[Avodah] Miracles Never Cease to Amaze Me

[Moshe Y. Gluck]

RRW:
If someone in contemporary times wrote a Midrash stating that God had spared
Hitler so 
that he could encourage others to do teshuva, we wouldn't take too well to
it. Aren't there 
plenty of tzaddikim who could encourage their people to repent?Also, aren't
there plenty of 
non Jews, such as the Pope, who could encourage their people to repent. Why
use a rasha? 
<SNIP>

The same theme is echoed in the Chazal that Nevuchadnezzar did Teshuvah. If
anything, it is a message that we should be OK with a Hitler who did
Teshuvah, and that if their Teshuva is accepted ours also will. Of course,
anyone who accepts that Kriyas Yam Suf happened as described in the Chumash,
shouldn't - IMHO - have an intellectual difficulty accepting at least the
possibility that this related Midrash was originally an oral tradition of an
actual event. If that were the case, it would be very understandable why the
Rasha was used. 
(I still want to resuscitate the Vashti's tail thread, but two things are
stopping me: The penultimate chapter of R'n Simi Peter's excellent book,
which I've begun multiple times (and still haven't returned to her nephew
:-(  ), and the lack of time to go back over last year's threads. Maybe this
will do it...)

KT,
MYG