[Avodah] Vashti's tail

[Chana Luntz]

RZS writes:

> T613K at aol.com wrote:
> > Just a thought -- with all the comments on this thread -- is it
possible
> > that something protruded from some orifice or another -- not an
animal 
> > tail, but something medical, some female condition or bowel
condition?  
> > A hernia, dropped uterus, hemorrhoid, tumor or who knows  what?
Maybe 
> > there's a way to square the "midrashim should be taken literally"
school 
> > with the "no miracles in the Megillah" school?
> 
> Again, in that case why invoke Malach Gavriel? 

Well I note that the Ben Yehoyada gives two reasons for the invoking of
Malach Gavriel.  The first is because he is the malach that is kneged
the sar of Paras, and the second is because he is the malach of eish,
and since the next part "vyiktzaf hamelech meod v'chamaso ba'arah bo"
therefore involved him, the tail was attributed to him as well.

Note two things about this.  In neither case does this seem to suggest
that the invocation of Gavriel means that there was an out and out
performance of a miracle (other than due to the timing).  Regarding the
first, the idea that when there are various ups and downs in the lives
of peoples below, there is a corresponding war between the
representative malchim does not require that the ups and downs be
specifically miraculous at the level below.  And regarding the second,
the second "miracle" that is here attributed to Gavriel is very much of
the form of a non obvious miracle.  The Ben Yehoyada explains however
that in fact this was the key miracle. His basic point is, why is it
that Vashti thought that the best course (on having grown a tail and got
tzaaras - note he hold that both occurred) was to be rude back to the
king.  And his answer was that she was relying on the fact that the king
really loved her, and that it would all blow over, whereas if she was
not rude, but still refused to come, they were all likely to traipse
over to see her, which she couldn't have them do at that time.  And
hence the true miracle, if you like, was that the king got sufficiently
angry to get rid of her, and that in fact this was due to Gavriel's
involvement as the malach of eish.


 >He wasn't considered necessary for the tzaraat, but he was for the 
> tail. 

Again, I don't understand why you keep comparing the two languages in
the gemora, when one is from a braisa and another is the statement of an
amora.  If it was language from the same braisa, then I could understand
your attempt to derive a diyuk from the language, but in this case, the
amora gave a straight statement as to what he understood occurred, and
the braisa explained what it understood occurred in language which
invokes the underlying involvement of melachim. The gemora then records
them accurately in the way that they were expressed.

 The only difference I can see is that tzaraat happens 
> now and then, but tails generally don't. At least not to 
> people who were born without them.
> 
> -- 
> Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with 

Regards

Chana