Resources for Megillah 22

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The גמרא says that כל פּסוק דלא פּסקיה משה אנן לא פּסקינן. It seems clear from the גמרא that this הלכה is not limited to קריאת התורה, since we find that when ר' חנינא was teaching children he needed a special היתר to be allowed to split the פּסוק when teaching them. Nonetheless, there seems to be many examples where we find that we do split פּסוקים. For example, see theשו"ת חתם סופר in או"ח סימן י who asks why we start kiddush on Friday night from “יום הששי” instead of the beginning of the פּסוק which starts with “וירא”?  He answers that “יום הששי ויכולו השמים” is the ראשי תבות of Hashem’s name so we want to start with those words, but we read ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר quietly to start from earlier in the פּסוק. Nonetheless, we don’t start at the beginning of the פּסוק since the words before this are “טוב מאד” which חז"ל say hints to מיתה. Another example is the fact that the חזן says “יהללו את שם ה' כי נשגב וכו”' when returning the Torah without finishing the פּסוק himself (the ציבור finishes it for him). See the מגן אברהם סימן נ"א ס"ק ט who explains that this was allowed since when the פּסוק was said originally, it was said in that fashion, where someone said the first part and the people listening responded with the second half. Another example is when we lift the Torah by הגבהה we says "וזאת התורה...על פּי ה' ביד משה" which is a combination of two half פּסוקים. Additionally, at the end of הספּדים people say "ומחה ה' אלקים דמעה מעל כל פּנים" which is only half the פּסוק. The simplest answer to all of these questions is given by the מגן אברהם in the introduction to סימן רפּ"ב who says that פּסוקים which are said דרך תחינה ובקשה are allowed to be broken up.
2. The גמרא tells us that רב required דילוג on ר"ח as oppose to being פּוסק. The גמרא brings the story where ר' חנינא allowed Rebbeim to be פּוסק when teaching children which the גמרא says was only allowed because it was “אי אפשר”. See the אמת שפת  here who says that רב understood as follows: even though when it comes to לימוד התורה of children it is appropriate to be פּוסק when it is אי אפשר like the story with ר' חנינא, however when it comes to the מצוה of קריאת התורה, being פּוסק  is not an option since half of a פּסוק doesn’t count as a פּסוק at all and would not count for the required amount of פּסוקים. Therefore, we must be דולג.

The גמרא paskens like רב that we are דולג. There is a מחלוקת ראשונים as to what case the גמרא is referring to. See רש"י and the  רמב"ןhere who say this is only going on the case of the מעמדות and not on the case of ראש חודש. The reason the רמב"ן gives is that on ראש חודש there is no point in דילוג. If you are concerned with הנכנסין והיוצאין, then דילוג will still be a problem since the person who walks in for שני will think the first person only read two פּסוקים. And if you don’t care about הנכנסין והיוצאין, then you should just let the first two people read eight פּסוקים  and the third person read the next three. If you’ll ask that the גמרא rejected that option since it means the third עולה will end after only one פּסוק after a פּרשה begins, that itself is only an issue of הנכנסין והיוצאין who will think that only one פּסוק was read. Therefore, דילוג is only useful by the מעמדות where there aren’t enough פּסוקים for everyone to get three. See the רי"ף, גאונים רשב"א who disagree and say דילוג applies to both מעמדות and ראש חודש. The reason is as follows: first, according to the רמב"ן, why would the גמרא tell us who the halacha is like if it is only relevant for the מעמדות? We don’t have מעמדות anymore, and we usually don’t have a “הלכתא למשיחא”. Therefore, we must say that if the third עולה only read one פּסוק from the next פּרשה of ראש חודש, it would have a bigger issue of נכנסין ויוצאין since people who came in the middle of שלישי and the beginning of רביעי would think that the עולה started at the first פּסוק of the פּרשה of ראש חודש and read only one פּסוק. Therefore, we must have the דילוג done by the second עולה to minimize confusion.

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