Resources for Megillah 2

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The משנה begins with the “מגילה נקראת”. There is an important ריטב"א here who asks why our משנה is written in the passive form (“the מגילה is read”) as opposed to the first משנה in ש"ס that says “מאימתי קורין” (“when do we read?”). He explains that we typically have one person read the מגילה while everyone else listens to be be יוצא. However, קריאת שמע must be read by each person individually and one cannot be יוצא with שומע כעונה. This is based on a ירושלמי in ברכות פּרק ג הל' ג. See the אליה רבה in סימן ס"ב who brings the מהר"ם אלשקר who says that קריאת שמע is a מצות קריאה and not a מצות שמיעה as it says “ודברת בם”. See the ריטב"א in ר"ה דף כ"ט ד"ה תני אהבה who understands the ירושלמי to be limited to a case of a בקי, but everyone agrees one can be מוציא an אינו בקי in ק"ש through שומע כעונה.

 

2. The משנה says that people from small villages read the מגילה at earlier times than the standard times of the 14^th & 15^th of Adar. The גמרא asks how this can be when אין ב"ד יכול לבטל דברי ב"ד חבירו אלא א"כ גדול ממנו בחכמה ובמנין. The גמרא explains that it was all part of the original תקנה. Seemingly, the crux of the גמרא’s question was not how the small villages could read as early as the 11^th but rather how the later בית דין could remove the obligation to lein on the 14^th? See the קובץ הערות in סימן ס"ט אות ל"ז who asks for the logic to how a ב"ד has the power to be מבטל a מצוה דאורייתא (like blowing shofar on Shabbos) as long as it’s בשב ואל תעשה and yet cannot be מבטל a תקנה of an earlier ב"ד even בשב ואל תעשה?! He explais that the only mechanism ב"ד has to remove any מצוה is to say you aren’t allowed to do it, like they did by blowing shofar on ר"ה that falls out on שבת. In our case, if בית דין had said you weren’t allowed to lein the מגילה on the 14^th, they could have been מבטל the earlier תקנה even though they weren’t greater. Here however, they were only saying you don’t have to lein the מגילה on the 14^th, and they don’t have the ability to do that unless they are greater than the earlier בית דין.

 

3. The גמרא says it is obvious that one can lein the מגילה on the 13^th since it is a זמן קהילה לכל. Rashi explains this to mean that it was the day the Jews gathered for war and is certainly an appropriate day to read the מגילה. See the רא"ש who quotes ר"ת who disagrees with רש”י because the גמרא should have then said זמן מלחמה לכל. Therefore, he says that זמן קהילה לכל means it is the day the Jews gather to fast every year and to say סליחות to commemorate the fast that occurred when the Jews went to war at the time of פּורים. He adds that this would be the source for תענית אסתר as you will not find any hint to תענית אסתר anywhere in ש"ס except this particular line.

 

4. See the ר"ן here who asks why חז"ל decided to make פּורים different than every other holiday by instituting different days for different communities (walled cities read on one day and non-walled cities read on another day). He answers that since the נס happened on different days to different places (meaning שושן rested a day later), therefore it made sense to allow for reading on multiple days. He also quotes the רמב"ן who says that most Jews actually lived in Eretz Yisroel at the time of פּורים. As such, the ones in walled cities there were not as at risk as the ones in open cities. Therefore, when the war was over, it was only the people in non-walled cities who initially made it a day of celebration (as it says על כן היהודים הפּרזים היושבים בערי הפּרזות...). Later, when חז"ל instituted that everyone make it a יום טוב, they designed it in a manner in which the people with the greater miracle who had already observed the יום טוב come first and the people with the lesser miracle celebrate on the day שושן See the מראה כהן here who quotes his brother as offering another explanation: this was the first יום טוב דרבנן. Consequently, חז"ל wanted to make it clear that it was different than ימים טובים that are דאורייתא, and therefore made different communities celebrate on different days as a היכר.

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