It is strange that the ancient Greeks became such sworn enemies of the Jews, to the point of all-out war and an attempt to wipe out the Jewish faithful entirely. The empires of ancient Greece were centers of academia and scholarship, which should have made them natural friends of the Jews, who have always been steeped in the study of the Torah, known for its “wisdom and discernment, evident to the eyes of the nations.”
The devastating conflict suggests that their common pursuit of scholarship was, in fact, so unalike that it only served to further pit the Greeks against the Jews.
The Midrash remarks: “If a man should say to you: ‘There is wisdom among the nations,’ believe it. ... If a man should say: ‘There is Torah among the nations,’ do not believe it.”
What is the difference between the two?
Wisdom is enlightenment, whereas Torah is instruction.
The Greeks celebrated wisdom; they contemplated the nature of all things, what is good and what is bad, what is beneficial and what is not. But their intellectual achievement was a goal unto itself, independent of its effect on their integrity and conduct. Their studies did not compel their behavior one way or another.
The Jewish approach to the Torah’s wisdom, however, is predicated on the belief that G-d’s expectations concerning how we conduct our lives are found in that knowledge. We therefore celebrate the Torah’s instruction; we seek the Torah’s insight on the universe and the human experience not for mere academic rigor, but in order to know what G-d demands of us in any given situation.
Aside from the obvious gap between these two attitudes toward scholarship, the outcome of the Greek approach was a nation driven by selfish greed and lust. When Jewish practice clashed with Greek interests, the Greeks responded with total intolerance and disregard for the ethical rights of other human beings.
The Jewish nation’s miraculous triumph in their battle against the Greeks was the victory of the Torah—the wisdom that illuminates, educates, and elevates our way of life.
—Sichos Kodesh 5731, vol. 1, pp. 343-346
