What is Shechem?

• Dinah raped• Jacob alienated• Joseph Sold• Joshua Reprimands

Nation

• Gift to Joseph’s kids• Burial place for Joseph• Future City of Refuge

Is purchasing land good or bad?

Other Purchased Lands• Hebron

– Purchased from Ephron the Hittite

• Jerusalem– Purchased from Aruana the Jebusite

• Both purchased after a bad thing

• 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented Him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people: 'It is enough; now stay thy hand.' And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 18 And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him: 'Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.'

• 19 And David said: 'To buy the threshing-floor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.' 24 And the king said unto Araunah: 'Nay; but I will verily buy it of thee at a price; neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto the LORD my God which cost me nothing.' So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Today

• Har Gerizim houses the Shomronim, the settlement of Har Bracha, along with other smaller settlements, and a small army base

• Har Eival houses a large army base

Shechem Today

• A Palestinian commercial and cultural center• Population approximately 126,000• Terrorism capital of the world • Bomb factories and shopping malls

What about Hebron and Jerusalem?

• Jerusalem is the most fought-over piece of land in the world

• Hebron – a place of complete hatred between both sides

Jerusalem

• Destruction of two temples• Crusades• Every religion in the world has claimed it at

some point• Today

– Old city has the top three

Chanukah- the real story

• Where is Chanukah mentioned?• Talmud

– Shabbat 21b– Other passing mentions

• The Book of the Maccabees

• What is 'Hanukah? The rabbis taught: "On the twenty-fifth day of Kislev 'Hanukah commences and lasts eight days, on which lamenting (in commemoration of the dead) and fasting are prohibited. When the Hellenists entered the sanctuary, they defiled all the oil that was found there. When the government of the House of Asmoneans prevailed and conquered them, oil was sought (to feed the holy lamp in the sanctuary) and only one vial was found with the seal of the high priest intact. The vial contained sufficient oil for one day only, but a miracle occurred, and it fed the holy lamp eight days in succession. These eight days were the following year established as days of good cheer, on which psalms of praise and acknowledgment (of God's wonders) were to be recited.

• Mentioned in the middle of a discussion about Shabbat lights

Why not mentioned in Talmud?

• 2 theories– Everyone knew the story anyway (recent memory)– Didn’t want to annoy the Romans– Talmud was written during exile and occupation

The Book of the Maccabees

• Original Hebrew lost• Only Greek remains• Not part of the Jewish Bible• Religiously insignificant• Historical Value

Where can we find it today?• Septuagint Story (Megillah 9)• It happened to Ptolemy the king that he took

seventy-two elders from Jerusalem, and placed them in seventy-two separate chambers, and did not inform them to what purpose he had brought them. And afterward he entered to each of them, and said to them: Translate me the Torah of Moses from memory. And the Holy One, blessed be He, sent into the heart of each of them a counsel, and they all agreed to have one mind, and changed as follows:

• Around this same time, everything else was translated

Ptolemy, a Greek

King, orders Everything translated

Book re-translated

back to Hebrew from Greek

Book of Maccabees

written

Rome conquers Greece

and Israel

ChristianitySpreads to

Roman Empire

Book of Maccabees canonized

by Catholics in Latin and then

English

• 1: In those days arose Mattathias the son of John, the son of Simeon, a priest of the sons of Joarib, from Jerusalem, and dwelt in Modin.

• 60: And so it was, that Joseph and Azaras were put to flight, and pursued unto the borders of Judea:

• 66: From thence he removed to go into the land of the Philistines, and passed through Samaria.

• 68: So Judas turned to Azotus in the land of the Philistines, and when he had pulled down their altars, and burned their carved images with fire, and spoiled their cities, he returned

into the land of Judea.

Maccabees Fought Here!!

• 18: Therefore whereas we are now purposed to keep the purification of the temple upon the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu, we thought it necessary to certify you thereof, that ye also might keep it, as the feast of the tabernacles, and of the fire, which was given us when Neemias offered sacrifice, after that he had builded the temple and the altar. 19: For when our fathers were led into Persia, the priests that were then devout took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in an hollow place of a pit without water, where they kept it sure, so that the place was unknown to all men. 20: Now after many years, when it pleased God, Neemias, being sent from the king of Persia, did send of the posterity of those priests that had hid it to the fire: but when they told us they found no fire, but thick water;

• 21: Then commanded he them to draw it up, and to bring it; and when the sacrifices were laid on, Neemias commanded the priests to sprinkle the wood and the things laid thereupon with the water. 22: When this was done, and the time came that the sun shone, which afore was hid in the cloud, there was a great fire kindled, so that every man marvelled. 23: And the priests made a prayer whilst the sacrifice was consuming, I say, both the priests, and all the rest, Jonathan beginning, and the rest answering thereunto, as Neemias did.

• 43: So the thirteenth day of the month Adar the hosts joined battle: but Nicanor's host was discomfited, and he himself was first slain in the battle. 44: Now when Nicanor's host saw that he was slain, they cast away their weapons, and fled. 45: Then they pursued after them a day's journey, from Adasa unto Gazera, sounding an alarm after them with their trumpets.

46: Whereupon they came forth out of all the towns of Judea round about, and closed them in; so that they, turning back upon them that pursued them, were all slain with the sword, and not one of them was left. 47: Afterwards they took the spoils, and the prey, and smote off Nicanors head, and his right hand, which he stretched out so proudly, and brought them away, and hanged them up toward Jerusalem. 48: For this cause the people rejoiced greatly, and they kept that day a day of great gladness. 49: Moreover they ordained to keep yearly this day, being the thirteenth of Adar.

What else happened in Adar?

• Purim!!!• 8 And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus: 'There is a certain

people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they the king's laws;

therefore it profiteth not the king to suffer them.

• 13 And letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

• But…

• 1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them; whereas it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them; 2 the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt; and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them was fallen upon all the peoples. 3 And all the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and they that did the king's business, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai was fallen upon them.

Today…

• Customary not to travel or undergo surgeries during the first 9 days of Av

• Business transactions• Especially the few days preceding the 9th