[Avodah] Megila is not part of Bible?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, March 6, 2007 2:01 pm, R Michael Kopinsky wrote:
: On 3/6/07, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
:> In Pirqe deR' Eliezer, Achashveirosh is after Daryaveish, which means the
:> second bayis was standing for something like 40 years at the time of Purim.
:> Well after Ezra's return.

: How does this fit with the Gemara about the different calculations of the
: 70 years?  (Does a PDRE have to fit with a gemara?)

There is a shitah that PDRE was written by R' Eliezer b Hyrkanus. If so, the
burden of proof is on the gemara, not PDRE. But the gemara could simply hold
like R Yosi bar Chalafta (the Seder Olam). To whatever extent "hold like" has
meanings for matters of history. Perhaps, in light of my previous post, I
should write: The gemara could simply be explaining the meaning and Torah of
the SO's version of the events.

Someone noted I confused people by misspeaking, so here's the machloqes again.

The Seder Olam orders them Koresh, Achashveirosh, Daryavesh. This places Purim
between shivat Tziyon (under Koresh) and before bayis sheini. And thus
Esther's (adopted?) son was the one who permitted the building of the BHMQ
(2nd year of Daryavesh) and the aliyah sheniyah with Ezra (7th yr of
Artachshasta, who is identified with Daryaveish).

PDRE has a chronology that matches the opinion of most modern historians, that
Achashveirosh was after Daryaveish, and Purim is around 4 decades into the
bayis sheini period. Historians -- who so far agree with the PDRE but who
knows what the PDRE would say about this point -- identify Artachshasta with
Artexerces, and make Ezra and Nechemiah 20 years after Purim.

While this 2nd shitah robs Purim of its connection to bayis sheini, it speaks
volumes to someone sitting and typing this in NY. Why didn't the Jews wake up
and leave Shushan when Artachshasta opened the doors less than a generation
after we narrowly escaped extermination?

All of this ties to the 168 year difference between our dating of galus Bavel
and secular histories of Babylonia, Persia and Greece (which are consistent
with each other and astronomical events). The SO folding Daryaveish and
Artachshasta is part of explaining how Babylonian rule was not as long as it
seems. The folding isn't necessary to explain 70 years of galus, but a 70 year
span for the entire Persian period. If that is predicated on the SO, and if
the PDRE is choleiq, then why not simply assume the data sides with the other
tzad?

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter