Torah Blog

 

A blog of Torah thoughts, poems and other random odds 'n' sods. For tag cloud click here.
(Sorry, the comments moderation for this blog is very clunky - if you want to ask me a question, better to use the contact form)

 

Wednesday
Mar232022

Megillat Esther - The Great Chess Game

Chess came to Persia very early in its history. 
To me the megillah feels like a chess game. 

Player A: King Achashverosh, queen Vashti, knight Haman.
Player B: King G-d, queen Esther, knight Mordechai.
  
Player A's queen is knocked out very early in the game (BAD move) and that player then tries to get a variety of pawns to become a new queen. Unsuccessfully though: in the end, player B gets her queen (Esther) in among A's pieces.

This queen (Esther) starts causing havoc, along with her knight (Mordechai). In the end, she massacres A's pawns (Haman's sons and allies). She also uses A's own knight (Haman) to create a close to checkmate situation (1st party), followed by true checkmate (2nd party and the overturning of the decree).


P.s. Checkmating G-d was never really on the table ๐Ÿ˜‰
And of course G-d is not just the King, but is also the player. 

Friday
Mar112022

Chanoch/Noach and Yuval/Levi

In this Times of Israel post I suggested that Chanoch and his grandson Noach share a trait, that has been passed down in partial form ("If you look at the letters of Hanoch (Het Nun Vav Chaf), Noah shares only two of them (Nun Het).")

ื—ื ื•ืš

ื ื—

Recently it struck me that the same might be argued for another ancestor and descendant: Yuval and Levi.

Yuval is called "the father all who played the lyre and pipe" (Genesis 4:20-21). In other words, the progenitor or father of music. Levi is a very musical tribe, who end up being the singers in the Temple. And the letters of Yuval's name partially descend into Levi:

ื™ื•ื‘ืœ

ืœื•ื™

  

Wednesday
Mar092022

Oholiav the Assistant

When God appoints Betzalel as the Chief Architect of the Mishkan, he also appoints Oholiav son of Achisamach to assist him. Oholiav is an engraver, and a skilful workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen. He is from the tribe of Dan. Rashi on Exodus 35:34 notes that this tribe is one of the lowliest tribes of Israel (while Betzelel hailed from Judah, the tribe of the kings).

 

Is there a significance to the tribe of Dan, in terms of Oholiav's job? One of my talented Bibliodrama participants, Joanne Jackson Yelenik, pointed out that the blessing that Jacob gives to Dan on his deathbed is (Gen: 49:17): 

17. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

Joanne suggested that, just as Dan was there to be the vanguard of the camp, Oholiav was there to clean up the mess and make sure nothing fell by the way. Following her lead in looking at Jacob's blessings, I suggested a further role, using the image of the snake biting the horse's heels.
The evil inclination, or ego, could be compared to a rider on a horse. It tries to ride us and control us. Along comes the snake, and though smaller, is able to bite the heels of the horse and throw the rider. It is not a pleasant experience for the horse, but at least the rider is off its back. 
Perhaps, then, Oholiav's job was to make sure that Betzalel, of the kingly tribe and given the prestigious job of the Chief Architect of the Mishkan, did not for a moment slide into ego. That would be an inappropriate energy to enter via his hands into the vessels of the Mishkan. 
Wednesday
Mar092022

Shadow Selves in Megillat Esther

In chapter 1 of the book of Esther, we meet King Achashverosh and Queen Vashti. In chapter 2, we meet a second pair, a second man and woman: Mordechai and Esther. 

The King is a fool. He is drunk. He is out of control. His impulsive demands lead to dire consequences. The Queen is independant-minded and disobedient. 

These two represent the exact opposite to the man and woman we meet in chapter 2:

Mordechai is very careful and controlled. He instructs Esther not to reveal her Jewish identity. He walks in front of the harem, trying to gather information about Esther, because without information he cannot control the situation. He commands Esther in chapter 4 to go into the king. He is in control of himself, and he is in control of Esther.

Esther is obedient. She does what Mordechai commands her. 

Achashverosh and Vashti represent their Shadow selves, the selves that Mordechai and Esther push down out of sight - though they are still there, working away in the subconscious. But as the story progresses, the Shadow selves emerge.

Esther ceases to simply obey Mordechai. She does not rebel, but she does take matters into her own hands and begin to implement her own plan. When this happens, Mordechai is no longer in control - he cedes control to Esther and ultimately to the Divine Providence that brings Haman knocking at the King's door that fateful night. 

When working with our Shadow selves, the parts of us that frighten us or are not known to our conscious minds, the idea is not to go to the other extreme and transform into that self (lack of control, wild rebellion etc). It is rather to bring them up in such a way that they are healthily integrated into the rest of our personality, and we are no longer afraid of being that way.

*This insight was gained while doing Bibliodrama, Adar 5782.

Wednesday
Mar092022

Memuchan and Haman

The midrash likes to take two separate biblical characters and suggest they are one and the same person. This is also true of Memuchan, the advisor to King Achashverosh in Esther chapter 1, whom the Midrash declares is none other than Haman (officially, Haman only makes an appearance in chapter 3). 

Why conflate the two? Perhaps because we don't know why the King favours Haman and promotes him in Esther 3:1 - and Memuchan's advice was so appealing to the King that it would make sense that he would rise in the ranks. There are other lines of similarity as pointed out by Yaacov Bronstein here.

But it is also striking that both Memuchan and Haman both wished to disempower and destroy minorities. Memuchan wanted all women to obey their husbands, and never to show independent thought or rebel. Haman wanted to eliminate the pesky Mordechai who refused to obey the king's command and bow to him - and to take his stiff-necked, irritatingly different brethren with him. 

In the end, a woman, Esther, takes away all of Haman's power and brings about his death. And the Jews live on for many centuries and eventually return in joy to their ancient homeland, while Amalek has disappeared from the earth. 

* This insight arose while doing Bibliodrama, Adar 5782.