Gemara:

Avoda Zara,  Sanhedrin,  Shabbat 

Nach:

Melachim 

Description

The Geonic-period "Scroll of Fasts" includes 2 mysterious consecutive days - the 8th of Tevet, a fast day established to commemorate the translation of the Torah into Greek during the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus, along with the 9th of Tevet, for which no reason is given. In this shiur, we use the unusual validation of the tragedy of the translation - the 3 days of darkness that descended onto the world as a result - as a springboard for exploring the Tanakh bases for numerous Agadot of Haza"l - and then propose a broader theory to explain this phenomenon. This shiur was given in memory of Miriam bat Yitzhak and Rivkah, z"l, whose yahrzeit is on the 9th of Tevet. יהי זכרה ברוך