Women's Three Weeks/Tisha B'Av Class - Is the Chick Stuck in the Egg? How We Relate to the Darkness in Our Lives

The Debate between the Sages of Athens and Reb Yehoshua on Eggs, Goats, Cheese, Salt, Mules, Knives, and DonkeysThis women's class was presented on Tuesday, 2 Av, 5784, Parshas Devarim, August 6, 2024, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY. The Talmud (Bechoros 8b) recounts the tale of a fascinating confrontation that occurred between the ‘Wise Men of Athens’ and the great sage of Israel, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya. Athens was known in the ancient world as the seat of wisdom and philosophy, and its philosophers saw themselves as the deepest and wisest thinkers of the time. Amongst the sages of Israel, Rabbi Yehoshua stood out as the sharpest and most quick-witted, able to best anyone in an argument. Rabbi Yehoshua was a remarkable man. Although a fearsome debater and a brilliant scholar, to earn a livelihood he would sell charcoal. He was also a Levite who played music in the Second Temple and witnessed its devastating destruction. In the following decades, from the darkest times in all of our history, Rabbi Joshua served as the most prominent spokesman for Judaism and the Jewish people. So when the Roman Caesar demanded to test who was wiser, the Jews or the Greeks, Rabbi Yehoshua was the unanimous choice for representing the Torah of Israel. Sixty sages of Athens challenged the Jewish sage and the battle of wits began. The Talmud records the dialogue between these sages, back and forth, all in the form of a cryptic exchange of riddles. The Wise Men of Athens