This podcast is a live recording of a class given during the Pardes Executive Learning Seminar by Dr. Elliott Malamet.
Megillat Esther, which offers a perplexing contradiction around which everything revolves: why does Mordechai urge Esther to conceal her Jewish identity in the first two chapters of the text, and then seemingly go out of his way to let everyone know he is Jewish by refusing to bow down to Haman? Does Mordechai miscalculate when Haman plans genocide, or is this part of Mordechai’s carefully prepared strategy of leadership? And ultimately, what does the text tell us about the use of Jewish power, then and today, in its violent conclusion?
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