[Avodah] Vashti's tail etc...

[Zev Sero]

Michael Kopinsky wrote:
> On 3/2/07, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:
>> Micha Berger wrote:

>>> 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.

The same historians who could make up a natural explanation for how
Mordechai found out about the decree, and why Achashverosh picked
Esther, and why he welcomed Esther (the explanation for that one
*seems* obvious to your hypothetical historians), can also make up
a story for Vashti's sudden attack of modesty.  Indeed, they can
hypothesise that Vashti was really a tzadekes, a very modest and
private woman, who would naturally refuse such a command.  There's
nothing in the text of the megillah to prove otherwise.

Even observers at the time could imagine that Mordechai had spies
in the palace; they would themselves have been under Esther's glamour
and have imagined her to be an epitome of their own standards of
beauty; they would need no explanation for Achashverosh welcoming
her; and they might come up with many explanations for Vashti's
refusal.

But Chazal tell us that Mordechai found out from Eliyahu, and that
Esther was old and ugly but had a glamour that made everyone think
otherwise, and that Achashverosh intended to ignore Esther and let
her be dragged off and killed, but that his hand extended the sceptre
of its own accord.  These were all supernatural events, miracles, but
only visible to the people involved.  The same Chazal also explain
Vashti's refusal the same way - that it was in fact a miracle,
something happened to her appearance that made her suddenly and
uncharacteristically reluctant to strut her stuff.  One opinion is
that the miracle consisted of a natural skin condition appearing at
just the right moment, which she could explain to herself as mere
coincidence, while the second opinion says that no such explanation
was possible for her, and she was aware that Hashem was responsible
for her downfall.  But nobody *else* knew, so the miracle was "hidden".


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas