Megillah, Daf Yod Tet, Part 1

 

Introduction

This week’s daf goes back to explain the mishnah from 17a. The last clause of the mishnah said: If it was written with arsenic, with red chalk, with gum or with sulfate of copper, or on paper or on scratch paper, he has not fulfilled his obligation, unless it is written in Assyrian on parchment and in ink.

While I have already translated most of the terms in the Mishnah, the Talmud now translates most of the words from Hebrew to Aramaic or explains some of them.

 

היתה כתובה בסם כו’. – סם – סמא, סקרא – אמר רבה בר בר חנה: סקרתא שמה. קומוס – קומא.

קנקנתום – חרתא דאושכפי, דיפתרא – דמליח וקמיח ולא עפיץ, נייר – מחקא.

 

If it was written with sam etc. Sam: this is arsenic.

Sikra: Rabbah b. Bar Hanah said: Sekarta [red chalk or vermillion] is its name.

Kumus: Kuma (gum).

Kankantum: sandler’s blacking.

Diftera: this is a skin which has been salted and put in flour but not treated with gall nuts.

Neyar: Mahaka (paper).

 

The Talmud defines the terms used in the Mishnah. None of these are valid as the ink or the surface.

 

עד שתהא כתובה אשורית. דכתיב ככתבם וכזמנם.

 

[It is not valid] unless it is written in Hebrew.

As it is written, "According to their writing and according to their appointed time" (Esther 9:27).

 

The Talmud provides a midrash explaining how we know that the Megillah must be written in Hebrew letters, which is elsewhere called "Assyrian" script. These are the script used to write Hebrew to this day.

 

על הספר ובדיו וכו’. מנלן? – אתיא כתיבה כתיבה, כתיב הכא +אסתר ט’+ ותכתב אסתר המלכה, וכתיב התם +ירמיהו ל"ו+ ויאמר להם ברוך מפיו יקרא אלי את כל הדברים האלה ואני כתב על הספר בדיו.

 

On parchment and in ink. From where do we know this?

The word "writing" in one place is derived from "writing" used in another place. It is written here, "And Esther the queen wrote," (Esther 9:29) and it is written in another place, "Then Baruch said to them: He read all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book" (Jeremiah 36:18).

 

The Megillah must be written in ink on parchment. This is derived from Jeremiah 36:18 which uses the word "writing" in connection with a book (parchment) written in ink. Since "writing" is also used in the Megillah, we can derive the law that it too must be written on parchment with ink.