Resources for Megillah 3

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The גמרא says that when the תרגום for נביאים was revealed, ארץ ישראל shook 400 פּרסה. See the תוספות רי"ד who explains that before the תרגום had been revealed, תלמידי חכמים struggled mightily to understand what the נביא was saying and learned it with great עמילות. Now that the תרגום was revealed, people would not work as hard to understand the נביא and therefore ארץ ישראל shook from the ביטול עסק התורה.

 

2. There is an important ר"ן here in דף בּ בדפּי הרי"ף, ד"ה ולענין regarding the הלכה of ספק דרבנן לקולא. He discusses which day a city should read the מגילה if they aren’t sure about whether they are considered a מוקפת חומה. He paskens they should read on the 14^th since most cities do not have the status of a walled city. Moreover, even if it was a 50/50 ספק as to whether it was a walled city, if we said ספק דרבנן לקולא on each of the two days, that city wouldn’t read the מגילה on either day and their מצוה would be נתבטל לגמרי. The ר"ן says this can’t be possible since we have a כלל that we don’t say ספק דרבנן לקולא when it will remove the מצוה entirely. There is a similar ר"ן in ערבי פּסחים who says we do הסיבה for all four cups at the seder although the גמרא says it is a ספק whether we should do הסיבה for the first two cups or the last two. The ר"ן explains that we cannot say ספק דרבנן לקולא here since it would remove the מצוה of הסיבה entirely. See the משנה למלך in פּרק א הלכות מגילה who asks about these two ר"ןs. They don’t seem to be entirely consistent since according to the ר"ן in פּסחים, the מגילה should be read on both days and not just on the 14^th just as we do הסיבה by all 4 cups מספק. See the עמק ברכה who answers that there is a difference between הסיבה which is a separate מצוה for each כוס as opposed to מגילה which is only one מצוה.

 

3. The גמרא says we are מבטל עבודה for מקרא מגילה. See the ריטב"א and the ר"ן who both agree that this only means we push off the עבודה a little, not that they skipped the קרבן תמיד completely since a מצוה דרבנן cannot outweigh a מצוה דאורייתא. However, the ריטב"א brings other מפרשים who say that מקרא מגילה could even be מבטל עבודה completely since יש כח ביד חכמים לעקר דבר מן התורה בשב ועל תעשה. See the ט"ז in סימן תרפּ"ז ס"ק בּ who paskens like those other מפרשים. As far as how a דרבנן could be דוחה a מצוה דאורייתא, he says that מקרא מגילה is considered דברי קבלה and we deal with דברי קבלה like a דאורייתא. From the discussion in number 2 above, it is clear that the ר"ן considered it a regular דרבנן as he applies the principle of ספק דרבנן לקולא.

 

4. The גמרא says that that תלמוד תורה דרבים is greater than עבודה. See the פּני יהושע here who says something unbelievable: since עבודה is דוחה Shabbos, and תלמוד תורה דרבים is דוחה the עבודה, we can infer from here that תלמוד תורה דרבים is דוחה Shabbos! We haven’t heard this because practically, everyone can just learn Torah on their own without being מחלל שבת. We don’t pasken like this פּני יהושע.

 

5. The גמרא says we are מבטל תלמוד תורה for מקרא מגילה. Many ask what is the חידוש here since we are מבטל תלמוד תורה for all מצוות, even ones that are only דרבנן! Otherwise, as the מאירי says, a person would be לומד שלא על מנת לעשות! See the העמק שאלה in פּרשת ויחי, שאילתא ל"ד אות ה who says the חידוש here is you would even be מבטל תלמוד תורה to walk further to hear the Megilah with a larger minyan which is just a הידור in the פּרסומי ניסא. We generally don’t find that one needs to be מבטל תורה for a הידור.

*******************************

Click here to download Shaklya v’Tarya Summary by Rabbi Chaim Smulovitz (in PDF)

Click here to download maarei m’komos by Rabbi Asher Millman (in PDF)

Click here to download Shaklya v’Tarya Summary by Rabbi Yaakov Blumenfeld (in PDF)