Channukah and the Message of 4th Maccabees
By
James Scott Trimm
As Channukah is coming to a close this year, I wanted to take a moment to explore the meaning of 4th Maccabees.
So often at Channukah we recall the “Channukah Story” and read the accounts of 1st Maccabees and 2nd and 2nd Maccabees, but we often run out of time before getting to the very deep material in 4th Maccabees.
4th Maccabees elaborates on the Channukah martyrs spoken of in Second Maccabees. Specifically Eleazar, who refused to eat meat that had even been represented as having been offered to idols, but was not, lets his actions mislead others into idolatry (See 2Maccabees 6:18-31 & 4Maccabees chapters 5-7). And the account of Hannah and her seven sons, who refused to pay homage to Antiochus Epiphanies (See 2Maccabees 7; 4th Maccabees chapters 8-19 and b.Gittin 57b in the Talmud).
4th Maccabees reveals how these martyrs were able to remain true to Torah, despite being tortured and ultimately killed for their testimony.
The core teaching of 4th Maccabees draws upon a deep understanding of Genesis 2:7 in the Torah, which says:
And the YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen. 2:7)
The Hebrew word for “formed” is yetzer which can also mean “inclination” or even “freewill.” However in Genesis 2:7 in the Hebrew, the word yetzer is spelled with to “yuds” yyetzer. The Talmud has an interesting comment about this nuance in the Hebrew of this verse:
R. Nahman b. R. Hisda expounded:
What is meant by the text, Then the Lord God
formed [va-yetzer] man? [The word va-yetzer] (Gen. 2:7)
is written with two yods, to show that God created
two inclinations, one good (tov) and the other evil (ra).
(b.Ber. 61a)
It has been taught: R. Jose the Galilean says,
The righteous are swayed by their good inclination,
as it says, My heart is slain within me. (Ps. 109:22)
The wicked are swayed by their evil inclination,
as it says, Transgression speaks to the wicked,
methinks, there is no fear of God before his eyes.
(Ps. 36:1) Average people are swayed by both
inclinations, as it says, Because He stands at
the right hand of the needy, to save him from them
that judge his soul. (Ps. 109:31) Raba said: People
such as we are of the average.
(b.Ber. 61b)
Likewise we read in the Wisdom of Ben
Sira:
It was He who created man in the beginning.
And He left him in the power of his own inclination (Heb: yetzer).
If you will, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
He has placed before you fire and water:
Stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.
(Sira 15:14-16)
4th Maccabees gives us an important insight on this as well, saying:
21 Now when Elohim fashioned man, he
planted in him emotions and inclinations,
22 but at the same time he enthroned the mind among the senses as a
sacred governor over them all.
23 To the mind he gave the Torah; and one who lives subject to this
will rule a kingdom that is temperate, just, good, and courageous.
(4Macc. 2:21-23)
As the first century Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria said:
“For these passions are the causes of all good and of all
evil; of good when they submit to the authority of dominant reason, and of evil
when they break out of bounds and scorn all government and restraint.”
(Life of Moses 1; VI, 26)
According to 4th Maccabees, the Channukah Martyrs were able to endure to the end and hold to their testimony in the face of torture and death, because their rational mind was in the drivers seat, and their emotions were in the passenger’s seat.
This does not mean emotions are a bad thing, to the contrary, emotions subject to the rational mind (the Neshoma) that is the good inclination and the cause of all good in this world. But when our emotions are in the drivers seat and our rational mind is in the passenger’s seat, that is the evil inclination.
So let us learn this lesson from 4th Maccabees and the Channukah martyrs this Channukah.
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