Resources for Megillah 7

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The גמרא says אסתר asked “כתבוני לדורות”. The חכמים responded and said they could not honor her request citing a pasuk in Mishlei – שלישים, not רבעים. See רש"י who explains this to mean we can only mention עמלק three times and therefore מגילת אסתר could not be added without a רמז from a פּסוק. See the ריטב"א who disagrees and understands שלישים as referring to שלמה המלך who said that even he, was only allowed to have three ספרים included in כתבי הקדש, so how could they go ahead and add another ספר to the כתבי הקדש? See the פּני יהושע here who offers a third פּשט: the שלישים here refers to three levels which are תורה, נביאים, וכתובים. The גמרא is saying they couldn’t add to תנ"ך (which has three levels) without a רמז. The מהר"ץ חיות understands the פּני יהושע to mean that there was an understood possibility of מגילת אסתר being some kind of fourth level under תנ"ך, and on that the גמרא says there could only be three levels, not four. See the ריטב"א in ד"ה מיהו who says that according to רבי יהושע and שמואל, even though מגילת אסתר is not part of תנ"ך, it still must be read מן הכתב. In other words, it’s kind of like it is a fourth level but not a violation of רבעים since it isn’t included in תנ"ך. See the משנת יעב"ץ in סימן ע"ח who explains that מגילת אסתר is ביסודו a part of תורה שבעל פּה, but it uniquely is ניתנה ליכתב. The נפקא מינה according to this is there would be no איסור of saying פּסוקים from מגילת אסתר by heart. (We don’t pasken like רבי יהושע and שמואל so this is not relevant למעשה).

2. The גמרא says a person is obligated to give משלוח מנות to his friend. There are several important חקירות regarding משלוח מנות that come out of our סוגיא. One is the reason for משלוח מנות. See the תרומת הדשן in סימן קי"א who says the purpose of משלוח מנות is to help one another with סעודת פּורים. He proves this from the fact that in our סוגיא, it says two אמוראים exchanged meals with each other to be מקיים the מצוה of משלוח מנות. Based on this, he rules that one cannot be מקיים the מצוה of משלוח מנות with anything other than food. This would also seem to be the opinion of the ר"ן on ד ף ג: בדפּי הרי"ף ד"ה ומשלוח who says that even villagers who read the מגילה early only sent משלוח מנות on י"ד אדר since that is the day when the סעודה takes place. However, see the מנות הלוי in פּרק ט פּסוקים י"ז-כ who says the purpose of משלוח מנות is to bring אחוה וריעות. There are numerous נפקא מינהs brought by the אחרונים. See the חתם סופר in או"ח סימן קצ"ו who says that there is a מחלוקת between the רמ"א and פּרי חדש in סימן תרצ"ה as to whether you are יוצא משלוח מנות if you want to send food to someone and they are מוחל. He says it should hinge on the purpose of the מצוה: while the offer of משלוח מנות itself would create אחוה וריעות, if food isn’t exchanged, it won’t help anyone’s סעודה.

3. The גמרא says רבי יהודה נשיאה sent רבי אושעיא food and רבי אושעיא said he was מקיים משלוח מנות. There are several variations of the גירסא in our גמרא. See the ריטב"א who had the גירסא (similar to the ירושלמי) that says רבי יהודה was only יוצא מתנות לאביונים, and then רבי יהודה נשיאה sent better items and רבי אושעיא responded that he was then יוצא משלוח מנות. Since רבי יהודה נשיאה was so wealthy, it was beneath his status to have sent what he sent and was therefore not considered a present. It is clear from the ריטב"א that one is only מקיים משלוח מנות if he sends a gift worthy of the financial status of the sender. However, see the חיי אדם in כלל קנ"ד סימן ל"א who learns from this גירסא that no one is allowed to give a lowly gift meant for a poor man for משלוח מנות. The focus is on the recipient. This is similar to the ר"ן in who says that we give two items for משלוח מנות and one gift per person for מתנות לעניים since משלוח מנות is intended for rich (meaning non-poor) people, and they will not be impressed with the gift if there isn’t two items, as opposed to a poor man who is happy with anything.

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

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

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