Megillah, Daf Yod Het, Part 5
Introduction
Today’s section begins by discussing the mishnah’s rule that if one reads the Megillah "with interruptions" he has fulfilled his obligation
קראה סירוגין יצא וכו‘. לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי סירוגין, שמעוה לאמתא דבי רבי דקאמרה להו לרבנן דהוי עיילי פסקי פסקי לבי רבי: עד מתי אתם נכנסין סירוגין סירוגין!
If one reads it with interruptions [serugin], he has fulfilled his obligation.
The Rabbis did not know the meaning of serugin. They heard the maidservant of Rabbi’s household, saying to the rabbis on seeing them enter at intervals, "How long are you going to come in serugin serugin?
The Hebrew word for in "intervals" or "with interruptions" is serugin. This is an unusual word and at first the rabbis themselves didn’t known what it meant. Then they heard the maidservant of Rabbi [Judah Hanasi’s] house using the word and they understood. This story now begins a series of stories of the rabbis learning the meaning of a word by hearing it from Rabbi Judah Hanasi’s maidservant (or an Arab). Perhaps part of the reason these stories are here is to show how knowledgeable all the members of Rabbi’s household were. Even the maidservant knew the meaning of words that the rabbis did not know.
לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי חלוגלוגות, שמעוה לאמתא דבי רבי דאמרה ליה לההוא גברא דהוה קא מבדר פרפחיני, עד מתי אתה מפזר חלוגלוגך.
The Rabbis did not know the meaning of haluglugot. One day they heard the maidservant of the household of Rabbi, on seeing a man peeling purslane, say to him, How long will you be peeling your haluglugot?
Haluglot are evidently a type of vegetable.
לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי +משלי ד‘+ סלסלה ותרוממך. שמעוה לאמתא דבי רבי דהוות אמרה לההוא גברא דהוה מהפך במזייה, אמרה ליה: עד מתי אתה מסלסל בשערך.
The Rabbis did not know the meaning of "Salseleah and she will exalt you" (Proverbs 4:8). One day they heard the maidservant of the house of Rabbi say to a man who was curling his hair, How long will you be mesalsel with your hair?
Here (and below) the rabbis do not know the meaning of a word from the Tanakh. They hear the maidservant use the word in conversation with a man, and from here they understand that it means "to look at it, and turn it over." The verse therefore means that if one looks deeply into the Torah, the Torah will exalt him.
לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי +תהלים נ"ה+ השלך על ה‘ יהבך. אמר רבה בר בר חנה: זימנא חדא הוה אזילנא בהדי ההוא טייעא, וקא דרינא טונא, ואמר לי: שקול יהביך ושדי אגמלאי.
The Rabbis did not know the meaning of, "Cast upon the Lord your yehav" (Psalms 55:23) Rabbah b. Bar Hanah said: One day I was travelling with a certain Arab and was carrying a load, and he said to me, "Lift up your yehav and put it on [one of] the camels."
Rabbah b. Bar Hannah learns from an Arab (similar to today’s Beduin) that the word "yehav" in Psalms 55 means "load."
לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי +ישעיהו י"ד+ וטאטאתיה במטאטא השמד, שמעוה לאמתא דבי רבי דהוות אמרה לחברתה: שקולי טאטיתא וטאטי ביתא.
The Rabbis did not know the meaning of "And ta’atihah bemetateh of destruction" (Isaiah 14:23). They heard the maidservant of Rabbi’s household say to her friend, "Take the broom ta’atitah and sweep (ta’ate) the house."
Here the rabbis learn the word for "broom" and "sweep" from Rabbi’s maidservant. I should conclude by noting that elsewhere this remarkable woman is portrayed as even knowing some halakhot unknown to other rabbis.
תנו רבנן: קראה סירוגין – יצא, סירוסין – לא יצא. רבי מונא אומר משום רבי יהודה: אף בסירוגין, אם שהה כדי לגמור את כולה – חוזר לראש. אמר רב יוסף: הלכה כרבי מונא שאמר משום רבי יהודה.
אמר ליה אביי לרב יוסף: כדי לגמור את כולה, מהיכא דקאי לסיפא, או דלמא מרישא לסיפא? – אמר ליה: מרישא לסיפא, דאם כן נתת דבריך לשיעורין.
Our Rabbis taught: If one reads it with breaks, he has fulfilled his obligation; if with omissions, he has not fulfilled it. R. Muna said in the name of R. Judah: Even with breaks, if he stops long enough to finish the whole of it, he must go back to the beginning.
R. Joseph said: The halakhah is according to R. Muna in the name of R. Judah.
Abaye asked R. Joseph: [When it says] "long enough to finish the whole of it" does it mean from where he is to the end, or from the beginning to the end?
He answered: It means from the beginning to the end, for otherwise there would be no fixed standard.
According to the first opinion one can read the Megillah with breaks but not omissions. R. Muna presents a limit to the length of the break. It cannot be longer than it would take to complete the whole Megillah.
R. Joseph, the amora, says that the halakhah follows R. Muna. R. Joseph then explains to Abaye that "long enough to finish the whole of it" means as long as it takes to read from beginning to end. For if we interpreted "long enough to finish the whole of it" to mean from wherever he stops until the end, then the length of a permitted interruption would depend on where he stops. This would mean there is no fixed standard.
אמר רבי אבא אמר רבי ירמיה בר אבא אמר רב: הלכה כרבי מונא, ושמואל אמר: אין הלכה כרבי מונא. בסורא מתנו הכי. בפומבדיתא מתנו הכי: אמר רב כהנא אמר רב: הלכה כרבי מונא, ושמואל אמר: אין הלכה כרבי מונא.
רב ביבי מתני איפכא, רב אמר: אין הלכה כרבי מונא, ושמואל אמר: הלכה כרבי מונא.
אמר רב יוסף: נקוט דרב ביבי בידך, דשמואל הוא דחייש ליחידאה. דתנן: שומרת יבם שקידש אחיו את אחותה, משום רבי יהודה בן בתירה אמרו: אומרים לו המתן עד שיעשה אחיך הגדול מעשה. אמר שמואל: הלכה כרבי יהודה בן בתירה.
R. Abba said in the name of R. Jeremiah b. Abba who said it in the name of Rav: The halakhah accords with R. Muna.
And Shmuel said: The halakhah does not accord with R. Muna. This is the version taught in Sura.
In Pumbedita the following version was taught: R. Kahana said in the name of Rav: The halakhah accords with R. Muna, but Shmuel said that the halakhah does not accord with R. Muna.
R. Bibi reverses the statement, [making] Rav say that the halakhah does not accord with R. Muna and Shmuel say that it does accord with R. Muna.
R. Joseph said: Accept the version of R. Bibi, since it is Shmuel who rules according to the view of a minority opinion, as we have learned: If a woman was waiting for the yavam [to make his decision], and a [younger] brother of his betrothed her sister, in the name of R. Judah b. Batera they said: They say to him, Wait till your elder brother acts [one way or the other]; and Shmuel said, The halakhah accords with R. Judah b. Batera.
The first section here contains a dispute over who said what: Did Rav say that the halakhah follows R. Muna and Shmuel say it does not? Or was it vice versa? Variant versions of this dispute were taught in the Yeshivot in Sura and Pumbedita, two of major centers of Jewish learning in Babylonia.
R. Joseph uses another instance to conclude that it was Shmuel who ruled according to R. Muna. With regard to a totally different issue, Shmuel ruled according to a minority opinion, so he must be the amoraic sage who did so here as well.
The other case has to do with the laws of levirate marriage. If a woman’s husband dies and they have no children, one of his brothers must marry her or release her from levirate marriage (halitzah). Until he does so, the brothers cannot marry her sister. According to R. Judah b. Batera, this sister is prohibited from marrying all of the brothers because they all have a potential relationship with the widow. If the younger brother has already betrothed this sister, he should wait to marry her until the older brother either marries or releases the widow from marriage. At that point, the younger brother can marry the sister.
תנו רבנן: השמיט בה סופר אותיות או פסוקין, וקראן הקורא כמתורגמן המתרגם – יצא.
מיתיבי: היו בה אותיות מטושטשות או מקורעות, אם רשומן ניכר – כשרה, ואם לאו – פסולה! – לא קשיא; הא בכולה, הא – במקצתה.
Our Rabbis taught: If the scribe had omitted letters or verses and the reader read them like the translator when he is translating, he has fulfilled his obligation.
They objected: If letters in it [the scroll] are partially rubbed out or torn, if they are still legible, it may be used, but otherwise it may not be used.
There is no difficulty: one statement refers to all of it, the other to part of it.
According to the first baraita here, if some letters or even some verses are missing from the Megillah, and the reader knows what he is supposed to read, he can read these individual letters or verses from heart, just as a translator translates without reading the translation. In contrast, the other baraita says that if letters are rubbed out are torn, the Megillah is valid only if the words can still be read. These two baraitot seem to contradict each other.
The Talmud resolves the contradiction by positing that the Megillah is invalid only if all of it has rubbed out letters or missing words/verses. But if most of the Megillah is still written correctly, it is valid.
תנו רבנן: השמיט בה הקורא פסוק אחד לא יאמר אקרא את כולה ואחר כך אקרא אותו פסוק, אלא קורא מאותו פסוק ואילך. נכנס לבית הכנסת ומצא צבור שקראו חציה, לא יאמר אקרא חציה עם הצבור, ואחר כך אקרא חציה – אלא קורא אותה מתחילתה ועד סופה.
Our Rabbis taught: If the reader omitted one verse, he must not say, I will finish reading it [the Megillah] and I will then read that verse, but he must read [again] from that verse.
If he enters the synagogue and finds that the congregation has read half, he must not say, I will read half with the congregation and then I will read the other half, but he must read it from the beginning to the end.
This baraita provides information for someone who skips a verse or for someone who comes late to the synagogue. He needs to hear the entire Megillah, every single verse, in the proper order.
מתנמנם יצא וכו‘. היכי דמי מתנמנם? אמר רב אשי: נים ולא נים, תיר ולא תיר, דקרו ליה ועני. ולא ידע לאהדורי סברא, וכי מדכרו ליה – מידכר.
If he napped he has still fulfilled his obligation
What is considered napping?
R. Ashi said: Sleeping, but not really sleeping. Awake, but not really awake. If they call him, he would answer. But he would not know how to offer a reasonable response, but when they remind him, he remembers.
R. Ashi gives a pretty good definition of napping. I’ve always defined napping as how my father used to do it. When I was a kid, he would nap in front of the TV and I would try to change the station. As soon as I did so, he would wake up and tell me to put the channel back where it was.
If he falls into a deeper sleep than this while listening or reading the Megillah, he must go back and read from the beginning when he wakes up.