Tuesday, December 25, 2007

some quick points from yerushalmi megillah

A few quickies from Yerushalmi (dapim based on Vilna ed):

1) "Tzarich likrosa lifnei nashim u'lifnei ketanim sh'af osam hay'u b'safeik" (21a). It sounds from the Yerushalmi that there is a chiyuv for men to read the megillah to an audience of women and children, but there is not an independent chiyuv upon women to read for themselves (just like there is not an independent chiyuv on ketanim to do their own reading).

2) There is a fascinating hava amina (28a) in the Yerushalmi that Targum is m'akeiv in kri'as haTorah. This suggests that either a) the nature of the mitzvah of kri'as haTorah is limud haTorah, and reading without understanding is an incomplete kiyum hamitzva; b) the Targum is not merely an added translation but is an integral part of the text of Torah.

3) Rabbi Yehudah holds that someone born blind cannot serve as a shaliach tzibur (32a), implying that someone born sighted who went blind can. The Yerushalmi notes that this seems to contradict R"Y's opinion elsewhere that a blind person, whether born sighted or not, is exempt from all mitzvos. To avoid the contradiction the Yerushalmi relearns the Mishna so that it is not speaking of a case of a blind person at all. Tosfos on the Bavli (24a) raises this same question (it is not asked by the Bavli) and answers that although m'doraysa a blind person is exempt from all mitzvos according to R"Y, he would still be obligated m'derabbanan. There is an interesting debate in Achronim whether Tosfos meant that a blind person is not obligated in any mitzvos m'doraysa, or is Tosfos speaking only about mitzvos aseh (see Noda b'Yehudah Mh"T O.C. 112).

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:42 AM

    Somthing more seasonal Nitul minus yud is gematria chanuKah

    ReplyDelete