Q&A
Rav Avigdor Miller on The Purim Takeaway
Q:The Rav spoke tonight about the lesson of Purim being the internalizing of how much Hashem loves us and our responsibility to love Him and to love the Am Yisroel. But isn’t it possible to say that the Simchas Purim is because of קיימו וקיבלו, that the Jewish Nation accepted the Torah again after the witnessing the neis of Purim?
Rav Avigdor Miller on Mordechai’s Demotion
Q:The last possuk in the Megillah (Esther 10:3) says about Mordechai that he was רצוי לרוב אחיו – that he was liked, appreciated, by most of the Jews. And Chazal say that it wasn’t everyone because he came too close to the malchus; people thought he became too karov to the malchus. And there’s a statement there from R’ Yosef (Megillah 16b) who says גדול תלמוד תורה מהצלת נפשות, that learning Torah is greater than saving lives. I don’t understand that. Maybe Rebbe can explain that to us?
Rav Avigdor Miller on Esther’s Sadness
Q:If G-d doesn’t approve of Jews and non-Jews living together, why did He choose to bring the yeshua by having Esther live with Achashveirosh? Couldn’t He have found a more noble way?
Rav Avigdor Miller on Mordechai Saves the Antisemite
Q:The Gemara (Megillah 11a) says that in the name Achashveirosh is a hint to the fact that he was ‘achiv shel rosh’, meaning that he was of the same mind as Nevuchadnetzar who wanted to destroy the Jewish people. If Achashveirosh hated the Yidden so much, why did Mordechai save his life?
Rav Avigdor Miller on Amalek’s Crime
Q:What is the crime of Amalek that we are expected to remember always?
Rav Avigdor Miller on Haman and the IRS
Q:The Megillah says that the reason that Haman gave Achashveirosh for why the Jews had to be killed was “ואת דתי המלך אינם עושים – And the laws of the king they don’t follow” (Esther 3:8). And Rashi says that Haman was saying לתת מס לעבודת המלך – that the Jews are not paying their taxes. Is not paying taxes a logical reason for killing the Jews?
