Does the Megilla predict the rise of ISIS?

Advanced Fellowship Parsha Class

Rabbi Yoni Sacks

Part #1 Intro: Anti semitism today-- alive and well

Text #1: Hatred of Jews in Israel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOKAL_Y3xYY

Text #2a: Hatred of Jews in Paris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AltyhmrIFgo

Text #2b Hatred of Jews in Berkely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCBINSWCiAE

Questions:

a. Which accusations against Israel do you find most outrageous?

b. Based on the fomer commander of British forces in Afghanistan--- does the hatred of Israel reflect a
realistic judgement of its humanitarianism?
c. How would you feel if Jews in NY could not walk in the streets of NY without being spit upon- blamed
for the supposed “inhumanity” of Israel?
d. Is the State of Israel completely to blame for this modern-day hatred?

Part 2:  Megilla: A textbook description of Anti Semitism

1:1-8
a. What did Achashverosh hope to gain from throwing a party for all Persians?

1: 9-22
 b. Why would an immature King like Achasverosh disrespect his queen by making her be the
entertainment at his men’s only party?

c. In what sense is Achasverosh a “tanin ha-Gadol” like Pharaoh?

d. Why would a party-loving tanin ha-Gadol such as Achasverosh be particularly dependent on advisors?

2:1-4
e. Is conscripting a trophy queen through a compulsory beauty pageant consistent with a tanin gadol?
Why?

f. Is a compulsory beauty pageant better designed to discover a “playmate” or an ezer kinegdo such as
Esther?

2:21-3:7

g. Where does Mordechai position himself in the palace? Why?

g. Why did Haman’s Confrontation with Mordechai- expand to become a plan of genocide against all
Jews?

Part 3: Haman: dat haMelech

3:8-10
i. What was Haman’s argument for genocide ? Why would Haman expect Achasverosh to resist his plan
and need to be persuaded through argument and an offer of bribe? (Am Mordechai, Yeshno Am,
Darchei ha-melech aynam osim)
i. What is the difference between the anti semitism of Haman and that of Acashverosh?

Part 4: Root Cause: Sinah

The Talmud (Tractate Shabbos 89) uses a play on words “Sinai” to identify the source of anti-Semitism. The
Hebrew pronunciation of "Sinai" is almost identical to the Hebrew word for "hatred" – sinah. "Why was the
Torah given on a mountain called Sinai?" asks the Talmud. "Because sinah – the tremendous hatred aimed at
the Jew – emanates from Sinai."-- Why is Sinai the cause of such hatred?

Part 5: Hitler’s Explanation of Jew Hatred: Clash of civilizations dat haemet vs dat haMelech
Herman Rauchning had been Hitler’s personal confidante, but he abandoned Nazism and attempted to alert the
free world to the scope and danger of the Nazi threat. He wrote:

“It is against their own insoluble problem of being human that the dull and base in humanity are in
revolt in anti-Semitism. Nevertheless Judaism, together with Hellenism and Christianity, is an inalienable
component of our Christian Western Civilization – the eternal "call to Sinai," against which humanity
again and again rebels.” (The Beast From the Abyss, by Hermann Rauchning)

Hitler's ultimate target was the Jews, because the concept of an all powerful Divine Wisdom was his mortal
enemy. So long as the  “Dat ha-emet” of Sinai promoting wisdom and justice had a place in the world, Hitler
knew that his ideology of “Dat tanin hagadol” the vision of an all powerful man-- could never triumph.

Quote #1: “They refer to me as an uneducated barbarian," Hitler said. "Yes we are barbarians. We want to be
barbarians; it is an honored title to us. We shall rejuvenate the world. This world is near its end.”

Quote #2: “Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing man from
the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge, from the dirty and degrading self-mortifications of a false
vision known as conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence
which only a very few can bear.”

Quote #3: “The Ten Commandments have lost their vitality. Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish,
like circumcision.”

Quote #4: “Even had there never existed a synagogue or a Jewish school or the Old Testament, the Jewish spirit
would still exist and would exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew ― not a
single one ― who does not personify it.”

Quote #5: “If only one country, for whatever reason, tolerates a Jewish family in it, that family will become the
germ center for fresh sedition. If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no
synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul.”