24 Dec ANALYZING THE IMAGERY OF A FAMILIAR CHANUKAH POEM

I would like to share
a beautiful insight
from Rav Matisyahu
Solomon relating to
the popular
Chanukah liturgical
poem, Maoz Tzur.
Perhaps the most familiar stanza of this
poem (owing to the well-known song using
these words) is the stanza beginning
Yevanim nikbetzu alay azai b’yemay
Chashmonim (The Syrian-Greeks gathered
against me in the days of the Chashmoneans).
The song then relates that they made
breaches into the walls of my source of
strength (u’fartzu chomos migdalay). It
continues that a miracle was performed for
the sake of the shoshanim. The word
shoshanim literally means roses. The poet
metaphorically calls the Jewish nation
“shoshanim”.
Why, we may ask, was the name
“shoshanim” seen as a particularly
appropriate way to refer to Klal Yisrael at
this time in history?
Rav Solomon’s basic theme is an idea
mentioned by Rav Yeruchum Levovitz in

his work Daas Chochmah U’Mussar. Rav
Yeruchum writes that if we are to seek out
one theme that Moshe Rabbeinu constantly
repeats throughout his life, it is the theme
that Klal Yisrael should not assimilate with
idolatrous societies and learn from their
ways. Moshe’s greatest fear was that after
his death the nation of Israel would learn the
ways of their non-Jewish neighbors and be
pulled into the trap and the lifestyle of the
nations of the world. Moshe first mentions
this theme as soon as the Torah is given and
he does not let up until the very day he dies.
Rav Yeruchum cites chapter and verse to
prove his point. Here are just a few of many
examples: “Don’t make a covenant with
them or with their gods. They shall not
dwell in your land lest they cause you to sin
to Me.” [Shemos 23:33]; “Take heed lest
you make a covenant with those who dwell
in the land.” [Shemos 31:24]; “When you
cross the Jordan to the land of Canaan, you
shall drive out all the inhabitants of the
Land before you; and you shall destroy…
and you shall demolish… but if you do not
drive out the inhabitants of the Land before
you, those of them whom you leave shall be
pins in your eyes and thorns in your sides…”

[Bamidbar 33:51-55]. These same themes
are repeated by Moshe again and again
and again.
Unfortunately, in spite of all these
warnings and exhortations, Klal Yisrael did
not do a very good job of keeping away
from assimilation with the nations. The
history of both the early and later prophets
is replete with examples of spiritual
backsliding on the part of the Jewish people
due to having learned from and copied the
abominations of other nations. This occurs
over and over in the Book of Yehoshua, in
Shoftim, in Shmuel, and in Melachim. Not
only did “the masses” of Jews learn from
idolators, even Jewish Kings learned from
them, to the extent that some of them tried
to eradicate Judaism from the nation.
Ultimately, the Jews paid the price of this
spiritual backsliding and were exiled from
the Land.
After seventy years, the Jews were put back
into the land, having seemingly learned
their lesson, only to return to their wayward
behavior and to again learn from the
Hellenists in the time of the Second Temple.
Concerning this constant historical
challenge to the preservation of unique
Jewish identity, Dovid HaMelech says,
“And they intermingled among the
nations and they learned from their ways”
[Tehillim 106:35].
If there is a way to sum up the essence of
the battle between Klal Yisrael and the
Yevanim [Syrian-Greeks] at the time of
the Chanukah story in twenty-five words
or less it is by describing this very issue.
The Yevanim’s battle with the Jews was
not a physical battle to eradicate our
people. Their vision was not that of
Haman in an earlier era nor that of Rome
in a later era. The Yevanim were not
interested in killing Jews. The Greeks did
not destroy the Beis HaMikdash even
though they were certainly militarily
capable of doing that. Their goal was not
to destroy the Temple, but to de-sanctify
it. They wanted to take Jewish culture
and adulterate it. Their vision was to
Hellenize Judaism and to blur the
differences between Greek and Jewish
culture. It was not a battle for the lives of
Jews. It was a battle for their souls — a
cultural war.
Perhaps this is what the Mishneh is
alluding to in Tractate Middos [2:3].
When detailing the layout of the Har
Habayis, the Mishneh mentions a ten
hand breadth high fence known as the
Soreg, just inside the perimeter of the Har
Habayis. The Mishneh comments that the
Soreg contained thirteen breaches that
were made by the Greek Kings. The

Mishneh says that the Jews were successful
in mending the fences and instituted a
corresponding number of prostrations,
where visitors bowed when passing these
places. The Rabbis enacted that when a Jew
came to the Har Habayis and saw the
mended fences, he should bow down in
grateful thanks to the Master of the Universe

for the successful defeat of the Syrian-
Greek empire.

The Tosfos YomTov comments that the
purpose of the Soreg fence was to separate
the Jews from the non-Jews. When people
of other nations came to the Har Habayis
(which they had the right to do, as found in
Sholo HaMelech’s prayer at the Temple
dedication [Melachim I 8:41-43]), they had
to know their limits. If they wanted to join
the Jewish nation, they could convert. But
they did not have to. They could donate to
the Temple and make offerings, but from
“the other side of the fence”, a small but
symbolic separation between the Jews and
the nations.
When the Greeks were successful in
conquering Eretz Yisrael, what did they do?
They did not destroy the fence or jump over
the fence. They made breaches in the fence,
in effect saying we are not different. We are
no different from you and you are no different
from us. We want to intermingle with you,
and we want you to assimilate with us.
The mending of the fences was the symbol of
the victory of the Jews over the Greeks.
Therefore, how appropriate it is, for the
liturgist to write – in describing the challenge
that the Greeks presented to the Jewish
nation: U’fartzu chomos migadalie [And
they breached the walls of my Temple].
U’mi’nosar kankanim, na-aseh nes
la’shoshanim [And from the left-over vials of
oil a miracle was performed for the ‘roses’].
Why ‘shoshanim’ [roses]? The pasuk in Shir
HaShirim [2:2] states, Like the rose
(maintaining its beauty) among the thorns, so
is My faithful beloved among the nations.
Rashi there explains that the Jewish people
are compared to roses. They live in a hostile
environment. The delicate rose is in constant
danger, lest the thorns puncture and pierce its
beauty, destroying its pristine appearance.
The Jewish people is under constant pressure
to assimilate, and to replace Jewish values
with those of the larger society around us.
This was the praise of the Jews who defeated
the Greeks. They preserved their pristine
beauty in the face of the hostility of the
Yevanim who were trying to puncture and
destroy their spiritually delicate essence.