Midrash As History - Lecture of the Month

Midrash, the collection of speeches given by the rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud, is famed for its deep and multi-faceted spiritual teachings, but less known are the veiled political commentaries hidden within those teachings. Rabbi Wein unmasks some of the Talmudic rabbis' symbolic coding to reveal how their Biblical exegesis also hinted at such events as the Chanukah miracle, the Bar Kochba rebellion, and the oppression of the Jews by the Roman Empire.