Dr.Victor David Hanson
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Dear Dr. Hanson,
Several months ago an article appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled, History in an action film after the film 300 was released in the theaters. Your article became the source of the final I gave to my students.
The quote I used to introduce the assignment was: “...only in Greece did Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Plato question the subordinate position of women, and Alcidamas lamented the notion of slavery. Such openness was found nowhere else in the ancient Mediterranean world. That freedom of expression explains why we rightly consider the ancient Greeks as the founders of our present Western civilization.” The following was then posed.
“In a letter to Dr. Hanson, you are asked to make the case for ancient Israel to stand side by side with ancient Greece in influencing Western civilization. Introduce him to the advances in the area of moral and civil law that are found in the Torah that came into Western civilization via Christianity. Make note of Christianity’s reliance on the Septuagint as a road map for moral living when the End of Days did not come about.”
Dr. Hanson, I make it clear in my course entitled, “The Jewish Contribution Western Civilization,” that the lintel we call Western civilization rests upon two pillars– Athens and Jerusalem. All credit for the arts, sciences, and philosophy due Athens, rightfully go there, but the credit for moral rectitude must go to Jerusalem, which is the source of Western morality through Christianity. The moral principles and those values emanating from them are what hold society together, not the arts, not the sciences, and not abstract philosophical discourse. History has proven that there is a very low relationship between the arts, the sciences, philosophy, and decent behavior.
My student’s responses were targeted to specific issues cited in your article and expanded to include other concepts. Where the issue of the status of women was concerned, one student offered the incident in the Torah where Moses grants the daughters of Zelophehad their rightful share in the parceling of future land so their father’s name might not be lost. (Num. 27: 4-8) Women as land owners decreed by Moses himself! That student noted that only men in Athens could own land and could vote. No similar story of women or commoners being given land rights was found in Greek mythology or in any of the well known philosophical discourses or plays that I’ve come across.
But what others found in the ancient Greek faith were stories about bestiality, rape, homosexuality, incest, and child abuse. So in response to these stories which informed ancient Greece’s religious rites and morality, students noted that the Torah demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage exampled by Genesis’ “Man shall cleave unto his wife.” This revolutionary idea changed everything because those ancient societies that did not place boundaries on sexuality, could not long sustain themselves. The idea that sexuality no longer dominated society, encouraged male-female love and thus, elevated the status of woman. It was the harnessing of this sex drive that led to the value that the family was to be the bedrock upon which a stable and lasting society might grow. The stories of Abraham’s love for Sarah despite her inability to have children, and Isaac’s love for Rebecca despite her inability to have children, and Jacob’s love for Rachel for whom he worked fourteen years before he could marry her, spoke to the value of romantic love and the sanctity of marriage. Greek literature has Greek women sequestered in the house and bearing children except when they were royal. In Sparta, the women were held in common, and husbands would give their wives to friends so they might bear strong sons. Lycurgas of Sparta wrote, “The use of their wives to those whom they should think fit so they might have strong children by them.” Not much family purity or sanctity there. Certainly not an idea valued in Western civilization today. But the family and marriage is valued, and that value originates in Judaism.
In all of Greek literature there is no comparable writing in praise of the wife such as Solomon’s, A Woman of Valor where a woman is depicted as competent, independent, and resourceful. Yes, Sapho also praised women, but not in the way Solomon did. Yes, it is true that Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Plato did question the subordination of women, but questioning some inequity is very different from doing something about it. It was the Torah that mandated decent behavior and respect towards women long before fifth century Athens glittered under the sun. When the gods and goddesses frolicked with reluctant mortals, incest was rampant on Olympus and on earth. But the ancient Hebrews formulated Leviticus 18 as their guide as to which relationships were wholesome and permitted and which were not. Western civilization owes the sanctity of the family not to the ancient pagan Greeks, but to the ancient monotheistic Jews. These ancient Hebrews introduced to the world the concept of family purity, along with marital, heterosexual, monogamous relationships as the ideal. That ideal still holds.
My students noted that while “Alcidamas lamented the notion of slavery,” Plato and Aristotle justified human slavery as originating in the very structure of the universe. In the Republic, it says that if a man kills his slave, he shall undergo formal purification and no more. Athens was a slave economy with five slaves to one citizen. The Torah never proclaimed slavery as God’s law and posited laws such as, “If a heathen slave suffered injury at the hand of his master, he is to be set free.” Also written is “If a man destroys a slave’s eye or strikes out a tooth, the slave goes free.” (Ex. 21:26-27). “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped.”(Deut. 23:1). You will note that the latter injunction was penned a few millennia before the shameful Dred– Scott decision. How many years has it taken Western civilization to come up to the moral standards of the ancient Hebrews?
Because of the predominance of slavery in the ancient world, labor was held in contempt. Aristotle held that laborers, artisans, and merchants were not fit or suited to exercise virtue or to participate in citizenship. The ancient Hebrews honored the laborer because God labored for six days. In fact, one student pointed out, the first laws protecting the worker was, “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is needy and urgently depends on it...”(Deut. 24:14-15).
One student reminded me that Plato approved of infanticide. “The offspring of the inferior or of the better if deformed, will be put away in some mysterious place as they should be.” Sparta exposed deformed or ugly children on mountainsides and left to die. Myths and plays support this practice. Old people were also abandoned and left to die.
In ancient Israel, infanticide was a crime, and aged people were treated with respect. “You shall rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of and old man.” Lev.19:32. “Despise not your mother when she is old.” Prov. 23:22. “With age there is wisdom and in length of days there is understanding.” Job 12:12. Lastly, one student pointed out the restrictions on those who could vote in ancient Greece, and questioned whether or not the concept of equality under the law which is the foundation of democracy, didn’t reside in the Mosaic law that “there shall be one law for the stranger and the home born.” I will end this with a statement that ends one of my student’s responses: “All of these concepts that you claim existed nowhere else in the Mediterranean are preposterous, and I strongly suggest before you claim something as big as that, you make sure you get your facts straight.”
Dr. Hanson, I encourage bright and intellectually assertive high school students to think critically and to respond to errors they find or those pointed out to them with candor backed up by research. I also let them know that while they can call me out on something with which they disagree, they should not be quite so candid in their responses to college teachers who may take umbradge with such straightforward, teenage opinions.
History is written by the winners. Christianity won, the Jews lost, so our contributions to Western civilization are glossed over or deliberately discounted. As an example, I cite Rodney Stark’s The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random House). Obviously, Mr. Stark did not consider what is contained in Helen Ellerbe’s, The Dark Side of Christian History (Morningstare and Lark). Like you, Mr. Stark also discounts the contributions of the Jewish people. Or perhaps, like you, he may not even be aware of them.
The course I teach mirrors the Western civilization course taught in our local high school but from a Jewish perspective. “Pride is justified self-respect,” and I am doing my part to present history from a Jewish point of view and let my students know that their ancestors were not merely onlookers whose existence was tangential to that of the great ancient civilizations. Nor did we disappear with the destruction of the Temple and reappear in 1948. Because of the discount of our contributions for the past three millennia, the negative mind- set among people in the world has not been lessened, and because we exist in Western civilization but didn’t write its history, we have always been viewed as “the other” to our great detriment. Whether the discount is a sin of omission or commission, the results are the same.
“Such openness was found nowhere else in the ancient Mediterranean world?” I don’t think so.
Sincerely,
Leonard H. Berman, Instructor
Midrasha Junior College
Jewish Community Center
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Dear Dr. Hanson,
Several months ago an article appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled, History in an action film after the film 300 was released in the theaters. Your article became the source of the final I gave to my students.
The quote I used to introduce the assignment was: “...only in Greece did Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Plato question the subordinate position of women, and Alcidamas lamented the notion of slavery. Such openness was found nowhere else in the ancient Mediterranean world. That freedom of expression explains why we rightly consider the ancient Greeks as the founders of our present Western civilization.” The following was then posed.
“In a letter to Dr. Hanson, you are asked to make the case for ancient Israel to stand side by side with ancient Greece in influencing Western civilization. Introduce him to the advances in the area of moral and civil law that are found in the Torah that came into Western civilization via Christianity. Make note of Christianity’s reliance on the Septuagint as a road map for moral living when the End of Days did not come about.”
Dr. Hanson, I make it clear in my course entitled, “The Jewish Contribution Western Civilization,” that the lintel we call Western civilization rests upon two pillars– Athens and Jerusalem. All credit for the arts, sciences, and philosophy due Athens, rightfully go there, but the credit for moral rectitude must go to Jerusalem, which is the source of Western morality through Christianity. The moral principles and those values emanating from them are what hold society together, not the arts, not the sciences, and not abstract philosophical discourse. History has proven that there is a very low relationship between the arts, the sciences, philosophy, and decent behavior.
My student’s responses were targeted to specific issues cited in your article and expanded to include other concepts. Where the issue of the status of women was concerned, one student offered the incident in the Torah where Moses grants the daughters of Zelophehad their rightful share in the parceling of future land so their father’s name might not be lost. (Num. 27: 4-8) Women as land owners decreed by Moses himself! That student noted that only men in Athens could own land and could vote. No similar story of women or commoners being given land rights was found in Greek mythology or in any of the well known philosophical discourses or plays that I’ve come across.
But what others found in the ancient Greek faith were stories about bestiality, rape, homosexuality, incest, and child abuse. So in response to these stories which informed ancient Greece’s religious rites and morality, students noted that the Torah demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage exampled by Genesis’ “Man shall cleave unto his wife.” This revolutionary idea changed everything because those ancient societies that did not place boundaries on sexuality, could not long sustain themselves. The idea that sexuality no longer dominated society, encouraged male-female love and thus, elevated the status of woman. It was the harnessing of this sex drive that led to the value that the family was to be the bedrock upon which a stable and lasting society might grow. The stories of Abraham’s love for Sarah despite her inability to have children, and Isaac’s love for Rebecca despite her inability to have children, and Jacob’s love for Rachel for whom he worked fourteen years before he could marry her, spoke to the value of romantic love and the sanctity of marriage. Greek literature has Greek women sequestered in the house and bearing children except when they were royal. In Sparta, the women were held in common, and husbands would give their wives to friends so they might bear strong sons. Lycurgas of Sparta wrote, “The use of their wives to those whom they should think fit so they might have strong children by them.” Not much family purity or sanctity there. Certainly not an idea valued in Western civilization today. But the family and marriage is valued, and that value originates in Judaism.
In all of Greek literature there is no comparable writing in praise of the wife such as Solomon’s, A Woman of Valor where a woman is depicted as competent, independent, and resourceful. Yes, Sapho also praised women, but not in the way Solomon did. Yes, it is true that Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Plato did question the subordination of women, but questioning some inequity is very different from doing something about it. It was the Torah that mandated decent behavior and respect towards women long before fifth century Athens glittered under the sun. When the gods and goddesses frolicked with reluctant mortals, incest was rampant on Olympus and on earth. But the ancient Hebrews formulated Leviticus 18 as their guide as to which relationships were wholesome and permitted and which were not. Western civilization owes the sanctity of the family not to the ancient pagan Greeks, but to the ancient monotheistic Jews. These ancient Hebrews introduced to the world the concept of family purity, along with marital, heterosexual, monogamous relationships as the ideal. That ideal still holds.
My students noted that while “Alcidamas lamented the notion of slavery,” Plato and Aristotle justified human slavery as originating in the very structure of the universe. In the Republic, it says that if a man kills his slave, he shall undergo formal purification and no more. Athens was a slave economy with five slaves to one citizen. The Torah never proclaimed slavery as God’s law and posited laws such as, “If a heathen slave suffered injury at the hand of his master, he is to be set free.” Also written is “If a man destroys a slave’s eye or strikes out a tooth, the slave goes free.” (Ex. 21:26-27). “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped.”(Deut. 23:1). You will note that the latter injunction was penned a few millennia before the shameful Dred– Scott decision. How many years has it taken Western civilization to come up to the moral standards of the ancient Hebrews?
Because of the predominance of slavery in the ancient world, labor was held in contempt. Aristotle held that laborers, artisans, and merchants were not fit or suited to exercise virtue or to participate in citizenship. The ancient Hebrews honored the laborer because God labored for six days. In fact, one student pointed out, the first laws protecting the worker was, “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is needy and urgently depends on it...”(Deut. 24:14-15).
One student reminded me that Plato approved of infanticide. “The offspring of the inferior or of the better if deformed, will be put away in some mysterious place as they should be.” Sparta exposed deformed or ugly children on mountainsides and left to die. Myths and plays support this practice. Old people were also abandoned and left to die.
In ancient Israel, infanticide was a crime, and aged people were treated with respect. “You shall rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of and old man.” Lev.19:32. “Despise not your mother when she is old.” Prov. 23:22. “With age there is wisdom and in length of days there is understanding.” Job 12:12. Lastly, one student pointed out the restrictions on those who could vote in ancient Greece, and questioned whether or not the concept of equality under the law which is the foundation of democracy, didn’t reside in the Mosaic law that “there shall be one law for the stranger and the home born.” I will end this with a statement that ends one of my student’s responses: “All of these concepts that you claim existed nowhere else in the Mediterranean are preposterous, and I strongly suggest before you claim something as big as that, you make sure you get your facts straight.”
Dr. Hanson, I encourage bright and intellectually assertive high school students to think critically and to respond to errors they find or those pointed out to them with candor backed up by research. I also let them know that while they can call me out on something with which they disagree, they should not be quite so candid in their responses to college teachers who may take umbradge with such straightforward, teenage opinions.
History is written by the winners. Christianity won, the Jews lost, so our contributions to Western civilization are glossed over or deliberately discounted. As an example, I cite Rodney Stark’s The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random House). Obviously, Mr. Stark did not consider what is contained in Helen Ellerbe’s, The Dark Side of Christian History (Morningstare and Lark). Like you, Mr. Stark also discounts the contributions of the Jewish people. Or perhaps, like you, he may not even be aware of them.
The course I teach mirrors the Western civilization course taught in our local high school but from a Jewish perspective. “Pride is justified self-respect,” and I am doing my part to present history from a Jewish point of view and let my students know that their ancestors were not merely onlookers whose existence was tangential to that of the great ancient civilizations. Nor did we disappear with the destruction of the Temple and reappear in 1948. Because of the discount of our contributions for the past three millennia, the negative mind- set among people in the world has not been lessened, and because we exist in Western civilization but didn’t write its history, we have always been viewed as “the other” to our great detriment. Whether the discount is a sin of omission or commission, the results are the same.
“Such openness was found nowhere else in the ancient Mediterranean world?” I don’t think so.
Sincerely,
Leonard H. Berman, Instructor
Midrasha Junior College
Jewish Community Center
Cherry Hill, New Jersey