Siman 687, Se'if 2 · Understanding the phrase "we interrupt Torah study" (Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 7)

Shulchan Aruch, Siman 687, se'if 2

"We interrupt Torah study in order to hear the reading of the Megillah, and all the more so all other mitzvos of the Torah, for they are all set aside before the reading of the Megillah. There is nothing that takes precedence over the Megillah reading except a meis mitzvah who has no one to bury him: whoever comes upon him buries him first and only afterward reads."
(Shulchan Aruch)

Understanding the phrase "we interrupt Torah study" (Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 7)

• This is not cancellation but deferral: The word "interrupt" does not mean the mitzvah is cancelled; it means the order is changed. We read the Megillah first and then return to our learning.
• The scope of the halachah: This deferral applies to the Torah study of all of Klal Yisrael and to every other mitzvah as well, and the reading of the Megillah comes first.

"And even if it were the Torah study of a large group, one must interrupt and go to read it in public, because 'in a multitude of people is the King's glory.'"
(Mishnah Berurah)

• A large group: Even if a large group of a hundred men is learning together in one building, and likewise a yeshivah, once the time for the Megillah reading arrives they finish the learning and go to read it with the tzibbur.
• The full reason: "In a multitude of people is the King's glory" is part of the reason, but its root is the mitzvah of pirsumei nisa, publicizing the miracle, which applies on Chanukah and Purim. Since there is a mitzvah to publicize the miracle, it should be done with the greatest possible prominence.

Where to read: a regular minyan versus the large shul

At first glance, if there is value in "a multitude of people," all the shuls in a city should gather in the central shul for the Megillah reading.

"Nevertheless, one who davens all year regularly in his own particular minyan need not go to the large shul."
(Mishnah Berurah, citing the Chayei Adam)

• The principle: There is a preference for a larger crowd, but one does not give up a regular minyan for it. Someone who davens regularly in a particular shul reads the Megillah there.
• A small minyan is also pirsumei nisa: Even if one shul has twenty people and another has eighty, as long as there is a minyan there is publicizing of the miracle, and one does not abandon his regular shul for that reason.
• A minyan that is not fully regular: A minyan that meets only on Shabbos and the like is discussed by the poskim as to whether it counts as a regular minyan for this purpose, and each case is judged on its own.
• A minyan in a private home: A minyan that a person arranges in his own house is not a regular minyan, and in such a case it is obvious that he should go to shul.

A meis mitzvah who has no one to bury him

• The definition of a meis mitzvah: A deceased person with no one to bury him, where the one who comes upon him cannot get help from anyone else. According to the Gemara's definition, this is a case where a person standing next to the body could call out and no one would hear him.
• What the "mitzvah" means: It does not mean that the deceased performed a mitzvah, but that it is a mitzvah upon anyone who comes upon him and approaches him to bury him.
• Why it takes precedence: The disgrace of the deceased. If the one who found him goes off to summon others, in the meantime a wild animal could attack the body, birds could peck at it, or he might not find it again when he returns.
• Burial on the spot: He is buried where he is found and is not moved, even if this takes up a portion of someone else's field, and this is the halachah.
• Other mitzvos are set aside: Someone who was on his way to slaughter his korban Pesach and came upon a meis mitzvah leaves the mitzvah aside, takes care of the meis mitzvah, and only then continues on his way.

(The difficulty was raised that by handling the body he becomes tamei and can no longer bring the korban, so he loses his korban Pesach; nevertheless, in principle his obligation is to attend to the meis mitzvah.)

The parameters of what comes first: Megillah or the other mitzvos

"All of this was said only where it is possible to do both, but if it is impossible to do both, no Torah mitzvah is set aside before the reading of the Megillah."
(Mishnah Berurah)

• When both can be fulfilled: The Megillah reading goes first, and nothing is lost from the other mitzvah, since it will be fulfilled afterward.
• When the mitzvah would be lost: If because of the Megillah reading a Torah mitzvah would be lost entirely, such as shiluach haken where the nest will no longer be there afterward, it is not set aside, since the Megillah reading is rabbinic and a rabbinic mitzvah yields to a Torah mitzvah.
• Even the precedence of a meis mitzvah is limited: A meis mitzvah comes first specifically where he will still be able to read the Megillah afterward. If the burial can be done even at night, he reads the Megillah first and buries afterward; alternatively he can guard the body and read the Megillah there.
• A qualification about burial itself: There is a discussion whether the obligation of burial is itself a Torah obligation. One day of aveilus is from the Torah, but with regard to burial the matter is not so simple.

(The Mishnah Berurah has lengthy discussions on this topic, and they are not practically relevant in our times.)

Shulchan Aruch, Siman 688: walled cities from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, containing eight se'ifim

"Walled cities that were surrounded by a wall from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun read on the fifteenth, even if they are not walled now, even if they are outside Eretz Yisrael, and even if they do not have ten batlanim. This applies provided the wall came first and it was settled afterward, or that it was settled first with the intention of walling it afterward."
(Shulchan Aruch)

(The Shulchan Aruch's approach here, as in other places, is to open specifically with the exceptional case: most cities are not walled, and yet he begins with walled cities.)

The origin of the two days (Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 1)

• The day of gathering: At the time of the miracle, the Jews everywhere fought on the thirteenth of Adar, the day on which they gathered with the permission of King Achashverosh, as the verse says, "the Jews gathered in their cities," and they rested on the fourteenth and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
• Shushan is the exception: In Shushan the Jews were given permission to fight on the fourteenth as well, at Esther's request from the king.

"Let it be granted tomorrow as well to the Jews who are in Shushan to do as today's decree."
(Megillas Esther)

• Distinguishing Shushan the capital from the city of Shushan: The request was not made about Shushan the capital, the seat of the monarchy, but about the city of Shushan, where there were many Jews whom people wanted to kill.
• What happened in practice: The people of Shushan fought on the fourteenth and rested on the fifteenth, and did not make their yom tov until the fifteenth. So already at that time there was no uniformity: most Jews celebrated on the fourteenth, and the people of Shushan on the fifteenth.
• The establishment for all generations: When Mordechai and Esther, with the agreement of the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah, established Purim for all generations, they too divided the commemoration into two days.

Why the criterion is "from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun"

"It would have been fitting to attach the distinction to Shushan and to enact that every city walled from the days of Achashverosh, like Shushan, should read on the fifteenth. But since Eretz Yisrael was destroyed at that time, and by that standard the walled cities outside the Land would be more distinguished than those in it, they therefore enacted, for the honor of Eretz Yisrael, that every city walled from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun reads on the fifteenth, even though they are not walled now."
(Mishnah Berurah)

• The problem with a standard based on the days of Achashverosh: At that time there were almost no Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, and by that standard there would have been no place in the Land at all that read on the fifteenth, while some remote village in Persia that happened to be walled in the days of Achashverosh would read on the fifteenth. The result would be that the holiday is celebrated on two days, and Eretz Yisrael, the place of the mitzvos, would have only one of them.
• One reason for the standard of Yehoshua: The significance of Eretz Yisrael begins with the entry into the Land, and the one who brought Israel into the Land was Yehoshua bin Nun, not Moshe Rabbeinu.
• Another reason (the Rokeach): Yehoshua bin Nun was the first to wage war against Amalek, and Haman was of the seed of Amalek. They therefore set the standard from his days, as a remembrance of the one who fought Amalek as well.

The law of Shushan and of cities outside Eretz Yisrael

"Except for Shushan, for even though it was not walled from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, it nonetheless reads on the fifteenth, because the miracle occurred there."
(Mishnah Berurah)

• Shushan: It remained as it was, and they read there on the fifteenth because the miracle happened there, even though we have no knowledge that it was walled from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, and even though it is a very ancient city.
• All other cities: The criterion is being walled from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, and it makes no difference that there is no wall there today, and it applies even outside Eretz Yisrael.
• In practice today: According to many poskim there is no city outside Eretz Yisrael today that reads on the fifteenth, because we have no clear knowledge on the matter. Europe is not that ancient, and in the East the cities are older, but even there we lack reliable information. Some poskim held that there are such cities, but the practice did not spread.

The Chasam Sofer's question and his explanation

• The question: You will not find another holiday, whether from the Torah or from the words of Chazal, where part of the nation celebrates on one day and part on another. What did the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah see that led them to enact such a division within the nation from the outset, rather than establishing both days, the fourteenth and the fifteenth, for everyone?
• This cannot be compared to yom tov sheini of the Diaspora: There the enactment stems from the doubt about the establishment of the new moon, and had they known the timing as they did in Eretz Yisrael there would have been only one day. That is not a deliberately designed arrangement, whereas here Chazal divided the days from the outset.

The Chasam Sofer's explanation: the world endures through Torah study

"Were it not for My covenant day and night, I would not have set the laws of heaven and earth."
(a verse cited in the Gemara)

• The foundation: The world exists in the merit of Torah, and when Jews are learning Torah, that is what sustains the world.
• A story about the Vilna Gaon: It is told that at the conclusion of Yom Kippur he did not go to eat immediately, but sat and learned Maseches Sukkah, saying that at that hour all the Jews are rushing to eat and there is no one learning; once the learners return to their studies, he would go and eat too.
• What is unique about Purim: On Purim there is a mitzvah of the seudah, which most people hold after midday, and there is a mitzvah to drink until "ad d'lo yada." If the entire nation celebrated on one day, there would be no one learning Torah at that time.
• The Rambam's view on "ad d'lo yada": That one drinks wine and falls asleep, and thereby fulfills "ad d'lo yada." So even someone who does not literally become drunk lies down and sleeps and cannot learn.
• The conclusion: Chazal therefore separated the days in advance: when these are having their seudah, those are not yet obligated in it and are learning Torah, and when those are having their seudah, these have already finished their Purim.
• Why this day in particular: On any other day there is no reason not to learn. Even on Tisha B'Av, when learning is restricted, certain topics may be studied. On Purim there is no prohibition to learn at all; it is simply that a person is not able to learn because of the obligation of "ad d'lo yada."

Ten batlanim

• The meaning of the term: According to Rashi's explanation, ten batlanim are ten men who are free from work, whom the community pays from the city funds so that they should be in the shul, learn, and ensure that there is always a minyan there and always a shiur.
• What they accomplish: The shul functions all day long, and anyone who wants to say Kaddish or daven finds a minyan and does not have to go searching. The Gemara uses this as the mark of a large city, as opposed to a village or a small town.
• Background on the law of villages: In the time of the Gemara, permission was given to residents of villages and small towns to read the Megillah not only on the fourteenth but also on the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth, because a village has no minyan, and they would come to the large city on Mondays and Thursdays, which were market days and the days the batei din sat.
• A place without ten batlanim: A city with many residents that has no ten batlanim is, by this criterion, treated as a small town, and one might have thought that even a walled city would not read on the fifteenth if it lacks ten batlanim.
• The Shulchan Aruch's ruling: "And even if they do not have ten batlanim." The very fact that it is walled from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun obligates them to read on the fifteenth, and they cannot read on any other day.

In passing · A meis mitzvah and walls in today's reality

1. A meis mitzvah nowadays

• The situation today: In practice there is no meis mitzvah today. There is a Chevra Kadisha, and every deceased person is taken care of by them, whereas in the past it was the family that saw to it.
• The duty to report: Someone who finds a body along the way must immediately contact the police and the security forces, and Magen David Adom must come and identify the body; he cannot bury it on the spot. This halachah is therefore theoretical in our times.

2. Burial in the time of Chazal

• There were no regional cemeteries: In the time of the Gemara there was no concept of an organized cemetery as we have today. Each family buried its own in its own plot, in a family burial cave, where the members of the family were laid to rest. It is possible that some places did otherwise, but there was no formal arrangement.
• The implication for a meis mitzvah: Someone who comes upon a body and does not know which family it belongs to has nowhere to take it and no one to notify, and therefore his obligation is to bury it in the place where he found it.
• The practical difficulty: The question was raised how a grave could be dug on the spot, and how they managed it with their hands or with a stone. We cannot know exactly what the conditions were then; people and the patterns of life were different. Most of the population lived in mountainous areas, around Yerushalayim and in the Galil, where digging is not easy, and nevertheless this is the halachah.

3. Walls that do not surround a city

• The Great Wall of China: It is not the wall of a particular city but a defensive wall, so there is no basis at all to consider it a walled city.
• A contemporary example: Like the separation barrier being built between Egypt and Gaza: it is a dividing wall that does not surround anything.
• Additional conditions: Beyond the place being a city and being surrounded, the halachah has further conditions in defining a walled city, and those too are absent in such cases.