Orthodox Judaism Today

Throughout our history, the Jewish People have been faced with the twin challenges of physical survival and spiritual flourishing. Maimonides, in the 27th chapter of the third section of the Guide to the Perplexed, says that between the two, the spiritual flourishing of Judaism is the more noble goal, while physical survival comes first in time. The two rabbinic holidays of Chanukah and Purim reflect those twin historical challenges: Purim, the triumph of the survival of the Jewish people in the 5th to 6th centuries BCE, and Chanukah, the triumph of Maccabees' spiritual vision over the Greek assimilationists in the 2nd century BCE.