Parashat Miketz, Seventh Candle of Hanukkah (5760)

On the eve of the holy Sabbath, Parashat Miketz, the seventh candle of Hanukkah, 5760

The Rule of Spirit or Matter: Improving the Platonic Model

Last week I wrote about the essence of kingship as leadership, and about the difference between it and politics,

and now we shall continue to deal with kingship and government in general in the context of Hanukkah and the Hasmoneans, and perhaps we shall arrive

at similar conclusions.

The subjugation of the people of Israel by Greece, like their redemption from Greek rule, had spiritual meanings, and also

political-governmental ones.[1] On the one hand, the people of Israel could not observe the commandments when it was itself under command,

while, on the other hand, it also lost its independence to Greek rule. When the war ended

with the victory of the Hasmoneans, the Maccabees took for themselves (at first the brothers of Judah Maccabee, and afterward

their descendants) the monarchy in Israel; and as Maimonides writes, 'sovereignty returned to Israel for more

than two hundred years' (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Hanukkah 3:1). In Maimonides one sees a positive note in the description of the Hasmonean monarchy, and this is presented

as the political aspect of the redemption from the yoke of Greece.

In Parashat Vayechi, Jacob blesses his son Judah with the blessing, 'The scepter shall not depart from Judah' (Genesis 49:10), and the Sages derived

from here a command to Israel that the kings should always be from the tribe of Judah, and in practice from the House of David that came forth

from Judah; and there is a prohibition against anyone who is not of the House of David (or at least not from the tribe of Judah) taking for himself

the monarchy.

Ramban, in his commentary on this verse, brings from the Jerusalem Talmud a clear statement to the effect that

the Hasmonean monarchy was a sin of the Hasmoneans, who made priests into kings (the Hasmoneans were the sons

of Mattathias son of Yohanan, the Hasmonean High Priest). Ramban brings from the Sages that the Hasmoneans were punished

with terrible punishments for this sin; the entire Hasmonean family was utterly wiped out. It is important, then,

to understand the meaning of their sin. In the Jerusalem Talmud, two explanations are offered for the nature of the sin: the Hasmoneans

ruled even though they were not from the tribe of Judah (as priests they belong to the tribe of Levi) or from the House of David. Or,

alternatively, beyond the general prohibition of 'The scepter shall not depart from Judah,' there is a special problem in the fact

that priests serve as kings.

Plainly, the problem with a situation in which priests serve as kings is a mixing of authorities. The priests

are entrusted with the sacred service in the Temple and with the spiritual guidance of the people, and they ought not 'to engage

in politics.' It seems that what underlies this is a modern conception of the separation of powers, or perhaps more correctly

the separation of spirit from matter ('Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's…' Matthew 22:21). One may understand the Torah's demand

for such a separation from the standpoint of the good of the spirit, so that politics should not interfere with or influence

the spirit, or from the standpoint of the good of matter, so that government should be conducted by those who are meant to do so,

and perhaps both sides are correct.

The Hasmoneans generally tended not to make this separation between spirit and matter. The Sages report that they enacted

that the name of God be written on documents used in various economic transactions; that is, they aspired to found

all matter upon spirit. Therefore they also tried to create a situation in which priests would be kings, so that

government too would be exercised by people of spirit, something like Plato's utopian 'rule of the philosophers.'

The Greeks, by contrast, were the sort who tried to base even spirit on matter. Even their gods

were creatures of matter, mythological and not spiritual. All their thought was philosophical-

scientific, that is, all understanding was through the tools of human understanding, with an unwillingness to recognize other tools of

understanding. These tendencies can be discerned in contemporary Western culture, which draws much from ancient Greece.

Against such a totally materialist approach, only those who hold an extreme

opposite position can contend. Only the Hasmoneans, for whom 'everything is spirit,' can overcome the Greeks, for whom 'everything is

matter.'

However, in ordinary life, when there are no confrontations of this kind, the Torah requires that one separate

spirit from matter to some extent. When the Hasmonean ordinance to write the name of God on

documents was abolished, the Sages made a festival of it (Rosh Hashanah 18b). Seemingly, the conclusion is the demand so often heard in our circles

that people of spirit should not engage in policy and politics, or: religion and politics must not be mixed.

In certain respects this is correct: politicians should not be the spiritual leaders

themselves. However, in my humble opinion, this approach is not correct in its sweeping form. The correct conclusion is

that although politics itself should be carried out by politicians, the guidance should come

from people of spirit. There absolutely should be guidance from above for politics by people of

spirit. Here we arrive once again at our conclusion from last week regarding the proper form of government,

and regarding the establishment of worthy leadership. The leaders are the people of spirit, and they are the ones who should guide

the people of action. A complete separation between the two spheres is also not correct; there should be a relation of

subordination.

Last week I alluded to the House of Lords in England, and, in a different register, to the Council of Torah Sages/Leading Torah Scholars

in our circles. This form of government is also appropriate for the secular public; it is a significant improvement on

the Platonic model. Leadership should be composed of people of spirit, not of politicians. The whole

essence of the people of Israel is that matter is indeed not entirely connected to spirit, yet it also cannot

be severed from it.

Have a peaceful Sabbath

May this be handed in for proper sacred-text disposal in any synagogue or religious academy. Comments will be gratefully received.

———————–

[1] It is interesting to note that generally, in Jewish tradition, the Sages chose to emphasize the spiritual aspect of

the redemption, symbolized by the miracle of the cruse of oil used for the sacred service in the Temple. In recent generations

we have tended more to emphasize the political aspect of the redemption, and many have already discussed this.

Biton15.doc