A History of the Olympic Games and The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Warning

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin on Friday 23 July - Sunday 8 August, and are already marred by a case of an athlete with Covid in Olympic city, and despite Tokyo reporting their highest number of Covid cases in six months.

Compiled and written by Rabbi Elozor Reitchik

The Olympic Games began over 2700 years ago and was a religious event in honor of one of the many Greek gods.

The original Olympic Games took place in Olympia, where temples for idolatry were situated. The modern-day Olympics, which resumed in the year 1896, are directly connected to the ancient games since they begin with the lighting of the Olympic Torch. The Torch is ignited by the sun's rays in the temple on Olympia, and from there it makes its way to the country where the Games are held.

Even the fact that the Games take place every four years, as well as the Olympic symbol of five interlocking rings, are connected to idol worship. The five intertwined circles represent Venus, which traces a perfect pentacle across the sky every 8 years. To the ancient Greeks, Venus became the symbol of perfection and beauty, qualities prized in athletes' bodies. As a tribute to Venus, the Greeks used "her" 8-year cycle to organize their Olympic Games. The 4-year schedule follows Venus' half cycle.

Sourced in Idolatry

When the Olympic Games took place in Munich, Germany in 1972, the Lubavitcher Rebbe referred to it in a sicha on Shabbos parshas Vayeishev, Shabbos Chanuka, 5733, and said that this was an inyan of avoda zara [idol worship].  [Note: 11 Israeli athletes were massacred at the 1972 Games in Munich]

Free translation follows: 

The entire concept of the Olympic Games is connected with idol worship. These games began with the Greeks, who had a custom of going to a certain place and running there, jumping on stones and bones, dancing, fighting, and killing, etc. The modern version is the Olympic Games, but the source is idol worship. 

In those days, the Greeks attained very high levels of wisdom, even the wisdom of mathematics and astronomy. After reaching very high levels of wisdom, they began to think -- what about faith? 

There was a mountain near the city, and it wasn't a high mountain, but a mountain that goats and sheep, cows and oxen, and people too, could climb. This mountain wasn't in some forsaken place in the mountains of darkness, but right near the city. So the wise men of Greece declared that their two idols were there, that one had hit the other and killed him, and they did all sorts of evil things there. Including every possible bad trait, and even those you can only think of, and they said that these idols were their gods, and were omnipotent -- the name of this mountain was Olympia. 

Then they decided that once every few years they would gather there, and each one would take his cat, etc., with him, and one would strike another, and jump, and celebrate a holiday there. 

All this was in the time of the Greeks. In recent years, this became the Olympic Games, which take place every four years. Therefore, the Olympic Games that take place in our generation are sourced in idol worship. 

The Olympic Torch

On Chanuka 5732, a few months before the start of the Olympic Games in Munich, the Olympic Torch was carried through Eretz Yisrael on its way to Munich. The Rebbe spoke sharply about this and in a talk delivered on Shabbos parshas Chayei Sarah he said: 

This was the custom of the Greeks 2000 years ago. Nothing remains of the Greeks themselves, aside from their books, and among the things written in their books, is the custom to take a torch and to run with it from place to place. Now they want to take this Greek custom and celebrate Chanuka with it! 

The whole point of Chanuka is the Jews' victory over the Greeks, and as we see and all know, nothing remains of the Greeks aside from their language and their books. Now they want to dig up an ancient custom from the cemetery -- not from the "beis ha'chayim" ["place of the living," a Jewish euphonism for a graveyard] but from the "beis ha'kevaros" ["place of graves"] -- and resurrect this Greek custom, the opposite of the whole point of Chanuka! 

In 5748 (1988), before the bar mitzva of Eliyahu Schusterman, his father, Rabbi Gershon Schusterman of Los Angeles prepared a speech in which he derived Jewish lessons to be learned from the Olympic fire which burned on Mt. Olympia in Greece, from which the Olympic torch was lit to open the Olympic Games. 

When he sent in the speech to the Rebbe, the Rebbe crossed it all out and wrote: "as was publicized, the beginning of all this was actual idol worship."  The Lubavitcher Rebbe completely negated any Chabad activity in connection with the Olympic Games, since they are sourced in idol worship. And the Games today are connected and associated with the symbols of Greek idol worship.