[Avodah] vashti

[T613K at aol.com]

>>The idea that
the Purim Miracle was characterised by "hester  panim" is itself
merely a drasha, of no better pedigree than these  midrashim.  It's
based on people's observation that Hashem's name  doesn't appear in
the megillah, and nor do explicit nissim.  From this  they developed
a "medrash" about hester panim and hidden miracles, etc., just  as
Chazal did before them.

If our understanding of this late drasha  contradicts our understanding
of Chazal's drashot, then we must surely reject  it and accept them,
rather than the other way around.  Or we can  interpret one or the other,
or both, so that they don't contradict.  But  we certainly shouldn't
take the "hester panim" drasha as an "ikkar" which  must be taken
literally and radically, so that everything that contradicts it  must
be reinterpreted!  And if we're to reinterpret one or the other so  as
to make them fit, there's no reason why the brunt of this exercise  must
fall on the gemara.<< [--RZS]
 
 

>>>>>
The absence of miracles in the Megilla cannot possibly be a mere  
coincidence.  Once you start learning a whole lot of miracle midrashim on  the Megilla, 
you radically change the plain sense of the Megillah -- which is  that no open 
miracles occurred.  IOW hester panim.
 
It may be that the raft of miracles "glommed onto" the Megillah by  various 
medrashim are a way of telling  us that in reality, all daily  occurrences that 
seem "natural" are in reality "miraculous" -- if we had eyes to  see.




--Toby  Katz
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