[Avodah] Ratzuy l'Rov

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 11:05:33PM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: However the entire "gefeel" of the Megillah is that the Jews were in galus, 
:  that it was churban time.  The fear that they might be wiped out  
: altogether would surely have been mitigated if some of them were already  living in 
: Eretz Yisrael with the BHM'K rebuilt.  It just doesn't sound  right.

Esther's son is usually taken to be Darius II, the king who permitted
the completion of the BHMQ after the contruction began under Cyrus
was interrupted.

But if what "sounds right" is against the Daas Miqra, then perhaps it
is worth trying to rethink one's mental image...

Or perhaps, it just requires rethinking the return to Israel. It really
was a minority of the Jewish people. And when the Kusim got the building
of the BHMQ halted, I don't know how un-galus it felt.

For that matter, all of bayis sheini was during galus. Galus Paras ends
when the Persians are conqured by Alexander, which we know was during
Shim'on haTzadiq's lifetime. Galus Yavan involved a short interruption
of avodah, but turing most of their rule we had a BHMQ, and we only had
autonomy for a short time before the Hasmoneans sold out to Rome and
got replace by Herod for the bargain.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha