“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
This is the famous conclusion of Ode on Grecian Urn by John Keats. These words depict the antithesis of the Hellenistic approach to life and Judaism’s approach. The Chashmonaim’s battle against the Greek rule was a rebellion against the Greek philosophy of hedonism as opposed to our belief in restraint and discipline. Judaism teaches us to add G-dliness into even our most mundane acts while the Greek gods often acted with less dignity than mortals. Both cultures used intellectuality to understand the world but only Judaism predicated this understanding on the truth of Torah. Beauty fades and certainly cosmetics and Photoshop hide the not so pretty truth. But the truth of Torah values remains eternal.
As it is written in Eshet Chayil: “Sheker hachen v’hevel hayofi, ishah yir’at Hashem hi tithalal.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the L-rd is to be praised. As we celebrate Chanukah we celebrate the miracle of our very existence as a Jewish nation. By adhering to the same halachot, minhagim and values as our ancestors we have remained eternal even as our prior conquerors have faded into the black hole of history. And that is “all ye need to know!”
