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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>The idea that<BR>the Purim Miracle was characterised by "hester
panim" is itself<BR>merely a drasha, of no better pedigree than these
midrashim. It's<BR>based on people's observation that Hashem's name
doesn't appear in<BR>the megillah, and nor do explicit nissim. From this
they developed<BR>a "medrash" about hester panim and hidden miracles, etc., just
as<BR>Chazal did before them.<BR><BR>If our understanding of this late drasha
contradicts our understanding<BR>of Chazal's drashot, then we must surely reject
it and accept them,<BR>rather than the other way around. Or we can
interpret one or the other,<BR>or both, so that they don't contradict. But
we certainly shouldn't<BR>take the "hester panim" drasha as an "ikkar" which
must be taken<BR>literally and radically, so that everything that contradicts it
must<BR>be reinterpreted! And if we're to reinterpret one or the other so
as<BR>to make them fit, there's no reason why the brunt of this exercise
must<BR>fall on the gemara.<< [--RZS]</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>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.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at <A title="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com" href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%2Ecom" target="_blank"><B>AOL.com</B></A>. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>