Thursday, February 22, 2007

Megillah 16b - Reading from a Book

Rashi comments that we learn from "im hasefer" that the megillah must be written in front of the reader at the time of reading. The Rashash asks, when the gemara 18a is searching for a source that one cannot read the megillah ba'al peh, why is this not cited as the source? I think that the Rashash's question can be strengthened based on Tosafos 7a. The gemara says that the megillah was b'ruach hakodesh to be read but not to be written. Tosafos asks that we find one cannot read the megillah ba'al peh. Tosafos answers that on the ruach hakodesh level (k'ein d'oraysa) one can read the megillah ba'al peh (see turei even that if one does not have a megillah they should still read it ba'al peh and be yotzei on the ruach hakodesh level), but midrabonon it must be written and read from the text. Based on Tosafos there cannot be a source in the megillah itself for the megillah being written before the reader, so how can rashi claim that it is learned from the words "im hasefer". It is true that Rashi may disagree with Tosafos, but then how would rashi reconcile the gemara 7a that it is only b'ruach hakodesh likros and not lichtov?
See comments for answer.

1 comment:

Avi Lebowitz said...

To answer the Rashash's question and work out rashi with Tosafos 7a, I would like to suggest that according to rashi there are 2 dinim in reading ba'al peh.
1. There must be a sefer in front of the reader at the time of reading, but he does not have to read from it.
2. The reading must be from a text not ba'al peh.
The source for #1 is muduyak in rashi 19a d.h. lo yotzo, where rashi explains that one cannot read the megillah that is written with other books bec. there is a lack of parsumei nisah. Part of the parsumei nissah is to have the text in front of the reader when he reads.
Now, according to rashi the source for #1 to have the megillah open in front of the reader is "im hasefer" and very meduyak in rashi's language 16b. This is a din midivrei kabalah which is stronger than just a derabonon. But the requirement to actually read the megillah from a text is only derabonon as tosafos writes on 7a and the source for that din is the limud zechirah zechirah 18a.