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Reading Hard Texts in Hard Times: Retribution and Self-Defense in Megillat Esther

JL;DR SUMMARY Tzvi Sinensky explores the complex ethical framework in Megillat Esther, focusing on the tension between self-defense and retribution as enacted by the Jews against their enemies. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish EthicsJewish ThoughtSelf DefenseBiblical InterpretationMegillat EstherTextual AnalysisRetributionVengeanceMoral ReasoningTextual Ambiguity

Places mentioned

Iran
"The Megillah records that in the capital Shushan the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men (Esther 9:6) and later, at Esthers request, that they slew three hundred men in Shushan (Esther 9:15)."
Hamadan, Iran
"By the final chapters of the Megillah, Haman has been exposed and executed, and his house has been handed over to Esther and Mordekhai. Yet Esther makes an additional request to King Ahashverosh: a new decree allowing the Jews to defeat their enemies: And she said: If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the matter is proper before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the kings provinces."

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Retrieved 2025-03-14 05:30:45 UTC
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