Chanukah is a time when we, like the Maccabim, shift our perspective from the outside to the inside
Styling and photography by Sara Goldstein
Unlike Pharaoh or Haman, the Greeks never wanted to physically destroy Judaism. They were entranced by the beauty of the Beis Hamikdash, and they loved the ideas of developing the intellect, eating lavish seudos, and other pleasurable aspects of Jewish culture. Hellenistic culture worshipped physical perfection, and they would have been happy to let us keep the beautiful externals. They weren’t looking to destroy us. They wanted to empty us.
After finally winning the physical battle against the Greeks, the Maccabim famously discovered a single jug of pure olive oil hidden inside the defiled Beis Hamikdash. That untainted oil represented the Maccabim’s spiritual victory. It represented their commitment to staying internally focused against an externally focused world. And because that victory is what keeps us alive through the ages, we still celebrate it today.
We won the battle then, but bazeman hazeh, the war against emptiness lives on. One place it’s rampant is in the way we view our physical selves.
In an interview with Malky, the founder of a popular exercise site, my mind was blown by how perfectly she described what diet culture has done to the exercise industry today.
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