Journey to Greece 2024: Athens - The Historic Encounter of Alexander the Great and Shimon Hatzadik

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay good morning everyone who's having a good time so far not bad not bad okay so let's start with the beginning as we mentioned in one of the shows the Greek Empire as an Empire really began with Alexander the Great 1,000 years after we left mitzraim there is a famous account of Alexander's conquest of Israel and Jerusalem recorded in thear I'm sure you're all familiar with the gar the gar says that when Alexander entered the gates of Yim and he invaded Israel he is welcomed by shim sadic appears before him and the gar says that when Alexander saw the face of shim sadik he fell to the ground he bowed down and he said this very face always appears to me in battle and brings me Victory all the tells us is who by the way was which means he's from the very last members of the now this is very important to know cuz we mentioned Alexander Rises to power 1,000 years after we left MIM at the very same time that Mali passes away that NE passes away that ha in zakar pass away meaning at upon the cessation of NAA that is when Alexander the Great rises in power when Alexander Rises NOA ceases when Alexander Rises aoar ceases this is a very important historic piece of information in fact we're going to see based on S that from the rise of Alexander the Great there's something called minion that are now documented dated based on the rise of Alexander which is really the cessation of Prophecy which is really the cessation ofar in any event that's all the gamar tells us the gamar says Alexander sees shimad but in Josephus Josephus adds a very interesting piece of information and the reason the gamar doesn't record this it's not that the gamar is contradicting this it's just not relevant for the gamarra but every Jew must be aware of what Josephus writes about the encounter of Alexander the Great and shim sadic namely shimad brings Alexander to the B mikdash and when he brought him into the B mikdash he showed him something he showed him now by the way Josephus writes and the gar also says that he's dressed in the he's dressed in the garments of the k and he brought him to the B mikdash and they showed him sa and what does it say in saer Daniel in a few places in saer Daniel it predicts it prophecies the sudden rise to power of Alexander the Great and his defeat of King Darius the King of Persia if you remember theara says that Alexander Rises to power 34 years after the second was built that's there are two or three references to Alexander the Great in sael the first one is in per Z does anybody remember what animal in the vision of Daniel represented Greece so the First Nation B is compared to a lion very good I'm happy we have Yeshiva educated people who learned in Yesa for many years but don't know anything about sa Danel okay so what does it say in say by the way okay I won't say anything now um in peric Zion in sa Daniel the B is compared to the lion Paras is compared to the bear bear and Greece is compared to the leopard num now just to to defend us B Yesa that we don't learn first of all yeshivas are non for-profit organization so you know they don't really um and besides that besides that you know Al the B says that Di and theim are more likee the outer shell of the Tyra instead of the inner core so therefore there's some danger that if you put too much emphasis on that you could be led uh astray if you don't have grounding in the core which is but even so in any event Daniel sees the vision of the leopard K now this leopard had how many wings who remembers four wings why four wings now Alexander died prematurely how old he rises to power at 20 years old and he passes away at 32 he was likely poisoned but he passes away at 32 he has this leopard has four wings ultimately Alexander's power is divided among four generals talai took Egypt salus took the Assyria and Babylon antigos took Persia and Asia Minor Philip Alexander's brother took Macedonia and the PK says that this leopard had four wings and it was these were like wings of a bird and the wild leopard had four heads ye Dominion was given to him meaning only Alexander had Dominion after Alexander there was no Central heir that inherited the sovereignty of Alexander instead it was divided among four different powers now in par does anybody know later on in sa for Danielle when Danielle sees the vision of Greece it's no longer compared to a leopard what is it compared to it's called ISM was a heot why was Greece compared to a he a heot because it's showing that GRE was largely domesticated meaning for the most part Greece did not persecute the Jewish people it's one of the only Exiles that with the exception of antias there was no religious persecution so it's compared to a goat as opposed to a wild animal and interestingly this goat comes from the West Al across the surface of the whole earth it doesn't even touch the ground it looks like it's skipping and jumping and that reflects Alexander's astounding speed with which he conquered pretty much the Whole World In fact when thear says right Four Kings rule over the the whole world and the gamar does not list Alexander and tus asks what about Alexander what does tus answer we're only talking about the kings that are mentioned in Tanakh so even though Alexander is referenced and alluded to in Tanakh but he's not explicitly mentioned but he also ruled over the majority of the known world he conquered Asia Minor the Middle East Egypt Persia and he even penetrated India okay and on the head of this horn Karan Kus was a conspicuous horn that represents strength bov between his eyes says the abarbanel excuse me says the malum why does why is grease reflected as between his eyes because Alexander was not only very powerful but he was also a philosopher and very wise the fact that it was with conspicuous eyes reflected his wisdom and the p goes on to say he comes to the ram the ram reflects Persia Darius and Alexander did not await provocation from Darius he crossed the dardel he penetrated Asia Minor into darius's territory and in his initial engagement with Darius he won a decisive Victory and he's fighting bitterly against Darius Darius attempts to appease Alexander but Alexander refuses and he pushes him back and he destroys him the had no strength to stand before him and this heot which reflects Alexander the Great was very strong but in the Pinnacle of the power of Greece of Alexander the horn broke in other words when Alexander reached the summit of power at 32 years old suddenly he dies there is no question that when Josephus says that shim sadic showed Alexander saer he was showing him these about the prophecy of the sudden rise to power of Alexander the Great now there is a another uh P later on in that this refers to the king of Greece furthermore in per alfl thead M GI a mighty king will arise he will rule with great Dominion he will do as he pleases so it's important to know that even though the gar just tells us about the encounter of shim sadic and Alexander the Great but according to Josephus and this was not relevant for the gar report they brought him into the Bas mikdash they showed him sa Danel they showed him how his sudden rise to power was predicted in numerous places in saer Danel so that's really an astounding context to understand that Alexander the Great saw safer Daniel predicting his rise to power before it even happened and that's really the basis of uh the Greek Empire and from there as they say the rest is history okay you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime. com