Search Results for: Esther

There is a famous essay by Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler where he “retcons” the political “Da’as Torah” inerrancy doctrine into Megillas Esther. It seems that Mordechai was getting everyone in trouble by not bowing to Haman, but he was right all along, etc.

Moshe Feiglin:

“Since Oslo, 6 times more people have been murdered here, 20 times more have been wounded, and the Accords have cost us 1.2 trillion shekels.”

It’s the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords. How long must we wait to read “brilliant” essays explaining how the Gedolim were prescient in retrospect, eh? And also about the expulsion from Gush Katif?

Note: This isn’t to comment on the debate whether Mordechai was correct in this case (the Gra says no, for instance). And this isn’t about the halachic aspects of Oslo, covered by Rabbi Yitzchak Brand shlita elsewhere.

Yes, I quoted Yeshayahu Leibowitz saying this before, but it bears repeating…

The word religion in English means “law” (as in Megillas Esther, and לבדות להם דת) from the Latin “religio” (רליגיוזה). This definition is undisputed. (The origin of “religio“, itself, however, is disputed.) Correct, there is an enormous chasm between Judaism and its competitors, but, contra Feiglin and many others, Judaism is neither more nor less than a religion.

Judaism is not a race, a nation, a “ReligioNation” (as Rabbi Meir Kahane coined it), a culture, whatever Rabbi S.R. Hirsch calls it, a “marriage” of sorts (Rabbi Kook’s explanation for why we must not worship other nations’ idols is that’s like stealing a man’s wife!), or “Sooo much more than a religion”. Awkward though this may be, I absolutely embrace the early Jewish Reform self-description (in the sense I intend it here) as: “_ Bnei Dat Moshe” (or: “Members of the Mosaic Faith”/”Persuasion” or, in short, “Mosaic Confessors”). (The “German” prefix is an anti-Zionist hedge, which as an anti-anti-Zionist I of course reject.)

It is not the case other religions are genuine “religion”, while Judaism belongs to another category. Rather, other “religions” are mere imitations of religion, while Judaism is the real thing. The tiny number of “mitzvos”, or laws, faux-religionists claim to observe are nothing but a way of evading all the rest of them.

The Cursedian “accusation” of Judaism being “legalistic” has it exactly right. Unlike antinomian (read: criminal, disobedient, rebellious, Godless, etc.) non-Jews, Jews do observe God’s laws.

Judaism IS Legalism!

And if we’re the “Law and Order” folks, what does that make you guys, eh…?

Rabbi Moshe Deri shlita in an essay in some periodical notes this violates the Rambam in Hilchos Ta’anis 1:14 (duplicated in Shulchan Aruch O. C., end of 568):

כל השרוי בתענית בין שהיה מתענה על צרתו או על חלומו בין שהיה מתענה עם הצבור על צרתם הרי זה לא ינהוג עידונין בעצמו ולא יקל ראשו ולא יהיה שמח וטוב לב אלא דואג ואונן כענין שנאמר מה יתאונן אדם חי גבר על חטאיו…

It’s called reading between the lines.

This applies to today’s commemoration of צרתם, as well. And “happiness” certainly implies music, see Gittin 7a.

This stricture against music also includes the ill who aren’t fasting (There is no verse commanding preservation of Simcha like there is וחי בהם to command preservation of life).

Ta’anis Esther is different, however, because it’s not a day of sadness at all, see Shulchan Aruch O. C. 686:12 and Mishna Berurah, אכמ”ל.

Rabbi Dovid Lichtenstein has a new podcast out, titled “The Great 250 Year Machlokes about Torah Lishma“. I didn’t listen at all (I prefer reading text), but here’s something related.

The Gra’s Remez commentary on Esther 8:6:

יש שתי מדות רעות, אחד, שאדם לומד בפניות, והוא הבל וריק, וזה שנאמר ותם לריק כחכם, כי הוא לומד כל ימיו והכל לריק. והשני, שלומד לשם שמים ואחר כך אינו לומד כלל, ועל זה אנו מתפללין לא ניגע לריק, דהיינו נגד הלומד בפניות רעות, ולא נלד לבהלה, הוא נגד הלומד במחשבה טובה ואחר כך פורש, וזהו לבהלה…

There originated at some point a common expression among Chassidim themselves for those among their number who stopped learning: “He started learning Torah Lishma…”

Says the Gra, in his Peshat commentary to Megillas Esther 3:4, see within.