Resources for Megillah 20

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The גמרא says that רבי said that when he was a child he read the מגילה for the adults. The גמרא says that we cannot accept that testimony since it was from something he saw when he was a child. Many ask that this seems to be a contradiction to the גמרא in כתובות דף כ"חthat a child is believed to say he saw something when it is relevant to a דין דרבנן, and מקרא מגילה is a דין דרבנן. See theתוספות רי"ד who says that since the מגילה is hinted to in the Torah (as it says כתוב זאת בספר), it is considered like a דאורייתא. See also the ברכי יוסף in סימן ל"ה ס"ק ב who answers this question with the following יסוד: a child is only believed to report what he saw, but not to interpret what he saw. Here, רבי as a child had to figure out that he was not just reading for the adults but they were also being יוצא their מצוה through him, although perhaps they weren’t actually being יוצא with him.

2. The משנה says that מילה can only be done by day. תוספותhere asks that this should make מילה a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא. If so, why does the גמרא קידושין on דף כ"ט ע"א need a פּסוק to tell you that a woman is פּטור from מצות מילה? He answers that perhaps women aren’t פּטור from a מצוה that is so חמור like מילה which has a כרת and י"ג בריתות. See the ריטב"א there in קידושין who gives a different answer and says that a woman is only פּטור from מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא that is on her body. מילה is a מצוה that needs to be done to her son. Based on this the מנחת חינוך in מצוה ל"ב (at the end by שביתת בהמה) says that a woman should be חייב in שביתת בהמה on שבת since the מצוה is on the animal or land but not her. There is an incredible תוספות רי"ד on that גמרא in קידושין who says that מילה isn’t a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא because even though the מילה itself can only be done by day, but the preparation and involvement with the מילה (to hire the mohel, for example) is also considered part of the parent’s מצוה and that התעסקות can be done by day and night. See also the טורי אבן here in ד"ה מיהו who says that מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא is only when the מצוה ends after a certain time. However, the fact that you can’t do the מילה at night is not a result of the מצוה ending once the day is over. Rather, it’s just a pause in time where you can’t do the מצוה. When morning comes again the same old מצוה comes back. That is not a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא. 
3. The משנה discusses the fact that the whole night is כשר for קצירת העומר. See תוספותhere in ד"ה כל הלילה who brings the בה"ג that says that if you didn’t count the עומר during the night, you should count during the day without a ברכה, but if you missed an entire day you can no longer count with a ברכה for the rest of ספירה since you are lacking “תמימות”. See the חידושי הגרי"ז on מנחות דף ס"ו who says that even though the בה"ג seemed to have viewed all of ספירת העומר as one מצוה and not a separate מצוה each night, we still make separate ברכות each night just as one can make a ברכה on different חלקי המצוה. (For example, if you only had an esrog and then later got a lulav, you would make a separate ברכה each time, even though they are both part of one מצוה.) See the ספר ימי הספירה who quotes an alternate beautiful הסבר in the בה"ג from the גרי"ד סולובייצ'יק as follows: the בה"ג really held the מצוה of ספירה was a separate מצוה each night and not one מצוה. Nonetheless, if you are supposed to count to fifty and you skip a number, you don’t have a valid counting. Therefore, if you forget ספירה at night, you totally missed that night’s מצוה, but you need to count by day in order to keep the count going. As long as you counted that day, even though you got no מצוה that day, you can count the next nights ספירה with a ברכה since your מנין is intact. However, if you totally missed counting one day, you can’t count the next day since you missed a day in the count and it therefore isn’t a good ספירה and lacks תמימות.

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