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Purim Dilemmas
1. Should the Jews come to
Achashverosh's party for all of the people of Shushan?
2. Is it wrong to show off one's handsome boy friend or gorgeous
girlfriend?
3. What should Achashverosh have done when Vashti refused to show to his
party?
4. Is it O.K. to have beauty pageants (let's assume they could be
organized in which people would dress modestly)?
5. Is it O.K. for Mordechai to allow Esther to be taken to a pageant?
6. Mordechai told Esther not to reveal her nationality. Was that proper?
7. Should Esther have tried to win or lose the contest?
8. When Mordechai got wind of a plot against Achashverosh, why did he tell
Esther to tell Achashverosh instead of telling the king himself? If this
was the way to do it, why did Esther give credit to Mordechai?
8. Was it proper not to bow to Haman?
9. Mordechai tells Esther that if she tries to hide and let the Jews go
down the tubes, the Jews will be saved anyway, and she and her house will
be lost. How did he know that?
10. Why did Esther order that all the Jews fast for 3 days, as would
Esther before trying to talk to Achashverosh?
11. Mordechai told Esther to go ask Achashverosh for mercy for her people.
When Esther gets in front of Achashverosh, she just asks him for a party,
and when at the party, he asks what she wants, she just invites him to
another party. Only at the third party did Esther tell the king what her
problem was, and she doesn't even explicitly say what he should do about
it. ( In the mean time, Haman was forced to honor Mordechai for saving the
kingdom.) Why didn't she do it Mordechai's way?
12. Why did Mordechai and Esther institute that people should give gifts
to the poor and food packages to each other? What does that have to do
with Purim?
13. Haman made his lot on the 13th of Nissan. When Esther asks
for a 3 day fast, the rabbis tell us it must have been on the 14th, 15th
and 16th of Nissan, which includes the Yom Tov of Pesach. Was it right to
fast on Yom Tov?
14. When all the Jews heard about Haman's decree, they all mourned and
fasted, and they gave out sack cloths to Jews to mourn. All Esther was
worried about was that Mordechai was walking around in sack cloth. Was she
properly clued in to what was going on?
15. Charvonah spoke up in defense of Mordechai after he saw that Haman was
doomed. Was he an oportunist or a true friend of the Jews?
Please depict each of these questions in your own way. |
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