Many are concerned about anti-Jewish propaganda being spread on college campuses recently. Chanukah can teach us how to overcome the root of the problem.
All secular scholarship actually derives from the wisdom of the Torah. The Greeks epitomized secular wisdom. King Ptolemy commanded the Jewish rabbis to translate the Torah into Greek. Although translating the Torah is actually a good thing, and the Greek language is special in that it is the only language that the Torah can really be translated into without anything “lost in translation”, the fact that this translation was done at the demand of the Greek king (rather than the command of G-d) enabled the Greeks to eventually utilize their knowledge of the Torah in a negative way. They recognized that the Torah is a wondrous intellectual wisdom, but fought against the idea that it is G-d’s Torah. The antidote to their negative influence was pure oil, which represents the “secrets of the secrets” of the Torah. If we only learn the revealed part of the Torah – laws, Gemara etc. – which deals with worldly matters, there is a danger that while appreciating the intellectual stimulation we may forget that it is G-d’s Torah. So it’s important to combine that study with the study of the mystical secrets of the Torah, which teach about G-d.
As we get closer to the time of Moshiach, it becomes even more important to learn the mystical secrets of the Torah. That is why the teachings of Chassidus have become revealed in the later generations, making the study of G-dly Kabbalistic secrets – formerly reserved for special individuals – accessible to all. Secular intellectual study has become more pervasive, intensifying the danger of forgetting G-d’s Torah. In the time of the Rebbe Rashab, when the society for spreading “enlightenment” was established, he counteracted this by establishing the Yeshivah of “Tomchei Temimim”, where Chassidus is studied with the same thorough intellectual analysis as the study of Talmud. This Yeshivah has expanded and today has numerous branches around the world. The students are called the “soldiers of the House of Dovid” who bring the actual revelation of Moshiach. In our times we have completed everything that needed to be accomplished, and we only need to “open our eyes” to see Moshiach’s coming!
(See talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita, Mikeitz 5752 (1991))
