Tanach Thoughts

I've been quite busy lately and still am. I've started a number of posts but haven't gotten around to finishing them. However, yesterday I realized something interesting while reading a book, and it's short, so I'm sharing it. So Purim has come and gone...several months ago. But when you think about it, maybe Purim should be year-round because the whole build up to the grand finale of Esther was years in the making. Anyway, Daryavesh, or Darius, the one under whom the Second Temple was completed, was, according to Jewish tradition, the son of Queen Esther and King Achashverosh (see for example Midrash Yalkut Shimoni on the Torah 536 ). However, this is never openly acknowledged in Tanach. There might be any number of reasons for this, including that we have misunderstood our sources and they are not referring to the same Daryavesh under whom the Temple was completed; that Daryavesh was so far gone from Judaism that there was no point; IT'S A THEOLOGICAL CONSPIRA...

 Warning: This post is at least a little political, so if that's not your thing, feel free to not read. :) As mixed Jewish and Arab cities in Israel continue burning, many people, myself among them, have been thinking about the myth of multiculturalism. A concept pushed by the West, that all cultures can coexist peacefully. I say myth, because I think the last week or so bear evidence that this claim is not true. This eventually led me to wonder what the Tanach says about multiculturalism. Of course, the Torah already tells us "You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws" ( Vayikra 18:3 ). From this verse and surrounding ones we have the halachot of "chukot hagoyim" and "darkei ha'emori"; i.e. t not follow the practices of the non-Jews. But say we don't follow their ways and merely allow them to coexist with us, or say we don't foll...