Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Megillah 21a - Reading Megillah Sitting or Standing

The Turei Even quotes from the Rambam (Hil. Megillah 2:6) that one should not read the megillah while sitting in a tzibur. Based on this he asks, why does the gemara say there is a difference between megillah and torah? The requirement to stand for torah is also only b'tzibbur as rashi writes, so both megillah and torah seem to be the same that btzibbur the reader must stand but b'yachid the reader can sit?
It seems that although practically they may be the same, the lomdus is different. Standing for reading the Torah b'tzibbur is not just a din in kavod hatzibbur, but a din in kavod Hashem - as if to say that Hashem is standing for your reading so you must also stand. But by megillah it is only a din in kavod hatzibbur. Therefore the gemara means to say that Torah B'tzibur is not "just" a kavod tzibbur issue, but rather it must be read standing. Perhaps there would even be a practical difference bidieved if it was read while sitting were you yotzei - the mitzpah eisan mentions this.
One more question - If one is reading for a group of women, must the reader stand for kavod tzibbur?

2 comments:

Yossie Schonkopf said...

עיין מ"ב ובה"ל שהנפ"מ הוא אם יכול לסמוך עצמו בבימה שבקריאת התורה אסור אפילו באופן לא יפול אם ילקח הבימה. ונ"ל שלפי ההסבר שלך זהו הנפ"מ למעשה ע"ש - וכעין זה במפצ"א

כבוד ציבור בגמרא תמיד מוזכר לגבי קריאת התורה דווקא (וזה נ"ל כוונת ציון הגהש"ס לקמן) ובפוסקים מובא גם לגבי דיני ש"ץ כעין לבישת טלית וכדומה ולכן נראה של"ש בנשים דאין להם דין ציבור ממש ואם זה הי דין כבוא גברי וודאי ששייך גם לנשים אך אין נשים ציבור

Avi Lebowitz said...

My question is based on the rema 690:18 who suggests that women be mitztaref with men to create a "minyan" for megillah. Furthermore, the Ran 6b (dafei harif) is clearly mashma that the whole discussion of tziruf is bec. they are combining together with men to make 10, but 10 women would certainly qualify for a "minyan" for this purpose (the ran leans that it should be more lenient than zimun, but certainly not more machmir). Since they qualify as "asarah" for the lechatchila to read even b'zmana b'asara, maybe they are also considered a tzibur. I am not sure but I don't see a proof one way or the other.