture that celebrated beauty both in art and in the human body, presented the world with the triumph of rational thought in the works of Plato and Aristotle, and rejoiced in the complexities of life presented in the theater of Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes."
Only Lerner wasn't giving Hellenism a sales pitch. See, not every one is a 'Greek' in Shelley's sense of the term, including sectors of far-left post-modernism, the evangelical Christians, most of the Islamic world, the Taliban... and then there were the Maccabees, whose struggle against Hellenism is celebrated during Hanukkah.
Christopher Hitchens asks that we call it quits.Bah, Hanukkah: THE HOLIDAY CELEBRATES THE TRIUMPH OF TRIBAL JEWISH BACKWARDNESS
4 Comments
Recommended Comments