assimilation

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1. A Tale of Two Cities: Chanina bar Ada

   Chazal's Preambles to Megillat Esther: Part 2

   Rabbi Moshe Taragin | 17 minutes

   What’s wrong with enjoying Achashverosh’s feast? While the Jews of Persia spent 180 days partying, the Jews who had returned to the Land of Israel were fighting for their lives and were trying to build the Beit HaMikdash. The Persian Jews had distanced themselves from the destiny of the future of Am Yisrael, enjoying lavish feasts while ignoring Jewish history. The Persian Jews needed a jarring reminder of their collective identity and national destiny, and this came in the form of Haman’s edicts.

2. Suddenly - Sinister Sales and Societal Values

   Chazal's Preambles to Megillat Esther: Part 4

   Rabbi Moshe Taragin | 18 minutes

   Why do Chazal characterize Achashverosh as "the first of the sellers" and Haman as "the first of the purchasers"? How is this reflective of Haman's evil displayed in the megilla? Market forces are used by Haman and Achashverosh to sell the Jewish people to their death. A deeper message that emerges is that Jews must be indignant when injustice takes place, and must not be part of a value system which idolizes wealth.

3. Purim's Significance a Few Years Later: The Return to Zion

   Chazal's Preambles to Megillat Esther: Part 7

   Rabbi Moshe Taragin | 17 minutes

   This shiur explores linguistic and thematic parallels between Megillat Esther and the Book of Ezra. The two texts share similar events, motifs, and apparatus of recovery in situations of crisis - perhaps most significantly that of fasting. Ezra's confessional prayer seems to suggest that he derives inspiration and hope from God's Hand which, while hidden, is ever-present, as in the events of Megillat Esther.

4. Daniel and his Companions in the Court of the King of Babylon

   Rabbi Yaakov Medan

   Daniel and his three companions go into exile in Babylon at the end of Yehoyakim’s reign. The Babylonian attempt to assimilate them by giving them Babylonian names is confronted by their adherence to a pre-Halakhik decree to abstain from Babylonian food – even if technically permissible. Their challenge is compared to Yoseph’s challenge. While in a foreign land, he fought assimilation by refusing the seduction of Potiphar’s wife. Taking part in food and wine of the gentiles - like in the instance of Ba’al Pe’or or in the instance of Ahashverosh’s party - led to disastrous results. If eating the food was indeed not permissible, the improved health of the four boys might be explained as a spiritual result of their abstention.

5. From Bnei Yaakov to Ezra – Tanakh’s views of Intermarriage

   Dr. Adina Sternberg

   תאריך פרסום: 2023 | |

   The lecture deals with the question of intermarriage throughout the Tanach - from the question of who the sons of Jacob married to the heated argument of the times of Ezra.