A. Significance of the Book: 1. Literary – one of the rare legacies of the human race, Job aims at the heart of the reader. The elements of tragedy, pain and sorrow move through the melancholy lines with rhythmic ease. George Foote Moore calls it “one of the greatest poetical works of the world’s literature.” Tennyson: “Great as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars. There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal merit.” Despite the difficult syntax and rare words in the Book, few can resist the combined emotional and esthetic onslaught of its literary attack. 2. Philosophical – the Book is primarily the study of Man's encounter with Evil. Even more than the emotional consequences are the philosophical or theological ones. It therefore aims at the mind of the reader. How shall Job reconcile G-d’s Justice with His seeming Injustice? Why is the pious man the one to suffer, while the wicked prosper? The discussions between Job and his friends lead us to one of the most profound researches into the nature of Evil. Its results have been the source material for all great thinkers since. 3. Religious – the Book of Job aims at the soul too. Whereas the philosophical material is concentrated in the center of the Book, with its debates and rebuttals, the religious interest is in the prologue and epilogue, where the matters of Faith, the Greatness of G-d and the Smallness of Man are discussed. The Book records the vindication of the unorthodox against the accepted beliefs. Job was not always popular with our Rabbis, but nevertheless the High Priest used to read it in the Temple on Kol Nidre night, and the Prophet Ezekiel, himself a Priest, mentions Job, with Noah, as prototypes of great Zaddikim. B. The Story of Job and Organization of the Book: 1. The Prologue – the Book of Job has a Faustian touch to it. As in Faust, the Devil, or Satan, is a protagonist in the play – for that is what Job seems to be, a play or drama which centers…

One of the most popular passages of the Haggadah is that of "The Four Sons." I have often wondered why I never met any of these four "in the flesh," as it were. Is there anyone so "wicked," so evil, that he has no redeeming feature whatsoever – even that of making the trains come on time? Is there a Wise Son who never committed a faux pas – who never uttered a foolish statement? Have we ever met a Pious Son who never sinned – in defiance of the verse in Kohelet (7:20) that "there is no man upon earth who [always] does good and never sins"? And the Son who does not know enough to ask – has he no modicum of intelligence at all?After a few youthful years of having my curiosity seasonally piqued by this question, it occurred to me that these are archetypes, not four real, living, distinct individuals; indeed, it is extremely rare, indeed impossible, to find pure examples of these types in real life. Almost all people are composites of two or three or four - in fact, hundreds - of types of "sons," and in different proportions. Were they meant to represent real people, the Tradition would most likely have identified a representation for each of the Four Sons. Yet this is not the case, except for Haggadah artists throughout the ages whose fertile imaginations led them to identify and illuminate individual "real" people, as Wise or Wicked, Simple or Who does not know enough to ask, in their illustrations for the Haggadah.In that case, the passage on The Four Sons reflects Judaism's acceptance of the human propensity for internal contradictions, inconsistency, ambivalence and paradox. This acknowledgment is more than a reluctant reconciliation with painful fact; it is, as well, a desideratum, a welcome aspect of human character. Furthermore, the selection of the Four Sons is not the only part of the Seder that reveals an understanding of ambivalence and paradox; another significant example is the prevalence of the matzah, which is considered both a sign of freedom and a si…

Megillat Esther is one of the sacred writings as part of the Tanakh, the biblical canon. Revered by Jews the world over, it is the only book other than the Sefer Torah that must be read from a parchment scroll. It tells the enduring story of the Jewish struggle against persecution and anti-Semitism. Yet, remarkably, at least one contemporary rabbi described it as “a seemingly unrelated series of events,’’ but, as we shall see, this is far from being the case. Some scholars have also doubted the authenticity of the story, despite significant archeological and linguistic confirmation of details (such as the laws, the runners, the Harem, and the structure of the palace) in the Megillah. These scholars see the Megillah as unreal, no more than a fairy tale. The classical commentators such as Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Malbim, who do offer, valuable insights into the text, have not always been well understood.Megillat Esther is, in fact, a fascinating historical, political, and national tale rightly cherished by the Rabbis and the Jewish people — a story with logic, coherence, and compelling credibility. There is enormous importance ascribed to the Megillah by the rabbis of the Talmud. The Talmud (Shabbat 88a) teaches that the Torah was accepted twice ־־ once at Sinai and again in the time of Esther. At Sinai, the People of Israel were compelled to accept the Torah, whereas at the time of Esther they accepted it willingly. The Jerusalem Talmud (11:5) goes even further and declares that “the book of Esther and the Torah will never be abolished” even after theadvent of the Messiah (and the Rambam accepts this as well.) For a book to have had such an impact as a guide to the Jews in exile, the Rabbis knew that this was an important and real story that could serve as a guide for the Jewish people.Why, then, have events in the Megillah been subjected to such significant doubt? A major stumbling block to a proper understanding of the text of the Megillah is the concept of the powerl…