Resources for Megillah 24

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

1. The משנה says that the one who reads the מפטיר is פּורס על שמע. Since being פּורס על שמע refers to saying ברכו ויוצר אור, this seems not to work chronologically, since מפטיר comes after יוצר אור. See the חידושי ר"א מן ההר who says a stunning חידוש that we see from here that in the times of חז"ל they said קריאת התורה before davening. See the רש"ש however who says that this question is why רש"י explained that we are referring to the person who usually gets the הפטורה. See the תהילה ליונה who points out that this הלכה is not brought in שו"ע at all. However, based on the רש"ש it would make sense since nowadays we don’t have a person who usually gets the הפטורה.
2. The משנה says that if the person who gets מפטיר is a כהן , he can be נושא את כפּיו. Many מפרשים ask that all כהנים are נושא את כפּיו!? See the טורי אבןwho answers that if the minyan is made up of all כהנים and there are more than ten, some duchen and the others are the ones being blessed. The person that got מפטיר would be guaranteed to duchen in that case. There is also a בית הלוי על התורה at the end of ספר בראשית who says that a חכם אחד suggested that only one כהן needs to say ברכת כהנים and that the rest could use שומע כעונה. If so, the בית הלוי says that that would be the פּשט in our משנה. However, he disagrees and feels that one cannot be יוצא ברכת כהנים like that since it requires קול רם and שומע כעונה can only count as if one said it, but not as if one said it in a specific way. See the  איש חזון in סימן כ"ט אות ג who disagrees and says that one can be יוצא ברכת כהנים with שומע כעונה.
3. תוספותin ד"ה מי שלא says that even according to רבי יהודה who holds that a blind man is פּטור מן המצוות, he is still חייב מדרבנן. Therefore, he can be פּורס על שמע if he wasn’t born blind. This is in contrast to women who are פּטור from many מצוות and are not even חייב מדרבנן. The reason for this difference is that women at least have some מצוות to do, where as a blind man would look like a גוי if he had no מצוות whatsoever. See the  אבן טורי who asks that if blind people aren’t חייב in any מצוות, why should they listen to the רבנן? After all, the חיוב to listen to the רבנן  comes from לא תסור, and if they don’t need to keep any mitzvos then then don’t need to listen to לא תסור either!? He answers that לא תסור is a לאו and even blind people are חייב in לאווין. See the מהר"ץ חיות in ב"ק דף פּ"ז ע"א who asks the obvious question: if they are חייב in לא תעשהs, then they don’t look like גוים and we shouldn’t have needed to make them חייב מדרבנן! Based on this, the  ביהודה נודע in תנינא או"ח סימן קי"ב  says that blind men actually are פּטור  even from לא תעשה.  This is also the opinion of the ריטב"א in his תשובות, סימן צ"ז. As far as תוספות, see the פּרי מגדים in the פּתיחה כוללת at the end of חלק ג' who says that refraining from עברות wouldn’t show you are a yid. Only doing an action makes you look Jewish.
4. The משנה says that you can’t put your תפיליןon top of your sleeve, which רש"י, based on the גמרא, explains is because it says והיה לך לאות על ידך, לך לאות ולא לאחרים לאות. See the   רשב"אhere who says that based on this, one is allowed to wear their תפילין של ראש on their hat since the reason of לך לאות does not apply to the תפילין של ראש. He also explains that the גמרא that says “There was room under the מצנפת to put the תפילין” which sounds like one could not put it on the מצנפת itself which seems to suggest that this is not allowed is because that would be an issue of יתור בגדים (wearing more than the 8 בגדי כהונה). In the תשובות הרשב"א חלק ג סימן רפּ"ב he explains it somewhat differently and says that the issue is that מצוות are חוצץ but not regular sleeves.

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