"Daniel spoke, and said: I saw in my vision by night... four great beasts... The first was like a lion...and behold, another beast, a second one, similar to a bear... Afterwards I beheld, and there was another, similar to a leopard...." (Daniel 7:2-6)

In Daniel's vision, there were four beasts that represented the four exiles to which we have been subjected. The leopard was the parallel of Ancient Greece. One possible reason for this is that leopards are strikingly beautiful animals. Greece, too, was renowned for its aesthetic values.

But a more fundamental reason why the leopard represents Ancient Greece is that they both share the same trait - that of "azus." Azus is based on the word az, "strength," but it relates to an inner rather than outer strength. It is often translated as "boldness," "brazenness" or "chutzpah."

Simply speaking, this relates to the leopard's distinctive appearance; leopards are described as "boldly marked." But it also relates to the very nature of the leopard. Leopards are not especially large predators. The Israeli subspecies weighs up to about eighty pounds, the African around one hundred and fifty. Yet they brazenly take on animals many times stronger than them. In the words of the former curator of the Hai-Bar nature reserve of the Negev, Bill Clark: "They don't have the speed of a cheetah, nor can they claim the brute force of a lion. Instead, they rely on their wits. They're smart, and, pound for pound, they're the scrappiest of the big cats... No other predator confronts its victims with such rampaging fury."

This brazen defiance, coupled with intelligence, was the hallmark of Ancient Greece. Azus also carries the connotation of defiance, meaning "to oppose" or "contend" with something. Most nations would be content to just have their own ideology. But Ancient Greece was violently antagonistic to any outlook that differed from theirs. Totally opposed to any kind of tolerance, they fought anything and everything, expanding their empire with brazen speed. They defiled the Temple, and they forced the Jewish People to discard their Torah lifestyle:

" 'I saw in my vision... another, like a leopard' - this refers to Greece, which set up decrees and told Yisrael: Write on the horn of an ox that you have no share in the World to Come!" (Midrash Vayikra Rabbah 13:5)

The evil of azus was not limited to Ancient Greece; it is something that is a danger for all of us. Brazenness stands at odds with the Jew's sense of shame, which keeps him from sin. The brazen person has no compunctions about sinning before his Creator:

"The brazen person is destined for Gehinnom." (Pirkei Avos 5:20)

Azus is one of the very worst characteristics. Yet no character trait is entirely good or bad. All traits can be used either way, and azus is no exception.

The Greeks used azus in a negative way. But the Hasmoneans were victorious over the Greeks. Victory does not just mean military or even ideological conquest; it means that one takes the enemy's evil trait and uses it for the good. Then one has truly conquered the enemy, which is really the enemy within.

One perspective of the leopard's brazenness is that it stands unafraid of creatures that outweigh it or outnumber it. It does not feel confined by its natural limitations. Such was the trait of the Hasmoneans. They were far outnumbered by the gigantic Greek army, but they stood firm by their beliefs, never being scared away. Knowing they were fighting for Hashem and His Torah, they were not discouraged by their natural limitations.

Just as the evil side of azus was not limited to Greece, but is a negative trait for all us, so too the good manifestation of azus was not limited to the Hasmoneans, but can be implemented by all:

"Yehudah ben Teimah said: Be as brazen as a leopard, as light as a vulture, as swift as a gazelle, and as powerful as a lion to fulfill the will of your Father in Heaven." (Mishnah, Pirkei Avos 5:20)

This Chanukah, tap into the victory of the Maccabbees by bringing out the leopard within you!

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Please include my father, Menachem Asher ben Perel, in your prayers, for maximal life and minimal suffering.

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