MHA-FYOS Dean's Blog

This coming week we will celebrate the holiday of Purim, be’ezrat Hashem , and we will read Megilat Esther. Early in the Megilah, Jewish ascendancy is quickly replaced by Jewish peril. Esther becomes queen and Mordechai reveals an assassination plot to the king. Suddenly, Haman is promoted and the king issues a decree of death for the Jews. Mordechai reacted publicly to this decree; “Mordechai learned of all that had been done; and Mordechai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes. He went out into the midst of the city and cried loudly and bitterly. He came until the front of the king’s gate for it was forbidden to enter the king’s gate, clothed with sackcloth.” (Esther 4: 1-2) This location served as Mordechai’s post to pray and fast on behalf of the Jewish People for most of the rest of the Megilah story. In another moment of ascendancy, the king ordered Haman to publicly parade his arch nemesis, Mordechai, around the capital city in royal clothing on a royal horse. The ti...

The first half of Sefer Shemot – the parshiyot that we have been reading in recent weeks – is filled with descriptions of Hashem’s miracles. A bush that does not burn. Ten plagues. A split sea separated by land dry enough to withstand an escaping nation. The munn . Water from a rock. Hashem’s revelation at Har Sinai. These miracles proclaimed Hashem’s existence and His providence to those who witnessed them and to all future generations. These miracles helped transform the Jewish People from a nation of slaves to an am segula – Hashem’s chosen people. Students often express the following sentiment: Belief in Hashem is so difficult because we cannot experience Hashem directly through our five senses and because His providence is masked - all that happens in this world appears to be the machinations of the laws of nature. It would be so much easier to believe in Hashem if He would perform miracles in our days, as in those! Let us consider this question: why does Hashem not perform open...