by Micah Frankel, Ph.D,
Associate Director of The Smith Center
Professor of Accounting and CIS
Over two thousand years ago, the Jewish people in Judea (now called Israel) practiced a civil society - a complex network of voluntary organizations, centered around the great Temple in the city of Jerusalem. Self-help, mutual aid, and private charity (tzedaka) were the rule. Under the principle of subsidiarity, most functions of the society were initiated by the people at the lowest effective level e.g., the individual, the family, the community, the town, the Temple and then as a last resort, the state. Through contributions to the Temple, funds were used to fix and improve the Temple building, and care for orphans until they became of age.
In 333 BCE, when Alexander the Great conquered Judea, civil society started to give way to political society. Although Alexander allowed the Jews to maintain their traditions and accorded them religious and national autonomy, he also instituted Greek rule over all of Judea.
Following the death of Alexander, Judea came under the control of the Seleucid dynasty, which ruled the region of Syria, and political society rapidly gained ground. In 167 BCE, as political society reached its zenith in Judea, the Jews revolted and after three years of skirmishes they successfully drove out the Syrians in 165 BCE.
In 167 BCE, the ruler of the Seleucid dynasty was the tyrannical King, Antiochus IV. Borrowing a phrase from F.A. Hayek, the king was guilty of "fatal conceit." In other words, the King believed that he could order societal affairs in Judea in a way that would yield better results than those that would emerge from the spontaneous order and continuous discovery process of a free society, that is the order that results from the voluntary interaction of individuals in civil society. To drive this point home, the King gave himself the title of Epiphanes, Greek for "god-manifest." In the process of further entrenching political society, the King unilaterally replaced all local leaders in Judea with his own henchman, some of whom were Hellenized Jews. Individualism, and free enterprise were suppressed, and "politically incorrect" ideas such as "interbeauty" and moral purity were outlawed as they were considered a threat to the ideal of outward beauty held by the Greeks and Syrians. For example, it was commonplace for the Greeks and Syrians to abandon "ugly" newborns.
As a historical note, King Antiochus was the first person who attempted to systematically eradicate Judaism (the only monotheist religion at that time). Had he succeeded, Christianity and Islam may have never come into existence.
As the King's jurisdictional authority and control were increased, taxes were also increased in order to fund "public" projects that the King thought were in the best interests of the people. These included such things as gymnasiums, statues of the King, and monuments dedicated to Greek Gods (mainly Zeus). Some Jews referred to as Hellenizers viewed these actions as progressive, as following the zietgeist (spirit of the time), and considered those Jews who disagreed as fanatics who stood in the way of progress.
Chanukah, the festival of lights, commemorates the triumph of the Jews and civil society over the Hellenist Syrians and political society. The main heroes of Chanukah were Matityahu (or Mattathias) and his five sons (most notably Judah) who formed an army in an effort to drive the Syrians out of Judea (Israel). Mattathias and his sons chose as their name "Maccabee," which means hammer to signify might and strength.
Against all odds, the greatly outnumbered Maccabees used guerrilla war tactics to wear down the King's army (which included thousands of soldiers and horsemen, chariots and even some elephants), and eventually were able to rededicate the temple in Jerusalem. In doing so, they rekindled the Temple menorah, a candelabra that symbolized God's divine presence. Only a single undefiled cruse of olive oil was found, sufficient to keep the menorah burning for at most one day. Miraculously, the menorah remained lit for eight days until more oil could be found. Hence, Chanukah is celebrated for eight days to commemorate this miracle as well as the rededication of the Temple to God (The word "Chanukah" means "dedication.").
Here are eight lessons from Chanukah regarding civil society.
1. The Maccabees stood up their convictions. They fought for life, liberty, justice, religious freedom and lower taxes.
2. The Maccabees revolted against a political society, where other people determined what was in their best interest. To enforce this illusion of fatal conceit, coercion was necessary. In contrast, in the brief period of civil society that followed the revolt, people made their own choices and had sovereignty over their own lives, hence, coercion was not the rule but the exception.
3. Tzedaka (private deeds of justice e.g., charity or self-taxation) is the most important obligation Judaism imposes on the Jew. Tzedaka is ennobling for everyone involved, both those who give and those who receive. Government welfare ennobles no one . As Maimonides once said "the highest degree of tzedaka is one who upholds the hand of a person reduced to poverty by finding work for him, in order to strengthen his hand, so he will have no need to beg from other people".
4. Chanukah celebrates the miracle of the small defeating the mighty, the triumph of the voluntary principle of civil society over the coercive principle of political society.
5. We describe the miracle of Chanukah as one that took place ba-yamim hahem ba-z'man ha-zeh: "in those days and in ours." Similarly, as in the time of the Maccabees, in our time the coercive mechanisms of government necessary to enforce the illusion of fatal conceit have been tried and found wanting.
6. Antiochus and the Greek gargantuan government's expansive political society undermined the moral character necessary to both civil society and liberty under the law.
7. On Chanukah, the Temple in Jerusalem was desecrated. It had to be cleansed and rededicated. If civil society is to be restored, we must, as the Maccabees did, reexamine the relationship between political society, and civil society, replacing edicts, directives and mandates with the rule of law and substituting voluntary cooperation for coercion.
8. As we recite the Chanukah blessings, we remember as political society expands, civil society retreats. It is in civil society that diligence, hard work, civility, morality, science, prosperity and religious freedom arise.