Government and Society
The inspiration for these writings came from 2 sources.
The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks brings an interesting perspective about people
The children of Israel in the desert were complaining, not happy, and needed a project to channel their energies and talents.
“It is then that God said: Let them build something together. This simple command transformed the Israelites.
Further on he writes.
This brings us to the fundamental distinction in politics between State and Society. The state represents what is done for us by the machinery of government, through the instrumentality of laws, courts, taxation, and public spending. Society is what we do for one another through communities, voluntary associations, charities, and welfare organizations. Judaism, I believe, has a marked preference for society rather than state.”
https://assets.torahtidbits.com/2021/02/17160329/Terumah-1408-Rabbi-Sacks.pdf
With this perspective intro let’s look at the holiday of Purim. In a fascinating virtual tour of ancient Persia — Iran, Nachliel Selavan takes us back in time. and place.
What is fascinating is the elaborate Palaces, Luxury, Vessels, and Jewellery.
Of course, there is the narrative and interaction of the leadership, advisors, and the people.
One advisor, Haman rose from a lowly position to wealth and tried to adopt his agenda of anti-Semitism and wipe out the Jews to the King. He was able to do this by promoting that the Jews were different and disloyal, using propaganda, and most importantly promising to provide a solution for tax collection.
In the presentation, Nachliel shows the advanced innovation of the communication system ie roads, horses, and drivers the most advanced system of the time. Hence, we see the role of Innovation in making an Empire great.
Of this control over the people and taxes are key.
We see the elaborate use of Materials, Gold, and Silver, which means that there was productive employment. There was also a robust food and clothing industry as there was a 6 month party. All this provides employment opportunities and a sense of Society.
In this week’s Torah reading of Teztavah, we see a similar story of opulence in the clothing and grandeur of the Cohen Gadol — the priest.
There is an ancient tradition for Kings and leaders to show off their prestige, with elaborate grandeur. On the flip side,, all this creates a structure for social structure, jobs, and taxes.
Nothing has really changed over 2000 years.
So we have a conflict between Government and Society. We also have a conflict between Good and Evil. On Purim, we are commanded to wipe away Amalek — Evil. We are commanded to drink until we do not know the difference between Mordechai and Haman, i.e Good and evil.
On this Purim, let us reflect that over the blurring of good and evil especially when we look at the turmoil around the world. May we all recognize the good and strive to be better.
More on Purim and Nachliel Selavan
Nachliel Selavan, a Museum Guide who is now providing online, virtual Museum Tours. Nachliel originally from Jerusalem’s Old City, is back in Israel after seven years of teaching full-time in the United States, developing his unique and engaging method of learning Torah through tour, travel and archaeology through
https://www.museumtours.co.il/
Nachliel shares his journey as he became interested in becoming a Museum Tour Guide.
On the last day of Chanukah I decided to visit the Israel Museum for some fun on my own. Guiding and group tours were not allowed, so I could only stand back and watch the many people walking through the galleries, knowing there must be something important but not sure what and where to look, or how to make sense of things. Occasionally I would jump in with a “did you know?” and give a mini-tour. I watched an older couple with their 7–8 year old grandson.
“This is so boring,” he exclaimed. “Try to have fun”, said his grandmother. His grandfather was sitting on a bench talking on the phone, disengaged. Sadly, this is what I see so often in museums.
My journey to the world of museum education was not straightforward. I stumbled upon it. My father, a tour guide, urged me to visit an exhibition called Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as I was teaching in the US for the past 6–7 years. Seeing lots of ancient Egyptian artifacts was cool, but I didn’t know what to do with it, and sort of felt lost. And then he surprised me with a visit and walked the galleries with me; pointing out dates on plaques; “this is from the time of Yehoshua” and “this is from the time of the Avot”. And then I got it. As we say in Israel nafal ha-asimon — it fell into place: When seen in the context of Jewish History, we connect our identity to the history and archaeology of many cultures.
This notion is oversimplified, but it was the first step on my path to becoming a museum educator. I would like to share with you one example, and connect it to Purim.
The Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Persian Empire (lehavdil from the Parthians or Sassanian Persians who ruled in the later times of the Mishnah and Talmud), is a challenging and mysterious period of Jewish History. Challenging — because of the difficulties with its chronology. To make a very long story short, according to the Seder Olam, the Persian period lasted about 52 years, and had four kings: Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes (Achashverosh) and Artaxerxes. According to the Greek historians and what evidence we have of the Persian empire itself, it lasted for around 210 years, and there were eleven kings. Those include Cyrus, three different kings named Darius, three different kings named Artaxerxes, Cambysus and Xerxes. An introduction to these issues is offered by Mitchell First, in Jewish History in Conflict: A Study of the Major Discrepancy Between Rabbinic and Conventional Chronology.
Mysterious — because most of what we know about Persia is either from Tanach, or from Greek historians, who were the enemies of Persia. The Greeks portrayed the Persians as barbarians. In fact, they were the barbarians of Greek history. We don’t really know what things were like firsthand. And this is where the excavations in Susa (Shushan) and other Persian cities, palaces and tombs come to light. These major discoveries had shed light on the story in new ways. You can learn about the sophisticated culture of the Persian Empire, appreciate their multilingual administration (מדינה ומכתבה ככתבה ועם ועם כלשונו), their swift messenger system (הרצים יצאו דחופים בדבר המלך והדת ניתנה בשושן הבירה), and their luxurious banquets (והשקות בכלי זהב וכלים מכלים שונים).
The architecture of the palaces in Shushan and its artifacts can teach us where the entire story took place: identifying the palace gate, the womens’ palace area; seeing the dress of the royal guards, and more. Seeing all of this transforms your appreciation of the story and this period of Jewish history.
I would like to hereby invite you to see some of these fantastic discoveries with me, on a virtual tour that will take you, not only to the locations themselves — Shushan, and other cities in ancient Persia — but also to some of the world’s great museums, where the palace artifacts are displayed. This tour is called “In the Days of Achashverosh.” More upcoming virtual tours are taking place over the next few weeks, and I can add others upon request. Each Zoom virtual tour is one-hour long, with Q&A following. Hebrew and English editions are scheduled.
The excitement of Jewish learning and Jewish history when meeting the stories themselves is an eye-opening experience, which I hope will enrich your enjoyment of Purim this year!
Tours are posted on www.museumtours.co.il under virtual tours and upcoming events.