This Hanukkah: On Light, Allyship, and Learning from Gentiles

Over the past year, there’s been a lot of talk of Jews feeling like we’ve lost allies. Diasporic Jews especially have reported feeling isolated in various areas of life, from university campuses to social justice movements.

Those experiences are real and valid and I, myself, have experienced in really deep and painful ways. However, despite the ever-present antisemitism in the wider world, I still see great value in cultural exchange in addition to addressing political isolation. As we move through Kislev, the month of light, and toward Hanukkah, the festival of lights, I’d like to think about the potential mutual illumination between Jews and gentiles.

One of the most often cited positives of the Diaspora is that as Jews, we can be an Or la-Goyim, “a light to the nations.” Originating in Isaiah 42:6, this phrase refers to the Jewish role in spiritually guiding the non-Jewish world. Around Hanukkah especially, we often talk about what it means to be light, to spread light. It is and always has been true that as Jews, we have something to offer the world. What is less acknowledged — but I would argue just as important— is the value of learning from our non-Jewish friends and colleagues. In the Diaspora, we do not only spread light, we also receive light. What I mean is, we have something to learn from gentiles.

You might say, Hey now, Rabbi Shmuly, are you forgetting that the holiday of Hanukkah is literally about resisting assimilation into Greek culture? And you’d be right: A big part of the holiday is marking our resistance to violent and cultural threats to us as Jews. So I understand why Hanukkah is often viewed as a time to resist external influence — to take enhanced pride in our identity and to further isolate from surrounding society.

However, while I do believe that assimilation is an enormous threat — maybe the largest threat — to the Jews, I also believe that it is possible to swing too far the other way, and in the process shut out how much there is to learn from the greater world. All of us are deeply enhanced by the sciences, by works of non-Jewish philosophy and literature, by developments in the business realm of innovation, and even by interfaith conversations. To be clear, when encountering outside thought, we should always be careful to think critically and remain grounded in our Jewish values. But the truth remains that in many ways, the “nations,” i.e., the gentiles, can be a light unto us. As Ben Zoma famously said, “Who is wise? He who learns from everyone” (Pirkei Avot 4:1).

This is in no way a new idea. Throughout Jewish history we were never unaffected by our encounters with external cultures; rather, we were deeply immersed in the cultures of diasporic life. The Zoroastrians influenced the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud; the Greeks (via the Muslim philosophers and theologians) influenced Maimonides; the European Enlightenment thinkers influenced modern Jewish philosophy. The Talmud acknowledges such exchanges of ideas. Rabbi Yochanan asserts, “Whoever speaks wisdom, even if he is a non-Jew, is a Sage” (BT, Megillah 16a). In commentary on this line, the 13th-century rishon Rabbi Menachem Meiri emphasizes that we should “speak words of honor and respect concerning any Sage,” even gentile Sages.

As is so often the case these days, we tend to see two extremes when it comes to approaching Jewish encounters with the non-Jewish world. On one hand, there is the isolationist approach, which can be found among both the ultra-Orthodox and many segments of Israeli Jewry. On the other hand, we have the assimilationists found in many segments of liberal American Jewry. What we need is to rebirth the middle-ground of seeing the value in a deep, critical learning from all people, while also maintaining an unwavering commitment to Jewish values and learning.

Another way to put this? Accept wisdom from anyone, but accept Torah only from Jews. As is taught in Eichah Rabbah, the Talmudic-era midrash on the book of Lamentations: “If someone tells you other nations possess wisdom, believe him… However, if someone tells you that other nations possess Torah, do not believe him” (Eichah Rabbah 2:13). We can see this dichotomy throughout Jewish history. After all, while it was considered a tragedy when King Ptolemy forced Jewish elders to translate the Torah into Greek — the Babylonian Talmud says the day the translation was finished was as ominous as the day the golden calf was made (Soferim 1:7) — we also know for a fact that our sages were very amenable to the Greco-Roman institution of the public bathhouses. The Jerusalem Talmud goes so far as to say it is forbidden to live in a city without a bathhouse (Kiddushin 4:12)! From this, we can see that although there is a necessary aversion to allowing gentiles to interfere with Torah, our sages were very open to collaborating with gentiles on how to live well.

There is clearly a sanctity in seeking out wisdom in others while remaining rooted in Torah values. Rav Kook wrote that by loving all of humanity, we elevate our love for Israel. In “Mishnato Shel HaRav Kook,” the rabbi argues, “It is a mean eye that causes one to see only ugliness and impurity in everything beyond the bounds of Israel.” To refuse to acknowledge the beauty and wisdom of the gentile world is, in Rav Kook’s words, “one of the most awful, debased forms of darkness” (Mishnato Shel HaRav Kook, 306-307).

This Hanukkah, as we bring more light into the world each night, let us think about the ways that the Diasporic can illuminate us just as much as we can illuminate the Diaspora. In a day and age when everyone is talking about allyship, I remind you that there is value not just in political allyship, but also in intellectual allyship. In other words, we don’t want to only forge political alliances with other cultures; rather, we want to form deep relationships based on the exchange of ideas. Done right, this will lead not to assimilation, but to a renewed commitment to Jewish life, enhanced by the wisdom of the world beyond our direct experiences.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is an educator, activist, and the author of 27 books on Jewish ethics.