Jewish Particularism or Cultural Engagement: A Chanukah Debate, with Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein and Rabbi Dr. Raphael Zarum (273)
December 15, 2025
AI Summary
5 min read“Twilight is the metaphorical gap between light and dark, between them and us, the overlap. And we light Hanukkah candles at twilight, and we light them, not on the inside of our homes of light or the outside of home darkness, but in between. Between light and dark, between them and us, between Yisrael and the nations. This is the irony: to assimilate it and not be assimilated by it.” That line from Rabbi Dr. Raphael Zarum captures the central tension of this episode of the Orthodox Conundrum: how should Orthodox Jews engage with non-Jewish culture, and what does Hanukkah—a holiday about a Jewish civil war against Hellenization—teach us about that relationship in 2025?
Host Scott Kahn hosts two Torah scholars who both identify as followers of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, yet arrive at starkly different readings of the holiday and its implications. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein leans into Hanukkah as a celebration of Jewish particularism and the need for crystal-clear boundaries. Rabbi Zarum sees Hanukkah as a festival of overlap and engagement, a call to “assimilate it and not be assimilated by it.” Their respectful disagreement drives the episode, and the conversation expands into a broader debate about high versus low culture, the dangers of modern media, and the purpose of Jewish existence in a world of competing civilizations.
Hanukkah as Contrast or Complement?
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:45) **Introducing the Core Debate: Hellenism vs. Judaism Today** - Scott Kahn frames the question of how much Orthodox Jews should assimilate non-Jewish thought, using Rav Hirsch's concept of two competing civilizations and noting the different approaches of his two guests.
- 2 (07:17) **Opening Frame: Are We the "Misyavnim" (Hellenizers) of Today?** - Scott Kahn asks whether modern Orthodox engagement with secular culture makes us more like the Hellenistic Jews that the Maccabees fought against.
- 3 (10:40) **The "Great Partnership" of Greece and Judaism** - Rabbi Zarum argues that the rabbis had a deep affinity for Greek wisdom, and Hanukkah is about the similarity between the two cultures, not just the difference.
- 4 (13:59) **The Fundamental Contrast: Holiness of Being vs. Beauty of Holiness** - Rabbi Adlerstein counters that the greatest contrast comes from examining the overlap, quoting Matthew Arnold to distinguish the Greek focus on the "holiness of being" from the Jewish focus on the "beauty of holiness."
- 5 (18:36) **The Liturgy of Hanukkah: Difference vs. Overlap** - Scott Kahn pushes back on Rabbi Zarum's conciliatory view, arguing that the *Al Hanisim* prayer presents Athens and Jerusalem as complete opposites and that Hanukkah is the time to emphasize difference, not similarity.
- 6 (23:24) **The Sequential Nature of Identity and Engagement** - Rabbi Adlerstein argues that different holidays teach different lessons, and Hanukkah is the time to focus on the contrast between Torah and outside culture, which is a prerequisite for safe engagement.
- 7 (26:51) **The Menorah as a Symbol of Balance** - Rabbi Zarum counters that the "them and us" approach prevents true engagement, and that understanding the other requires seeing both the differences and the similarities.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
To what degree should we assimilate non Jewish thought and culture into our intellectual, emotional, and spiritual lives? And to what degree does that question affect the way that we celebrate Chanukah?
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch expressed this tension directly when he wrote the following words:
Chanukah represents the clash of two doctrines, two views, two civilizations, capable of molding opinions, training and educating those who until this very day compete for the mastery of the world. Hellenism and Judaism: These are the two forces whose effect upon the nations mark the historical development of mankind, and which surfaced in Judea for the first time in the days of Mattathias. Hellenism and Judaism: when examined in depth they are the two leading forces which today again are struggling for mastery in the Jewish world.
Today I'm honored to host two talmidei chachamim who identify as Hirschians: Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein and Rabbi Raphael Zarum - and despite their shared reverence for the thought of Rav Hirsch, they approach this question, and their understanding of Chanukah, in very different ways.
Rabbi Adlerstein leans into Chanukah as a celebration of Jewish individuality, the need for contrast and clarity. Only when we have a crystal clear awareness of the differences between Torah culture and Hellenic culture can we safely draw from the outside without losing ourselves. Chanukah, he says, is an expression of Jewish difference.
Rabbi Zarum, in contrast, sees Chanukah quite differently. He believes that Chanukah highlights overlap as well as contrast. He points to the fact that we light candles at twilight right outside our homes - on the boundary between day and night, between our homes and the outside world - as emblematic of the challenge of going close to another culture without losing our own sense of self. He captures it by saying that we should assimilate it and not be assimilated by it.
And then we move this discussion into a direction especially relevant to 2025, because engagement with culture today often refers to something very different from the best of Western thought. It is less Milton and more Netflix, which raises the stakes of this entire debate. So even if we agree that engaging with Western culture is a net positive, how much should we allow ourselves to be enriched by the low culture of movie ns and popular music rather than by the high culture of philosophy and classic literature?
While they bring very different perspectives, what makes this conversation such a pleasure is the tone. It is warm, lively, and respectful, even when the disagreement is sharp.
Make sure to listen to the new Chanukah episode of the Tehillim Unveiled Podcast with Ari Levisohn and Rav Jeremy Tibbetts by More from this podcast