Thirteen Bows: The Greek Breach and the Battle for Hod
Rabbi Reuven SchrierThroughout the holiday of Chanukah, we constantly sing of the “breaches” the Syrian Greeks inflicted upon our walls. The songs are stirring, but the reference is puzzling. What “breaches” are we describing and why do we single out this act above the many atrocities inflicted by the Greeks?
The Mishna in Middot (2:3) may provide deep insight into this question. When describing the configuration of the Har HaBayit, the Mishna references the Soreig, a small, waist-high barrier erected around the Beit HaMikdash. The Mishna explains that the Greek kings had breached this wall thirteen times. When the Chashmonaim restored Jewish control over the Temple, the Sages decreed that a Jew should bow upon encountering any of these breaches, a curious choice that demands explanation.
Thirteen breaches, thirteen bows. These hishtachavayot express thanks to Hashem over the expulsion of the Greeks from Yerushalayim (Rambam ibid). Gratitude could have taken many forms. Why did Chazal choose bowing as the response to Greek defeat?
Rav Moshe Shapira zt’l noted that the act of hishtachavaya is the ultimate expression of submission to the Divine. When a Jew bows, he expresses his inadequacy, his weakness, and his insignificance when standing in the Presence of the Divine. He surrenders his faculties, possessions, and very self to the Source of everything.
The Makom HaMikdash particularly demands this act of submission and surrender. As the source of Creation, the place in which Adam HaRishon was first formed, and the continued Divine “umbilical cord” through which Divine sustenance flows into this world, the Mikdash is a powerful expression of our continued reliance upon Hashem. This is why the Gemara Berachot (58a) associates the Mikdash with the attribute of Hod, submission and silence in face of a higher power that transcends human understanding.
With their physical breaching of the Soreig, the Greeks were brazenly expressing their world view in which there is no submission to anything; to the followers of Aristotle, rational thought and intuitive reasoning are king. There is no such thing as something that is beyond human understanding. Greek intellect bowed to no one.
But as the Chashmonaim purified Yerushalayim from the corrupting effects of this contaminated world philosophy, they restored the Hod of the Mikdash in its full power. Animated by the recognition that the cosmos stem from a God that transcends the natural world and its mortal limitations, the Makabim were able to ironically overpower those who insisted that there is nothing beyond the natural order. Their victory and conquering of Yerushalayim was in itself an act of submission to the Divine. What better way to commemorate the miraculous victory of the power of Hod over the toxic arrogance of the Greeks than with the act of bowing? Upon encountering these ancient breaches, symbols of Greece’s refusal to bow, a Jew responds by bowing once more, restoring submission where brazen arrogance once stood.
