Resources for Megillah 6

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The גמרא says the בתי תראטריות וקרקסיות will be used in the times of משיח by שרי יהודה to teach Torah in public. תוספות in ד"ה טראריות says that it cannot mean places of actual idol worship since those could not be used as בתי מדרש. Therefore, it must be referring to a stadium used for secular gatherings. See the דגול מרבבה in סימן קנ"ד who proves from our תוספות that one cannot buy an old church and convert it into a shul (a practice that was very common in the USA a few decades ago). However, see the מגן אברהם there in ס"ק י"ז who quotes the רא"ם who apparently disagrees with תוספות and says that although the house was used to pray to עבודה זרה, it could be used for קדושה as long as no actual idols were brought there (see ביה"ל). See the משנה ברורה there in ס"ק מ"ה who says the מנהג is להקל. See also the אגרות משה או"ח חלק א סימן מ"ט who is מחמיר unless a major שינוי is made to the structure.

2. The גמרא says although the מגילה may only be read in אדר שני, the איסור of הספּד and תענית applies to both אדר ראשון and אדר שני. It is unclear what is the exact status of אדר ראשון in הלכה and there are any מחלוקתים surrounding this issue. For example, see the תרומת הדשן in סימן רצ"ד who says that if someone has yohrtzeit in אדר, during a שנת העיבור they should only observe the yohrtzeit אדר ראשון. His reasoning is simple: our גמרא said that we should really have observed Purim in אדר ראשון since אין מעבירין על המצוות. The only reason not to is the competing issue of מסמך גאולה לגאולה עדיף. When it comes to a yohrtzet, that second reason is not relevant. As such, the yohrtzeit must be kept in אדר ראשון. On the other extreme, see the רא"ש who says about our גמרא that says the איסור of הספּד and תענית each apply to both אדר ראשון and אדר שני, was only talking about a case where after you read the megilah, בית דין decided to make an extra month of אדר. However, if we had known from the outset that the year would be a שנת העיבור, then אדר ראשון would be considered the same as שבט and would have no איסור of הספּד and תענית. A third opinion is found in סימן תקס"ח סעיף ז in the ביאור הגר"א and מגן אברהם in ס"ק כ. They each say that both אדרs are equally אדר. Even though the גמרא brought the סברות of אין מעבירין על המצוות and מסמך גאולה לגאולה, it was only after it had darshened from the פּסוק of שנה בשנה that the דינים of Purim are limited to one month. If not for the פּסוק, we would not have leined the מגילה in both months. Consequently, wherever that פּסוק is not relevant, such as by a yohrtzeit, we assume both אדרs are אדר and the yohrtzeit is observed in both months.

3. The גמרא says we would read the megilah in אדר שני except for the principle of אין מעבירין על המצוות. See תוספות in ד"ה מסתבר who says that some מפרשים say אין מעבירין על המצוות only applies when there are two מצוות in front of you and you pass over one to do the other. The הלכה does not apply when you are faced with only one mitzvah. תוספות proves from our גמרא that this is not correct since our גמרא applies אין מעבירין to the one מצוה of קריאת המגילה. See the טורי אבן here who disagrees with תוספות and says there is no concept of אין מעבירין when the only thing you are passing up is time. Throughout ש"ס, when there is a mitzvah to be performed and it is כשר כל היום like מילה, the only rule that applies is the ענין of זריזים מקדימין למצוות. He therefore concludes that our גמרא is just using a borrowed term. A סמך to this is the גמרא here doesn’t say “היינו דר"ל דקאמר אין מעבירין” which is typical, since this is not really what ר"ל See the אבני נזר in או"ח סימן תנ"ט who says what is considered passing up on time is when you delay past a deadline for a mitzvah. For example, we don’t lein the מגילה on י"ד אדר ראשון and then we pass through times where you can’t read the מגילה like י"ט אדר. Based on this, he has a rare חידוש that when there is a שבת between יוה"כ and סוכות, one violates אין מעבירין על המצוות if he doesn’t build his סוכה before שבת since he cannot build a סוכה on שבת.

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