Megillah 4 - December 16, 12 Tevet

Study Guide Megillah 4

Today’s daf is sponsored by Catriella Freedman in loving memory of her mother 5th Yahrzeit, Gerda Stein, Freida bat Fruma. “She died in Eretz Yisrael, the place she firmly believed was her spiritual home. I think of you every day and always hear your encouragement to pursue the intellectual and thoughtful life”. 

The daf is also sponsored by Julie Mendelsohn in honor of her son who was sworn in as an Israeli air force officer today. "As usual the daf speaks to life.  Not only are you now a “captain of the Army of G-d” but throughout your course you never gave up on your learning, your tefillah and your Torah lifestyle.  During all of the hard training, you got up even earlier to pray, spent your free time on Shabbat learning, and were a great example for all of the other soldiers in your unit.  I am so proud of you and wish you a safe and meaningful service."

There are four other laws of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi regarding Purim (in addition to the four mentioned at the end of Megillah 3): a list of a few cities that were walled from the time of Joshua, women are obligated in reading the Megillah as they too were part of the miracle, when Purim that falls on Shabbat, the Megillah should be studied, and the Megillah should be read both at night and in the morning. Rabbi Chanina explains why people in the villages can read on an earlier day - the rabbis were lenient with them in order to allow them to bring food and drink to the people in the cities. The Gemara asks several questions on this and reinterprets his statement to read "The rabbis were lenient with them since they brought food and drink" - meaning as a reward to them for doing this, they wanted to make their lives easier by allowing them to read it earlier on a day when they normally went to the city. If Purim falls on Friday, when do the different types of cities read the Megillah? The Mishna brings one opinion which matched Rebbi and Rabbi Yosi's opinion, however, there are two other opinions. What is the basis for each opinion? Why do we not read the Megillah on Shabbat? Two answers are brought - either so we don't accidentally carry in the public domain (as in Lulav and Shofar) or because we give charity at the same time as we read the Megillah and we can't do that on Shabbat.