The culture conflict between Chochmas Yavan and Chochmas HaTorah

The culture conflict between Chochmas Yavan and Chochmas HaTorah

Machlokes means fighting over the same thing

When we consider a dangerous individual, we recognize that they are not inherently a threat to us unless we find ourselves in direct competition with them for the same goal. This dynamic is precisely the case with the Greeks. The reason they are our adversaries is that both Chochma Yevanis (Greek wisdom) and Chochmas HaTorah (the wisdom of the Torah) seek to shape the human being. This shared pursuit creates a natural conflict, as both aim to capture the essence of what it means to be human, leading to an inevitable struggle.

What is Chochmas Yivanis?

At first glance, Greek mythology may not appear to embody great wisdom. However, upon reflection, we must acknowledge the tremendous influence stories can have on civilization. For example, in America, the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a profound impact on the movement to free the slaves. This raises an important question: if stories wield such powerful influence on humanity, why does Chochmas HaTorah lack stories?

The answer lies in the distinction between influence and personal growth. Stories undoubtedly affect people, but the Torah seeks to build a person. A story’s impact depends largely on the charisma and delivery of the speaker or the captivating literary style of the writer. In contrast, the Torah’s wisdom—such as in the Midrash—is purposely not high-quality literature or dramatic storytelling. Instead, it offers a few seemingly simple sentences, yet within them lies an entire world of personal depth, waiting to be uncovered by a talmid chacham. This process of discovery through the personal input from the talmid chacham is how we build ourselves and it requires personal effort and engagement.

While Chochmas Yevanis employs a powerful tool for influencing the masses, Chochmas HaTorah’s goal is on personal growth through the individual’s active personal contribution. This brings us to the fundamental question: “What are the ingredients needed to build ourselves?”

We will find there are two key ingredients, as can be seen from the classic parable of the growth of a seed.

Courage as the foundation of growth

The Rambam amongst others, teaches that personal growth parallels the process of a seed being planted in the ground. Before it can sprout, the seed must first rot away. For us, this “rotting” represents the courage to let go of our attachments to old habits, assumptions, and ways of thinking in avodas Hashem. It requires the bravery to tear down familiar walls and release what may have once been valuable in avodas Hashem but now holds us back. The walls of the seed are inherently good, yet the seed will not grow unless it is willing to shed those walls.

The need for external input

Once the seed sheds its old form, it cannot grow in isolation such as hanging in the air. Rather, it must be planted in the ground to receive nourishment from external sources. Similarly, for us to grow, we need the input of a teacher, friend, or mentor to exchange ideas and offer guidance. This exchange is critical because, without it, we risk standing alone with our newly emptied assumptions, potentially mistaking crooked ideas for straight ones. True personal growth requires this external collaboration.

A Personal Example of tearing down good mechitza’s

When I was with the Mashgiach, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, he focused on seeing emunah in nature and the world around us, particularly in biological processes, which he saw as revealing Hashem’s hand. He once mentioned a famous German book from 1927, describing it as filled with illustrations of emunah. I read the book as he suggested, and indeed, it contained many living illustrations for emunah.

Twenty years later, when Rav Shlomo was 85 years old, I visited him and saw the same book on his table. He asked me if I had seen it, and when I said that I had, he remarked, “What a strange book, to speak about the world without mentioning Hashem? It makes no sense…”

This was a perfect illustration of a man who had constructed strong “walls” to support his personal growth, walls that were built on solid understanding. Yet, here he was demonstrating his ability to dismantle old assumptions for the sake of fresh growth. Rav Shlomo Wolbe was ever primed to tear down his walls and be available for a new and different person to emerge.

We need to be trained to learn Chazal

Without being trained to learn Chazal it simply will not speak to us and push us to growth. This is why we need interaction with others. 

Here is an example of how the Chazal can remain superficial by us:

In Bereishis 38, Pasuk 16:

וַיִּרְאֶ֣הָ יְהוּדָ֔ה וַֽיַּחְשְׁבֶ֖הָ לְזוֹנָ֑ה כִּ֥י כִסְּתָ֖ה פָּנֶֽיהָ׃

When Judah saw her, he took her for a harlot; for she had covered her face.

And Rashi says:

כי כסתה פניה. וְלֹא יָכוֹל לִרְאוֹתָהּ וּלְהַכִּירָהּ. וּמִדְרַשׁ רַבּוֹתֵינוּ כי כסתה פניה, כְּשֶׁהָיְתָה בְּבֵית חָמִיהָ הָיְתָה צְנוּעָה, לְפִיכָךְ לֹא חֲשָׁדָהּ:

FOR SHE HAD COVERED HER FACE — so that he could not see her face and thus recognize her. Also, a Midrashic explanation of our Rabbis is that כי כסתה פניה means BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS COVERED HER FACE: when she had stayed in her father-in-law’s house she had shown herself a modest woman, and therefore he did not suspect her (of being the woman who was sitting there for that evil purpose) (Sotah 10b).

So Rashi is bringing the midrash and teaching us that Yehuda did not recognize her because she was “tznua b’beis chamiha” so he never saw her because she covered her face. That is a superficial reading and interpretation of the text.

But when we look deeper into Rashi it says “tznua b’beis chamiha – lefichach lo chashada” meaning Yehuda simply could not fathom that Tamar could be a prostitute because she behaved so tzniusly at home. Most people never realize the depth of this Rashi and that is because they are simply feeding their old assumptions of what “extra tznius” looks like and saying that it means covering more of your body. The problem is that we always bring our preconceived assumptions into our learning of Chazal, and are not prepared to let those assumptions be challenged.

This is what Chochmas HaTorah and mussar are trying to achieve — to push us beyond our comfort zones, to challenge our assumptions, and teach us to build ourselves.

Growth takes time

If we are willing to let go of our assumptions, we will begin to see real growth. Just like a seed takes time to sprout, personal growth requires time to develop. We often crave instant results, but true growth comes from stepping away from what we already know and are comfortable with. Once we let go of these old habits and ideas, we can assimilate new concepts from the outside. Chochmas Yivanis wants to influence us and give us progress, but will be unable to build a new person. Therefore when a person goes to grow with Chochmas HaTorah he will encounter a real battle between this type of growth and the “growth” which Chochmas Yivanis comes to try to offer.

Courage

We need courage for all of this. Indeed, we now understand the mussar adage that “when we work on ourselves we are always in the beginning.” This is exactly the point because when we realize that growth means to tear down our assumptions and grow, then we find that we are indeed always in the beginning. 

People have such a hard time with this. At the shloshim (end of the thirty day period of mourning) of the Mashgiach, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, I said that in mussar there is no “anash” (literally “anshei shlomeinu” which means a tight knit group unified by a common tradition usually from a rebbe) and I used the Mashgiach’s own words, stating that he told me that in mussar “we are always in the beginning”, so obviously there is no anash. The reactions I got to my speech were harsh. One person went so far as to call me an idiot. In other words, people want to have the clarity of a pure mehalech as a transmission from Rav Shlomo Wolbe. These are people who don’t want to tear down their foundations and be open to real growth which occurs from the beginning.

I remember once the Mashgiach, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, who always davened from a siddur with his finger in the place, came one day to mincha and began to daven without a siddur. Someone came to offer him a siddur and he reacted strongly “I can take care of myself!” Meaning, he purposely did not take a siddur. This is shocking to those of us who do not know the world of mussar. “For 80 years he davened from a siddur inside and pointing at the place…and today he doesn’t!? It is inconsistent!” But the idea is as we are saying, that he was a man who was constantly looking for growth in the beginning and not burdened by a need to remain loyal to an old way of avoda. Indeed, in this new way, davening without a siddur, there is also growth!

Change by gedolim

By the gedolim (great Torah scholars) we saw that every ten years they changed into an entirely new person. The Mashgiach, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, in Yeshivas Be’er Yaakov carried himself as a yeki (Orthodox Jews of German descent who are known for their extremely serious approach to halachic and personal detail, and timeliness) I remember that I literally came to Be’er Yaakov to be with him and I was moser nefesh to do so. And to my utter shock and dismay for the first three months that I was in the yeshiva, the Mashgiach, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, was as cold as stone to me. He was educating me that I should not think so highly of myself and that I need to realize that I am indeed “only at the beginning.” I shared with him 10-15 years later when he was in Yerushalayim how he treated me back in the day, and he replied that he could not believe he would do something like that. This is because he was a totally different person 10-15 years later.