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How to Read the Newspaper & the Websites

Learning from the Megillah how to Understand World Events. A Wild King Throws a Feast for 187 Days, But What Does It Got To Do with the Jewish Mission?

35 min

Class Summary:

In a book famous for its conciseness, the story of Esther stands apart as one of the most detailed and intriguing in the entire Torah. It reads like a novel, filled with suspense, mystery and drama, where events in the opening of the narrative are understood only at its conclusion. The story opens with an unexplained, outrageous and over extravagant affair, thrown by a party-animal of a king, and slowly develops into a breathtaking rollercoaster of sinister plots, unlikely heroes, hilarious ironies, and ultimately, inspiring salvation. The book of Esther, in so many ways, charts the cycle of Jewish history in Diaspora, and provides direction and answers to many contemporary questions.

This class will analyze a Talmudic debate regarding how much of the story we must read on Purim in order to fulfill the mitzvah of hearing Megillah, and the verdict, that we must read the entire book. Why would there be a religious obligation to listen on Purim to the story of a Persian King’s feast? Of how he executed his queen? These are interesting historical stories, but why the obligation to listen to them on Purim? Why is it that we fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the Megillah only if we learn of the detailed designs at the King’s 187-day party?

The class explains how the Megillah teaches us to view world-events. The story of Purim is not that G-d saves the Jews from annihilation. It is a much deeper story: that the lavish feast of a mighty King is part of a vast plan that leads to the objective of existence. The Megilah teaches us about the role of a Jew in a vast universe.

Please leave your comment below!

  • הח

    הרב חיים -13 years ago

    א גרויסן ישר כח
    רק לאחרונה גיליתי אוצר זה.
    ומאז נעשה שימוש רב ביותר.
    בשיעור, בדרשה, ובחברותא

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  • KT

    Kayo, Tokyo -13 years ago

    Hospitalization lead to the great revelation
    Baruch HaShem

    I was hospitalized to a psychiatric hospital. I am in the process of rehabilitation. However, because of this, I have been able to study at The.Yeshiva.net for 2 years and it has been a great salvation. Beehi Bimi Achashverosh... I do not know what meritorious thing I ever had to receive this gift from Above.

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  • KT

    Kayo, Tokyo -13 years ago

    Schizo let to a Chassidus
    Baruch HaShem

    I am a Japanese planning to convert in Israel. 21 years ago, I went the United State to study in a college. I wanted to study at a University in Japan, but Japanese entrance exams for universities were very difficult and I chose to go to the US. In California, I date with a Jewish boyfriend. He was Jewish, but secular. However, I became schizophrenia, needed to come back to Japan and left the boyfriend. If I did not become schizophrenia, I would have stayed with the boyfriend because of the very Egotistic thinking I had that time. If I stayed with him without the illness, I think my life as well as his life would be much difficult than now. Since then, I had the influence of the ex Jewish boyfriend when I looked at Judaism. However, 12 years later, I met Chabad. Now 21 years later, I study Chassidus at the Yeshiva.net and Chabad.org, and Beis Chabad Japan learning what is true Yiddish Kait is. Thanks to the English I learned in the US, it is very easy to understand the classes. I am sure that He sent me to the US to study English so that I can learn Yiddish Kait easily as I do today. I still have schizophrenia, but I believe this was necessary to counter my strong Ego. And even with it, I still choose a life to be a Chasid.

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  • SSB

    Sarah Szajnbrum Bohadana -13 years ago

    B"H

    So moving,so brilliant,so clever!

    Thank you!

    Kol tuv!

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  • S

    Sholom -13 years ago

    thanks
    Brilliant. Thank you.

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Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • March 9, 2009
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  • 13 Adar 5769
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  • 2201 views

Dedicated by David and Eda Schottenstein In the loving memory ofAlta Shula Swerdlov And in honor of the birth of their daughter Yetta Alta Shula, "Aliyah" Schottenstein

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