YeshivaThe torah world Gateway
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- The Four Parshiyot
- Zachor
who had pretty much everything anyone could ask
for (except maybe a sympathetic wife!) & yet he
just can’t leave well enough alone. He’s got to
develop a whole plot to kill the entire Jewish
nation. And why? Because 1 Jew wouldn’t bow down
to him?! I mean, is that over-reacting, or what?
The Gemara asks: "Haman min haTorah, minayin?
Where in the Torah is Haman mentioned?" Now, of
course, Haman lived long after the Torah was
given, so that sounds like a strange question.
But since the Torah is a living document - Torah
Chayim - & contains all the events in history
both past & present, there must be at least an
allusion to him. So what is it? The answer:
"Ha-min ha-etz asher tziviticha l’vilti echol
mimenu, achalta?" Did you eat from the tree (of
knowing right & wrong) in Gan Eden that I told
you not to?" asks Hashem. (Ha-min has the same
letters as Haman). That’s the source the Gemara
brings. But hang on; there are many words in the
Torah with a hay/mem/nun. Why choose davka this one?
Many personalities in the Torah are compared to
animals: Yehuda is a lion, Yosef is an ox,
Binyamin a wolf, etc. What creature connects to
Haman? The snake! So citing a Biblical story that
includes a snake does makes sense. But it goes a lot deeper than that.
Chava (& Adam) were given free reign of Gan Eden.
They had only one restriction to which they had
to adhere: Do not eat from the etz ha-dat. But
they just couldn’t resist it! It’s like telling a
kid: "You can have everything in the fridge
except that one black & white cookie - that's
off-limits to you." The kid will undoubtedly try
every which way to get to that luscious cookie.
So that slithery snake – a psychologically
sophisticated serpent with an uncanny ability to
know how people think – preyed upon Adam & Eve’s
unsatisfied desire to have that one single thing that was forbidden to them.
There is another significant reference to snakes
in the Torah. In parshat Chukat, the people
complain to Moshe about their "meager"
sustenance. But why should they complain?! They
miraculously get water from the rock, & the
marvelous Mahn tastes like almost anything they
desire. But there must have been 1 tiny problem –
there were indeed a few foods on the "no-no list"
- & that drove them crazy. So what happened as a
response? Snakes came & bit them!
Haman had a problem with one solitary Jew, & it
drove him mad. He ignored all the other compliant
citizens who bowed down to him, & focused only on
stubborn Mr. Mordechai, who would not budge on
his convictions. Haman would not relent & the
end, well, was "bad-noose" for him.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
