Did You Know?

By Rabbi Fabian Werbin

The story of Chanukah is presented as the battle of the Jews against the Greeks, the Maccabeus against Antiochus, or the little people against the huge army.

Who won the battle? We all know the answer. The Jews.

Let me suggest that it was a tie.

The Jews won the military battle; the Maccabim could reopen the Temple; they had an independent state for a couple of years; and they beat the Greek army.  The Greeks on the other hand won the “cultural” battle.

Nowadays, many Jewish people are more familiar with the term Bible than with the term תנך (Tanach). Most people are more familiar with the term Genesis than בראשית (Bereshit). People are more familiar with the term Exodus than שמות (Shemot), etc.

Why is this so? The Greek language entered into our lives and we almost didn’t notice.

The Septuagint is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BCE in Alexandria. It is the oldest translation of the תנך (Tanach) into Greek. Apparently, it was a great advantage for the entire world. The nations had access to the sacred texts and the Greek names were adopted.

According to Jewish sources, the translation was done by Jewish scholars, but the event wasn’t happy for the Jewish people.

“King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one’s room and said: ‘Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher.’ God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did” (Tractate Megillah 9).

In Masechet Sofrim (1: 7) it says that this day was as difficult for the Jews as the day that the Golden Calf was built: It happened once that five Elders translated the Torah into Greek for King Ptolemy. That day was as difficult for Israel as the day that they made the Golden Calf, because the Torah was not able to be translated properly.

The Shulchan Aruch (OC 580: 2) mentions the day when the Torah was translated as a fast day for righteous people.

“On the 8th of Tevet, the Torah was rendered into Greek during the days of King Ptolemy, and darkness descended upon the world for three days.”

Maybe the reason our sages were sad about the fact the Torah was translated is that it was beginning of the tie.  Translations are useful and can help, but nothing is like the original.  Maybe this is a good time to go back to the sources, learn and use the Hebrew terms. Who knows? We may break the tie.