[Based on a chapter that interprets the opening sugya of Megillah, forthcoming in a book about conceptual interpretations in opening sugyas of the Babylonian Talmud.]
The Mishna that opens tractate Megillah formulates a surprising halakhah:
The Megillah is read on the eleventh, on the twelfth, on the thirteenth, on the fourteenth, on the fifteenth – no less and no more.
This text raises two questions: first, the concept of reading Megillat Esther from 11 Adar Adar is odd, since the book of Esther itself affixes the holiday of Purim – on which the megillah is read – to the 14th and 15th of the month. How can the Mishna change the date on which the megillah is to be read? Moreover, the choice of opening the tractate with such an esoteric halakhah, which relates specifically to unusual circumstances, seems strange.
The halakhah is explained later in the Mishna:
Villages and large towns read on the fourteenth, but the villages may advance to the day of assembly.
The Gemara explains:
Rabbi Hanina said: The Sages were lenient with the villages, and allowed them to advance to the day of assembly, so that they may provide water and food to their brethren in the cities (Megillah 4a).
Instead of clarifying the Mishna, the Gemara adds to the difficulty. Why should considerations of comfort alter the obligation to read the Megillah at a specific time? There is no parallel halakhic situation: one who cannot light Hanukkah candles on 25 Kislev is not provided with the option of lighting on the 24th, even if the reason is entirely justified.
The opening Talmudic sugya addresses this difficulty. First (2a) it justifies the amendment by attributing it to the Great Assembly (Anshei Knesset HaGedolah), the very authority that established 14/15 Adar as the celebration of Purim in the Megillah itself. Next, in order to further justify the argument, the sugya seeks to infer the ordinance from the text of the Megillah itself. To that end, it references two verses in Esther, which describe the establishment of the holiday for generations to come:
According to R. Yohanan, the ordinance is inferred from the verse “To keep these days of Purim in their own times” (Es. 9:31), from which he learns: “they established many times.”
Conversely, R. Shmuel b. Nahmani infers the multiple dates from the verse “like the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies” (9:22), from which he derives: “days, like days – extending to the eleventh and twelfth.”
In addition to providing a lexical foundation for the ordinance, these verses also refer to the conceptual meaning of the law in the Mishna, and to the very reading of the Megillah. To understand the conceptual meaning behind these analyses, the verses first have to be understood in context.
The verse cited by R. Shmuel b. Nahmani is taken from the description of Mordecai’s letter at the end of the book of Esther, establishing a national holiday. In his letter (Es. 9:20-23) Mordecai writes “to establish them as days of feasting and joy, and sending portions [of food] to one another, and gifts to the poor,” as a celebration of the rescue from Haman’s terrible edict (the name Purim is not mentioned in Mordecai’s letter).
After Mordecai’s national holiday is accepted (9:23), the story has ended; but the book does not end here. The final part of the Megillah includes an additional drama, in which the holiday is re-established by Esther, through yet another letter.
First, the Megillah briefly reviews the story:
For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. But when she came before the king, he issued written orders to reverse his evil scheme that he had schemed against the Jews onto his own self, and he and his sons were impaled on poles (Es. 9:24-25).
These verses offer a new perspective on the story of Esther: Mordecai is not mentioned at all, and Esther might be mentioned by implication (depending on whether she is a hint to Esther, or refers to Haman’s thought). The only character mentioned explicitly, by name, and described at great length – is Haman, and his evil edict. The saving of the Jews is not mentioned at all – only the retribution against Haman, who is impaled. It seems the very essence of the story has been removed from this recap!
The name and nature of the holiday are also different, in correlation with the focus of these verses on the edict instead of the redemption:
Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur, because of everything written in this letter, and because of what they had seen, and what had happened to them (Es. 9:26).
Later, Esther sends another letter “to confirm this second letter concerning Purim” (9:29), in addition to Mordecai’s letter – and established a holiday of a different nature than Mordecai’s:
To establish these days of Purim at their designated times … as they had established for themselves and their descendants in regard to their times of fasting and crying out (Es. 9:31).
What is the meaning of the second establishment of Purim, in relation to times of fasting and crying out? And why does Esther establish days to commemorate Haman’s evil edict, if the Jews were already saved?
The three final verses of the Megillah explain Esther’s thought process:
King Ahashverosh imposed a tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. And all his acts of power and might, and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, they too are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia. For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahashverosh, preeminent among the Jews, and esteemed by his many fellow Jews, for he worked for the good of his nation, and speaks up for the welfare of all their descendants (10:1-3).
At the end of the book, while the Jews were saved from Haman’s evil edict, they remain under the rule of Achashverosh. Mordecai is second in command to the king – but Ahashverosh is a foreign king, and the account of the Jewish story is written in the annals of a foreign kingdom. Instead of leading the Jews to Israel, in line with the Return to Zion that was taking place during the same historical period, Mordecai remained as second to a foreign king in a kingdom that hated Jews. The story of Esther offers no long-term solution to edicts such as Haman’s, and no real change was made to ensure that another enemy will not rise up in Haman’s wake to attempt, once again, to destroy the Jewish people.
Alongside the celebration of the Jewish rescue, Esther reminds us that these are “days of Purim.” Esther, who had to remain in Ahashverosh’s palace as his queen, reminds us from her vantage point not to be lured by the honey-trap of exile, but to always remember Haman’s edict. An evil edict like Haman’s can always be repeated, as long as the Jews remain under foreign rule, as we see throughout our long history. Therefore, Esther established the character of the holiday as days of fasting and crying out for the exile in which the Jews remain.
***
Returning to the opening sugya, the 14th and 15th of Adar are days of celebration for the Jewish rescue from harm. The reading of Megillat Esther on these days is instilled with joy and thanksgiving for their redemption. The possibility of reading the Megillah earlier, in the days prior to the redemption, instills the reading with a different meaning, which connects to the terror and uncertainty experienced by the Jews before they were rescued. According to the interpretation of the opening sugya, these days are an inseparable part of the conceptual meaning of the Megillah, and reading on these days is therefore appropriate. The sugya’s interpretation of the Mishna highlights the elements of the fear and crying out when facing the edict, and not only the joy of being saved from it.
The debate between R. Yohanan and R. Shmuel b. Nahmani surfaces the question of the meaning behind reading Megillat Esther. R. Yohanan cites a verse from the second letter – Esther’s letter – indicating that the primary meaning of the story is fasting and crying out. Conversely, R. Shmuel b. Nahmani relies on a verse from Mordecai’s letter, which established the holiday as joyful days of feasting, and provides the Megillah with the meaning of joyous thanksgiving for the Jewish redemption.
Thus, through a ‘technical’ lexical debate, the opening sugya utilizes the verses of the book of Esther to understand the complex conceptual meaning of “The chag (joy and thanksgiving) of Purim (crying out and crying out about the evils of exile).”
*
The message above was written as I waited to return to my home in Moshav Shuva in the Gaza Envelope, which was evacuated during the Swords or Iron War. These final words I write on my desk, in my home, after we chose to return home, despite the war that rages on, nearby. Through my window, which overlooks the Gaza strip, I can see black smoke rising, and I can hear explosions and other sounds of war. The sounds and sights are mixed with the laughter of children, playing in my yard. Side by side, together.
Across from me is road 232, the ‘valley of death’ in which so many of our people were murdered, but now the road is filled with life, with citizens alongside army vehicles. Side by side, together.
The pain of the wreckage and destruction suffered by our neighboring kibbutzim is enormous - and so is our immense gratitude to God for the miracle that befell us, that we were saved. Side by side, together.
Pain and mourning, side by side with celebration and thanksgiving. This is our existence.
The complexity of Purim is more relevant than ever before. Side by side with overwhelming gratitude for our nation’s return to our land, and for our success in building a full and joyful life in Israel - we pray for God’s compassion, and redemption. Enemies like the evil Haman still seek to destroy us, and Haman’s edict, “to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day” seems to resonate frightfully this year, considering the events of October 7.
Reading the Megillah, this year in particular, will be both a cry for redemption, and rejoicing in redemption, side by side, together.