Resources for Megillah 30

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

The גמרא says that according to שמואל, if Purim falls out on Friday, we read פּרשת זכור on the following Shabbos. The גמרא asks that this should be a problem of having עשיה אחר זכירה, and responds that since there are מוקפין חומה who celebrate Purim on the 15^th, we have עשיה and זכירה at the same time. There are many points to discuss from this גמרא . First, where did the requirement for זכירה to proceed עשיה come from? And what does עשיה refer to? For this you need to look back at דף ב ע"ב where the גמרא is discussing how we know when to celebrate Purim and says there “אשכחן עשיה, זכירה מנלן”. See רש"י there in ד"ה אשכחן who defines עשיה as “משתה ויו"ט” and זכירה as “קריאת המגילה”. The גמרא responds to the question by quoting the פּסוק of “והימים האלו נזכרים ונעשים”. In that פּסוק, the word נזכרים comes before ונעשים, which the ר"י מלוניל  quotes as the source that זכירה comes before עשיה.

Taking that back to our  גמרא which says that מוקפין חומה have עשיה and זכירה on the same day, it should mean that when the 14^th of אדר falls on Friday, in ירושלים they would read the מגילה and have the סעודת פּורים on Shabbos. However, see the שולחן ערוך או"ח סימן תרפּ"ח סעיף ו who paskens based on a ירושלמי that the סעודה is done on Sunday and the מגילה is read on Friday!

Regarding the aspect of זכירה, it is clear from our גמרא that זכירה is not limited to קריאת המגילה but refers to any זכר of מחיית עמלק since our גמרא refers to זכירה  as פּרשת זכור. Nonetheless, see the שו"ת שואל ומשיב מהדורא תליתאה ח"ג סימן כ"ט who maintains that זכירה must also include קריאת המגילה. Therefore, he makes the stunning חידוש that there really are some מוקפין חומה cities that read the מגילה on Shabbos—the ones whose wall still exists! For them, there is no חשש דאורייתא of שמא יעבירנו ד' אמות  ברה"ר since the whole city is fully walled in and nothing is really a רה"ר דאורייתא. As such, they can read the מגילה on shabbos. He explains that this is why our גמרא says “איכא מוקפין” which sounds like only some מוקפין read on the 15^th. See also the שו"ת אבני נזר או"ח סימן תקי"א אות ד who proves from our גמרא  that the מצוה of קריאת המגילה itself has both aspects— פּרסומי ניסא and מחיית עמלק since the word “זכירה ” is used for מגילה and פּרשת זכור interchangeably. He uses this to explain the famous בה"ג who says women can’t be מוציא men in קריאת המגילה since they are only חייב in שמיעה and men are חייב in  קריאה. The אבני נזר explains that women only have the mitzvah of פּרסומי ניסא so they just need to hear it, whereas men need to do the מצוה of מחיית עמלק so they need an act of קריאה as well.

As far as the fact that the שולחן ערוך says to have the סעודת פּורים on Sunday and not Shabbos, see the שו"ת מהרלב"ח סימן ל"ב who wants to prove from here that the שולחן ערוך is wrong and the סעודה must take place on Shabbos as the גמרא says that we have עשיה and זכירה  בהדי הדדי. However, see the שו"ת תשבץ ח"ג סימן רח"צ who explains that the whole question really never starts: the תקנה of when to read פּרשת זכור came before the גזרה of שמא יעבירנו ד' אמות, so when they made the תקנה about when to read פּרשת זכור the מגילה was still being read on Shabbos. Once the תקנה had been established it was not changed.

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Click here to download Shaklya v’Tarya Summary by Rabbi Chaim Smulovitz (in PDF)