Siman 688, Se'if 1 · Review of the two conditions we explained

Shulchan Aruch, Siman 688, se'if 1
"Walled cities that were surrounded by a wall from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, even if they are not walled today, read on the fifteenth, even if they are outside Eretz Yisrael, and even if they do not have ten batlanim."
(Shulchan Aruch)

Review of the two conditions we explained

• From the days of Yehoshua bin Nun: What determines the status is the condition of the city in the days of Yehoshua bin Nun. Even if the wall has since collapsed and no longer stands today, as long as there was a wall there in Yehoshua's time they read on the fifteenth, and there is no difference between Eretz Yisrael and outside the Land.
• Ten batlanim: A large city is defined by having ten batlanim, meaning ten men who sit in the shul and are supported from the communal fund. For a walled city the Sages were lenient: even without ten batlanim it is considered a large city on account of its wall, and its din is to read on the fifteenth.

The third condition: walled first, settled afterward

"And this applies where it was surrounded by a wall and only afterward settled, or where it was settled first with the intention of surrounding it with a wall afterward."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• Two possible sequences of building: One can build the wall before people settle there, or people can settle first and only later, once it becomes clear that the situation is unsafe, put up a wall. For megillah, it counts as a walled city only if the wall came first.
• The way of the world in ancient times: First they decided that a city would be built here and put up the wall around it, and only then brought in residents, so that they would have protection from the very first moment. An open city, which anyone can walk into to steal or to make war, does not attract settlers.
• Settled with the intention of walling it: Advance planning is enough. If people settled there knowing that a wall would be built shortly, accepting a certain risk in the meantime, their city is considered walled.
• To exclude (Mishnah Berurah): Someone who settled there originally with no intention of walling the city, even if a wall was eventually built there, the city is not considered walled for this purpose.
• And presumably: When we have no clear information about how a particular city developed, we assume the ordinary practice of ancient times, that the wall came first and the settlement afterward. Only if we know for certain that the order was reversed do we say otherwise.

Identifying walled cities today

• Outside Eretz Yisrael: According to most poskim there is no city outside the Land today that we can point to as walled from the days of Yehoshua, so practically speaking this din does not exist there.
• The difficulty in Eretz Yisrael: We know that there were walled cities, but we do not have clear knowledge of their exact locations. Yericho, for example, was certainly walled, since its walls fell when Klal Yisrael entered the Land, but there is a dispute about where the ancient Yericho stood relative to the settlement there today.
• The list of cities in Maseches Arachin: The Mishnah in Arachin discusses houses in walled cities for a different halachah in the Torah, and lists walled cities there, among them Lod, Chadid and Ono. Even so, the question of identification remains: what is the Lod of then relative to the Lod of today.
• Akko: It has a wall, but the question is from which period, and we have very little information about it.
• Cities in doubt: The result is a category of cities where there is reason to think they were walled but no certainty. Their din is explained in se'if 4.
• Petach Tikvah: It is not counted among the doubtful cities, and there they read on the fourteenth only.
• Yerushalayim: The one city where we read on the fifteenth with certainty. Even there the question remains where the line of the wall that surrounded it ran, and who is inside that line and who is outside it, since whoever is outside reads on the fourteenth.

Se'if 2: adjacent and visible

"And likewise the villages that are visible together with them, even if they are not adjacent, such as where they are on a hill; or that are adjacent to them, even if they are not visible to them, such as where they are in a valley; provided that they are not farther away than a mil."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• Two definitions: A village visible from the walled city even though it is not adjacent to it (for instance, it sits on top of a hill), or a village adjacent to the city even though it is not visible from it (for instance, it sits in a valley).
• The measure of a mil: A mil is two thousand amos, a bit more than a kilometer, which is not a great distance.
• For what purpose: These villages are considered part of the walled city for the reading of the megillah alone, and they are obligated to read on the fifteenth.
• A doubt among the poskim: Does the measure of a mil apply only to "adjacent," or also to "visible"? From Yerushalayim one can see places that are very far away, and one cannot say that they are all included in Yerushalayim. Some hold that the mil applies to both.
• The neighborhoods of Yerushalayim: Regarding Ramot and the areas surrounding Yerushalayim there is a major dispute among the poskim as to whether they fall under "adjacent and visible," and in many places the practice is to read on both days out of doubt.

Tel Aviv and Yaffo in the words of the Chazon Ish

• The question of Yaffo: Yaffo is an ancient city, mentioned already in Sefer Yonah, so there is room to consider it a walled city, though this too is subject to question.
• What the Chazon Ish said: At first he said that in Tel Aviv one should read on both days because of its proximity to Yaffo, and he even raised such a possibility regarding Bnei Brak.
• In practice: According to most poskim today this is not the practice in Tel Aviv. This is a complicated topic with many disputes, and we are not going into all of it here.

Se'ifim 3 and 4: a city in doubt, and the din of the berachah

• Se'if 3: We will learn it briefly, since its din has already been explained above.

"A city about which there is a doubt whether it was surrounded by a wall from the days of Yehoshua bin Nun: they read on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth and on their nights, but one recites the berachah only on the fourteenth."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• The second day without a berachah: Any reading done because of a doubt is done without a berachah, since safek berachos lehakel.
• The difficulty: If the situation is a genuine doubt, then seemingly on the first day too one should read without a berachah, since perhaps this is not its day.
• The view of the Rambam: We follow the majority, and the majority of cities are not walled and read on the fourteenth, so he makes the berachah on the fourteenth.
• The words of the Ran: He strengthens the Rambam's position. If we do not follow the majority the berachah is lost entirely, and we end up reading a megillah with no indication at all that a mitzvah is being performed, and that cannot be.
• The distinction between a rabbinic enactment and a doubt: When the Sages set out different times for the reading in advance (as in their day, when some read on the eleventh, the twelfth or the thirteenth), that is an explicit ruling and one can make a berachah on it. Here, though, the Sages themselves are in doubt about the matter, and the cases are not comparable.

Se'if 5: a city resident who traveled to a walled city, and one traveling in the desert or at sea

"A resident of a city who went to a walled city, or a resident of a walled city who went to a city: if he intended to return to his place by the time of the reading and he was delayed and did not return, he reads according to his own place; and if he did not intend to return until after the time of the reading, he reads together with the people of the place where he is. And if he is in the desert or on a ship, he reads on the fourteenth."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• Traveling from a city to a walled city: Many questions hang on this se'if: when he left, before dawn or after, and when he intends to return. Someone who already heard the megillah in his own city, traveled to Yerushalayim for two hours and is returning, does not become a resident of that place, and there is a great deal of discussion about this.
• One traveling in the desert or on a ship: The doubt is not about knowing the date, since he knows perfectly well when it is the fourteenth and when it is the fifteenth. The doubt is in defining his location, since he is neither in a city nor in a walled city, and a ship is not a defined place.
• Deciding by the majority: We follow the majority of the world, who do not live in walled cities, and therefore he reads on the fourteenth. Even a resident of Yerushalayim who set out on a ship reads on the fourteenth.
• Someone on an airplane: The same din applies, and this is already a practical question in our times.

Se'if 6: Purim Meshulash

"The fifteenth that falls out on Shabbos."
(Shulchan Aruch)

• Fixed patterns of the calendar: The Jewish calendar has patterns that never change, just as Yom Kippur never falls on Sunday or on Friday. So too the Purim of unwalled places, the fourteenth, never falls on Shabbos. It can fall on Friday or on Sunday.
• When the fourteenth falls on Friday: For the unwalled towns there is no issue, and everything is done on Friday. But in Yerushalayim, where they read on the fifteenth, Shushan Purim falls on Shabbos.
• The name "Purim Meshulash": The mitzvos of the day are split over three days, Friday, Shabbos and Sunday, hence the name "threefold Purim." This applies in Yerushalayim alone.

How the mitzvos are divided over the three days

• Friday (the fourteenth): The reading of the megillah, because we do not read it on Shabbos.
• Shabbos (the fifteenth): We say Al HaNissim in davening, and we read the Purim Torah reading ("Vayavo Amalek"). On Purim there is no Hallel, so that raises no further question.
• Sunday: The Purim seudah.

Why we do not read the megillah on Shabbos

• The enactment of Chazal: They forbade reading the megillah publicly on Shabbos, as a decree lest a person carry the megillah to someone expert who will teach him, and carry it four amos in a public domain.
• The parallel to shofar: For the same reason we do not blow shofar on Rosh Hashanah that falls on Shabbos, lest a person carry the shofar and move it four amos.

Why they decreed regarding Megillas Esther and not the other megillos

• The rule: Something that was instituted from the outset as a public obligation only does not carry this concern, since the members of the community remind one another and no individual has to run and fetch anything. The concern of carrying exists only with a mitzvah that is a genuine obligation on the individual.
• Krias haTorah: Someone who did not come to shul on Shabbos is not obligated to take a Chumash and read the parashah, since krias haTorah was instituted as a public obligation only. It is a fine thing to do, but one cannot say he is obligated. Shemoneh Esrei, by contrast, is an obligation on the individual, and he davens it at home as well.
• Blowing shofar in Elul: Someone who did not come to shul is not obligated to blow at home even if he owns a shofar, and so Rav Weilenberg ruled, because this too is a communal mitzvah. One can argue with this, and there is nothing wrong with someone who does blow, but there is no obligation.
• Megillas Koheles: On Shabbos Chol HaMoed Sukkos we read Koheles, and someone who did not come to shul is not obligated to read it. He may, but he need not.
• Megillas Esther: A full obligation on every single individual. That is why they were concerned that someone who did not hear it in shul would take the megillah and go to someone who would read it for him or teach him to read it, and would come to carry in a public domain.
• Shofar on Rosh Hashanah: That too is an obligation on the individual, and therefore they decreed against blowing on Shabbos.

Handling the megillah and learning it on Shabbos

• The question: If we do not read it on Shabbos, seemingly the megillah is muktzeh, and a person would not be able to learn the megillah reading from the megillah itself on Shabbos.
• The answer: The megillah is not muktzeh, and it is permitted to learn from it, for example to learn it with one's son. Some poskim explain that learning is not the obligatory reading, and is not the reading that was forbidden on Shabbos, and therefore there is no muktzeh here. In times when seforim were not readily available, this was how one learned.
• The core concern: Not carrying within the house, which presents no problem, but taking it out into a public domain and carrying four amos, which is a Torah prohibition, whereas muktzeh is less severe.

The Purim seudah on Sunday

• The dispute in Yerushalayim: There was a major dispute among the gedolim of the generations in Yerushalayim, and some wanted to set the seudah on Shabbos, and even on Friday together with the reading of the megillah.
• The ruling: The halachah was decided to hold it on Sunday, because we do not mix one simchah with another, and because a seudah on Shabbos would blend into the Shabbos seudah and it would not be recognizable which seudah it is.

In passing · The times of the day on a ship, on a plane and in space

• The problem in space: Someone in space does not know how to establish the times for davening, since sunrise and sunset alternate rapidly.
• What Rav Goren said: He said this is proof that a religious Jew should not be involved in these matters, because of the halachic problem of establishing the times.
• On an ordinary ship: The problem does not exist to the same degree, since the times do not change from moment to moment, and one can establish them and daven properly.

In passing · Melaveh Malkah and the Purim seudah on Motzaei Shabbos

• The situation this year: Purim falls on Sunday, and the Purim seudah is held on Sunday.
• The main seudah is by day: By law the Purim seudah is during the day, and about this there is no argument: "One who made the Purim seudah at night has not fulfilled his obligation," meaning he is not exempted from the daytime seudah.
• Nevertheless, at night: This does not mean it is forbidden to have a seudah at night. The poskim say there is value in doing something at night, at the very least eating something, to mark the day.
• The problem this year: On Motzaei Shabbos we have the Melaveh Malkah seudah, and if the two are combined it is not recognizable what is being done in honor of Purim and what in honor of Melaveh Malkah.

The suggestion of "tadir ve'she'eino tadir" and why it is rejected

• The suggestion: To decide the matter by the rule of tadir ve'she'eino tadir, that the more frequent comes first.
• The rejection: The order of precedence does not necessarily teach us about importance, and this rule does not determine which one outweighs the other in stature.
• A proof from the order of the readings: On Shabbos Chol HaMoed Sukkos we read Megillas Koheles before krias haTorah, even though Koheles is not a full obligation. On Purim during the day, by contrast, we first read from the Torah and only afterward Megillas Esther. From here we see that the order of precedence does not always indicate importance.

The conclusion: according to where Chazal were more stringent

• The method of clarification: We must check in the sources where Chazal were more stringent, with the Melaveh Malkah seudah or with the nighttime Purim seudah.
• The Purim seudah at night: It is not the essential obligation, since one who made it at night has not fulfilled his obligation, and his obligation is by day. The night is a minhag and not the core of the din.
• Melaveh Malkah: It is mentioned explicitly in the Gemara as an important seudah that one should make.
• In practice: On Motzaei Shabbos we make Melaveh Malkah, and we designate a particular food within it, such as a cake, and say that it is in honor of Purim, and in that way both are fulfilled.