Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Purim's children

Following some recent criticism of certain people, I decided to strike back with the following story, as I heard it from the Rosh (of YOEC). Once he (the Rosh [of YOEC]) went to visit Rabbi Soloveichik in Israel, in the afternoon (don't ask me for more details) and his wife wouldn't let the Rosh into the apartment. The Rosh got in somehow and found the Rabbi sitting behind a curtain with Tallis and Tefillin Davening. The Rosh was shocked! After all, for a Chassid to Daven in the afternoon is no big deal, but a Misnaged? Rabbi Soloveichik explained: The Rambam says that a person is not allowed to Daven when they can't think about Davening, whether it's because they have to go to the bathroom, are hungry, or simply not able to focus. Since the Soloveichiks are known to follow the Rambam, he couldn't Daven until he was ready.
The reason I'm telling this story is because this morning I was quite perturbed by "e" stating categorically that Esther was not in fact Mordechai's niece. I looked it up in many places and it turns out that in fact I was wrong, and Esther was actually his first cousin. The only problem was that I also ended up Davening at 10:00, though of course I answered all the traditional congregational responses. I also discovered that the name "Avichayil" is a guy's name. What kind of parent would name their son Avichayil? Who knows, maybe it was quite a popular boy's name back in the day.

2 comments:

e said...

How many times did you hear the megillah and not notice "hi esther bas dodo"? M'ken heren un nisht derehern, l'chaim!

e said...

On the topic, did you know that Tzeruyah (as in "Yoav ben Tzeruah" chabad.org/k11982) was a woman? Aside from Esther, Tzeruyah is mentioned more times in Tanach than any other woman!