Resources for Megillah 17

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The משנה says that you can read the מגילה in a foreign language to those who speak the foreign language. There is an important מחלוקת ראשונים here as to what the הלכה is in regards to someone who understands Hebrew anda foreign language. See the  הרמב"ן חידושי here who says that if you understand Hebrew and English, you are not יוצא if you read the מגילה in English. He bases this on the ירושלמי which seems to say this explicitly. Moreover, the ירושלמי says that a person who speaks Hebrew and English can’t even be מוציא someone else in קריאת המגילה who only speaks English. The reason is that since the bilingual individual cannot be יוצא himself in English, he is considered to be אינו מחויב באותו דבר in this regard. See the ר"ן here who disagrees and says מהיכא תיתי that such a חילוק exists? After all, our משנה is the רבנן and they hold all ספרים can be written in any language. מגילה is the only exception that must be written in Hebrew because of the מיעוט of ככתבם וכלשונם. If so, it makes sense to keep the מיעוט to a minimum and only exclude people who don’t understand English. However, the ר"ן admits that according to רשב"ג who says that all ספרים must be written in Hebrew and מגילה is the exception that can be read in English because of פּירסומי ניסא, then it makes sense to limit the חידוש like the רמב"ן says to only allow people who only speak English to be יוצא in English.
  2. The משנה says that the מגילה must be written in אשורית. See the תוספות רי"דhere who says that this must be a טעות סופר since the משנה just told us that a person who only speaks English can hear the מגילה in English. If the מגילה was written in Hebrew and the reader was reading in English, that would be reading by heart! Therefore, he takes the word out of the משנה. On the other extreme, see the שלטי גיבורים אות א who says that it must be written in Hebrew, and for people who only speak English the מגילה would be written in transliterated English, where the letters are Hebrew but the words are English words. See the ביה"ל in סימן תר"ץ סעיף ט who brings the רשב"א who says that when the משנה said that it must be written in אשורית, it was only talking about someone who spoke Hebrew. The ביה"ל also points out in the same סעיף in the name of the ריטב"א that if you write the מגילה in English, it does not need to follow the rules of אשורית. As such, it does not need to be מוקף גביל (meaning the letters are allowed to touch when written in English but not when written in אשורית). There is a מחלוקת אחרונים in that סעיף how we Pasken, although the ביה"ל sounds like you could be מיקל to write the מגילה in English letters.
  3. The משנה says that if a person hears the מגילה and has in mind to be יוצא, then he is. See theרשב"א on י"ח דף  who asks why the גמרא doesn’t bring a proof from our משנה that מצוות צריכות כוונה? (One could also ask that the מגן אברהם famously says in סימן ס that מצוות דרבנן actually don’t need כוונה.) The רשב"א answers that here the משנה is clear that it is talking about someone just making edits and doesn’t even intend to read it at all. See the מגיד משנה on the רמב"ם, הלכות מגילה פּרק פּ הל' ה who says that מקרא מגילה  is different from other מצוות  and everyone agrees that מקרא מגילה needs כוונה. The  סופר חתם explains that to mean that since the whole point is פּירסומי ניסא, you obviously have to be aware of what you are doing.
  4. The גמרא says that there is a possible מחלוקת as to whether the Torah “בלשון הקודש נאמרה”. According to רש"י, this refers to קריאת התורה. However, תוספותthere asks that קריאת התורה is not a דין דאורייתא so how could the גמרא suggest that the פּסוק of והיו was addressing that? He answers that it must be referring to a קריאה דאורייתא such as פּרשת זכור. See the ריטב"א who adds פּרשת פּרה as also being דאורייתא. He also says that one could say that קריאת התורה on שבת ויו"ט is also דאורייתא since we learn the ברכות that are said before and after reading it from a קל וחומר. See also the שיטה מקובצת, ברכות דף י"ג who says in the name of the ראב"ד that the מחלוקת is referring to whether one can be יוצא the general מצוה of תלמוד תורה in a foreign language.

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