[Avodah] Vashti's Tail etc...

[Micha Berger]

To give context, on Areivim we were discussing the dilemma of how to
deal with your children coming home with stories like Vashti's tail.

I pointed the chevrah to R' Adlerstein's "Did Vashti Really Have a Tail"
<http://www.innernet.org.il/article.php?aid=236> where he humorously
expressed his nervousness about non-frum Shabbos guests coming the Shabbos
before Purim, and his child bringing this medrash home when discussing
"So, what did you learn this week?"

I also found "Did Vashti have a Tail?: Reflections on Teaching
Midrash Aggadah in Elementary Day Schools", by Penina Besdin Kraut
<http://www.lookstein.org/articles/vashti.htm>, on the Lookstein Center
(of Bar Ilan) site for Jewish educators.

On Thu, Mar 01, 2007 at 09:48:46PM -0500, R Moshe Yehuda Gluck asked
Areivim:
: If we believe in Kriyas Yam Suf, Matan Torah and Nevuah, why do we have a
: problem believing in Vashti's tail?

See the Rambam, introduction to Cheileq, a few amudim before the ikkarei
emunah, his description of the three katim of people when it comes to
aggadic stories. I don't want to be in one of his first two katim.

When we debated the historicity of aggadic stories in vol15 (May 2005),
RGSeif was compiling a list of baalei mesorah who tell you they are
ahistorical. Perhaps it's time for him to post the current state of his
collection of meqoros.

I recall it included the above Rambam, the Maharal (which RGS got from
Rav Mordechai Breuer, BTW), the Gra and the Maharsha, RGStudent mentioned
the Rashba in Chiddushei Aggados and the Maharatz Chayos (and pointed
us to <http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2005/04/fantastic-aggadah.html>
for a translation of the MC's take on the Rashba).

Why is medrash told as meshalim, then? Different reasons are given:
Rav Hirsch (kedarko beqodesh) discusses the emotional and intellectual power of symbols. Or perhaps it was a means of minimizing the writing of TSBP,
but this technique is unsuited for halakhah. Or the MC's explanation:
it was a way of grabbing the audience's attention.

IOW, like a few other issues in contemporary Jewish thought, current
opinion in the street does not reflect the opinion of the majority of
baalei mesorah who wrote on the issue over the ages.

In general, I do not see a problem with that. I didn't reject my belief
in universal HP after tracing the very short history of the idea.
However here, I am convinced by the Rambam's argument that taking them
literally will either be dangerous to one's emunah or a ziyuf haTorah.
Again, see the haqdamah for yourself.

In the case of Vashti's tail, I don't even think it was a mashal. Reading
RYAdlerstein's peice led me to conclude the medrash was meant to be read
literally in general, but used a colorful idiom for one phrase. It would
be like someone a millenium from now opening a book written in American
English in the 20th cent, and wondering why the author claimed something
so outlandish as a character growing a spare tire around his waist.

:-)BBii!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Rescue me from the desire to win every
micha at aishdas.org        argument and to always be right.
http://www.aishdas.org              - Rav Nassan of Breslav
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