The Hadassah branch that is used at Sukkot is to represent people who do good deeds but do not know G-d's Torah. It hit me today, a week or two after Purim, that Esther's name was originally Hadassah.
Also, I have been looking into some of RVL's claims that the idea of a hard heart in the Passover story (with Pharaoh), was related more to (or could have been translated better as) a heavy heart. In this sense, it would relate to the Egyptian concept of doing wrong. The most printed page of "The Book of the Dead" has the Egyptian gods leading someone through the path to the afterlife. They have to weigh the person's heart against a feather. If the feather is heavier than the heart, the person is seen as blameless. If the heart is heavier, it is gobbled up by one of the gods and the person could not enter the afterlife. That would have been the worst possible end according to an Egyptian.
Like I said, random thoughts today. Maybe more to come.
Friday, March 5, 2010
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