Resources for Megillah 14

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The גמרא ask why we don’t say הלל on פּורים. One answer is given by ר' נחמן who says that the reading of the מגילה itself is considered קריאת ההלל. There is a famous מאירי who says that if you find yourself on פּורים without a מגילה, you should say הלל with a ברכה. The reason is that there really is a חיוב הלל on פּורים and if you can’t be יוצא the חיוב with קריאת המגילה then you need to say הלל. The מאירי does not discuss what the הלכה would be when פּורים falls out on Shabbos.  On Shabbos we don’t read the מגילה and one would think you would therefore need to say הלל. See the  מגדים פּרי  in סימן תרצ"ג אשל אברהם who says that in both cases mentioned above you do not need to say הלל for two reasons: 1)רבא (who says there is no הלל since we were still enslaved to אחשורוש) is a בתראה and we should pasken like him, and 2) even if we paskened like ר' נחמן, we would still say לא פּלוג. However, see the שערי תשובה in the סימן above who says that if one does not have a מגילה one should say הלל without a ברכה.
2. The גמרא says that the נביאים instituted מקרא מגילה based on a ק"ו: if from slavery to freedom we must say שירה, then certainly from death to life. See the מהר"ץ חיות who quotes the מזרחי who asks that if the נביאים learned this from a ק"ו then it should be considered a דין דאורייתא as a ק"ו is considered דאורייתא!? He answers that it is not a real ק"ו but just an “אסמכתא ק"ו” so to speak. This is also explicit in the פּ’ הרא"ש על התורה in משפּטים פּרק כ"א פּסוק י' who references a certain ק"ו and says it is just an אסמכתא which is דומיא דהק"ו דמגילה מעבדות לחירות.
3. Regarding the גמרא mentioned above, רש”י says that the שירה in מצרים that we are learning a ק״ו from is the שירת הים. See the טורי אבןhere who asks several strong questions: first, that שירה was only a one-time occurrence so how could we learn a הלכה from there regarding שירה לדורות? Furthermore, how could the גמרא ask, “if so why we don’t say הלל on פּורים”,  if the place we are learning the חיוב שירה from does not have הלל either (we don’t say הלל on the seventh day of Pesach which is the day the sea split)?! Finally, it wasn’t just an issue of עבדות לחירות at the sea; at that point the מצריים were there to kill them just like on Purim! He therefore argues on רש”י and says the הלל/שירה we are referring to is the הלל said on the first night of Pesach in commemoration of leaving Egypt and not on the miracle at the ים סוף. That was a הלל for generations and one that was a זכר לחירות but not life or death.
4. The גמרא says that ירמיה went to go return the עשרת השבטים and that they indeed returned and יאשיהו ruled over them. See the משנה in סנהדרין דף ק"י ע"ב that brings a מחלוקת תנאים as to whether the ten שבטים will return in ימות המשיח. See רש"י on the משנה there who says that despite the מחלוקת about the ten שבטים returning, everyone agrees to our גמרא in מגילה. According to the תנא who says that the עשרת השבטים will never return, he understands our גמרא that says ירמיה returned them to mean that he returned “מקצתם”. See the מהר"ל in נצח ישראל עמוד קנ"ה- פּרק ל"ד who says that everyone agrees that every שבט will return. The only מחלוקת is about the actual people that סנחירב exiled.
5. The גמרא says that דוד wanted to be with אביגיל but she stopped him since she might be a נדה. This seems quite strange as she was also an אשת איש and דוד המלך was צדיק יסוד עולם. See the שו"ת רדב"ז חלק ז' סימן כ"ט who addresses this question at length and says that he believes that אביגיל was just a פּילגש to נבל and not a bona fide wife. She was called a wife because it was customary to call a פּילגש a wife. A פּילגש was not considered “available” (as we see from the story of the פּלגש בגבעה), but there was no formal איסור אשת איש.

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