In this episode of Hebrew Voices #239 - Persia, the Bible & Free Iran: Part 1, Nehemia is joined by Dr. Thamar Gindin - often called the “Israeli attaché to Free Iran” - to explore the profound intersection of ancient Persian history and the Hebrew Bible. Together, they dive into the historical evidence that links these two worlds and discuss why these ancient connections still matter for a "Free Iran" today.

I look forward to reading your comments!

PODCAST VERSION:

Download Audio

Transcript

Hebrew Voices #239 – Persia, the Bible & Free Iran: Part 1

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Dr. Thamar Gindin: Some say…

Nehemia: Did they?

Thamar: “Amestris.” It sounds like Esther.

Nehemia: It does sound like Esther. I was going to say that, yeah.

Thamar: But her father is not Jewish.

Nehemia: Yeah, but don’t people lie about their lineage?

Thamar: And also, the things that Greek historians say about her we don’t want them to say about Esther. She was very vicious.

Nehemia: Well, that sounds… I mean, how do I say this? If you look at what they say today in Greece about Israelis, they’re also pretty vicious. They’re not true. But I mean…

—

Nehemia: Shalom, and welcome to Hebrew Voices. I’m here today with Thamar Gindin. She’s Israel’s first cultural attache in free Iran. We’ll talk about what that means. And until Iran is free, she builds bridges between the Iranian and Israeli nations, opening eyes on both sides to see that the other side is human and that we are more similar than different. She does this by social media, mass media, and other network activity in Hebrew, English, and Persian, mostly about current affairs, in addition to lecturing and writing about pre-Islamic Iran, which I think we’ll probably spend most of the time on. Dr. Gindin is a disciple of world renowned Iranist… Iranist? Iranianist? I don’t know how…

Thamar: Iranist.

Nehemia: Iranist! Prof. Shaul Shaked, and a research fellow at Haifa University’s Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Research. Shalom, Thamar. Thamar, is it Doctor Thamar Gindin?

Thamar: Yes, it’s doctor, but in Israel we usually don’t use it.

Nehemia: Okay, wonderful. Yeah, people always try to call me Dr. Gordon, and I say, “I’m just Nehemia,” meaning you can call me that, but anyway… So, there’s a lot of things I want to talk about. And you’ve been very generous with your time, and you do a lot of programs. I’ve seen you on TikTok, and I’ve seen clips from Israeli television talking about… you know, we just had a 12-day war with Iran as we’re recording this. And you’re no doubt an expert in that. But I’m a Bible scholar, and I want to touch upon some Bible scholar subjects. But maybe let’s just…

Thamar: I just want to say that my background…

Nehemia: Yeah, tell us about that.

Thamar: It’s presently in the Tehran Museum, but it was taken from the gates of Susa, which is Shushan Habira, the winter capital of the Achaemenid kings, the ones mentioned in the Bible.

Nehemia: Okay. So, in the Book of Esther, the whole story takes place in Shushan Habira. I don’t know how it’s translated in English. Like, probably like Susa the Capital.

Thamar: Shushan the Citadel.

Nehemia: Oh, okay. So, wait, so, in the story, at least, when Mordecai is standing outside the gates and he overhears this conspiracy to assassinate Achashverosh, or Artaxerxes, or however that’s translated in English…

Thamar: Xerxes.

Nehemia: Xerxes! Oh, it’s Xerxes, okay.

Thamar: Xerxes.

Nehemia: Okay, we’re going to get to that. So, this is what he might have seen. And I know there’s some question about the historicity that we’ll talk about, but this is the gate he would have seen. Wow. All right. So, that’s very cool.

So, the Jewish people, or, let’s say, Am Israel, the people of Israel, have this very long-standing connection with Iran, and I think most people don’t realize this. In 2 Kings 17, it talks about the exile; I’m pulling up here, the exile of the Ten Tribes, what we call the Ten Lost Tribes often today. And it mentions that they were sent to this… I believe it’s the cities of Persia…

Thamar: Arei ...