[Avodah] Vashti's tail etc...

[Michael Kopinsky]

On 3/2/07, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:
> Micha Berger wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 02, 2007 at 02:37:09AM -0500, Moshe Yehuda Gluck quotes
> > RMMiller and responds:
> > :> Additionally, such an explicity supernatural occurance seems out of
> > :> place in the (superficially) natural story of the megilah.
> >
> > : That seems to me to be an emotional reason for rejecting the plain
> meaning
> > : of Chazal....
> >
> > Actually, it defies every maqor that speaks of hesteir panim.
> >
> > The whole mehalekh we consistently take to understanding Purim *requires*
> > a lack of any supernatural events.
>
> Not really.  Eliyahu informing Mordechai about Haman's decree.  Esther's
> appearing beautiful to everyone, especially Achashverosh, despite her
> age and unattractiveness, Achashverosh's hand extending the sceptre to
> Esther when he intended not to; these are all miracles, just not public
> spectacular ones.  And they're not mentioned in the text of the megillah,
> but the gemara makes sure that we know about them. Because the story
> *was* miraculous, but the miracles were known only to the people to
> whom they happened, not to thousands of bystanders.

I understand the difference between nes nigleh and nes nistar as being
more an issue of whether what happened was recognizably the hand of G-d
vs. explainable in natural terms, rather than public vs. private.  The
examples you mentioned are all explainable in natural terms - a bearded
Jew with good hearing who happened to walk past the palace at the right
moment, people having a particular taste in women (including age and skin
hue), or the King making a particular political decision.  We, as
ma'aminim can see these things as miracles, but historians could see them
otherwise.  Vashti's tail, even if seen only by herself, would have been
seen as a nes nigleh (or at least a bizzare deviation from normal life).
Thus it's difficult to understand Vashti's tail as being literal among the
other events of the megilla.