This six-part series will take place on Tuesdays at 9:30am Eastern (4:30pm in Israel) from February 8 to March 15
We all know the story of Esther. But do we get angry about it? In this series we will look at the way some Jews responded to the book of Esther in ancient times and later, why they were so mad about it and what they did to fix it. After a week on the most incendiary ways to read the book, we will look at the Greek translation of the book (“new and improved Esther!”), the Dead Sea Scrolls (“Esther? Who’s Esther?”), rabbinic midrashim that show discomfort with some parts of the book, and later artists who painted Esther the way they wished she was. And we will think about the various ways in which Esther is read today by interpreters and communities in different parts of the world and with different ideological lenses.
