Can a Wife Read the Megillah for Her Husband? (HaRav Yitzchak Breitowitz)

okay uh this will be the uh I think the last sh in Arvest there's still one more uh aspect I want to discuss about COA Raven which is an outgrowth of the law of Aros and that is uh the special complications although this is not the season of it of reading Milla now let's uh remember a few basic ideas although mikra Mill is a mitvah it's a a Commandments that is limited in time because it's only anpm orm uh but the is it's one of the exceptions that women areos in mraa women are obligated to either read the Milla or hear the Milla uh just like Kish is an exception Milla is an exception and the reason is the gamar says that women too benefited from the miracle of porim uh that they were saved their lives were in danger and therefore that overrides the of overrides what would otherwise be the exemption of MIT MMA so it would seem that just as the case of Kes men and women are equal Milla men and women are equal so now here's the question if men and women are equal can a woman read Milla for a man can a woman be Moy a man in C and I'm not talking about you know without I'm not I'm not dealing with all Kisha problems I'm dealing with husband and wife husband has laryngitis husband can't go to show husband's jaw is wired shut uh can his wife read the Milla for him okay so factor out all of the extraneous things of Kisha M that's not the question the question is husband and wife at home can a wife read a Milla now remember can a wife make Kish for her husband for sure she could for sure she could because she's equally the discussion we had yesterday which I'll come back to is if the man daved or the woman DAV then you have to come into Arvest but let's assume a situation where wife didn't hear kidish and husband didn't hear kidish a wife could make Kish for her husband so one would argue therefore a wife could read Milla for a man because she's now what if the wife was yot already could she read it for her husband so that would be the mlo we looked at yesterday between the Doug mirva and rebi ker because once I was yot the only way I could be mo you is through the principle of call you is Ravens so according to the rash AR a woman does not have Arvest according toer a woman does have AR on a mitvah that a woman is so bit the pus would be the following can a woman be Moi a man or her husband in mikra Milla answer if she was not y yet for sure if she was y already this would be the mlo the DOA and raber how to understand the rush who says I I hope this sentence made sense I uh okay everyone understands okay so this would be the pasas meaning the pasas would be once again if the woman was not yot yet for sure she could be M the man because she's if you're in a Mitzvah you could be mo somebody she's m if she was y you get a problem of AR right we discussed that yesterday so far so good but Milla brings the of the Bal hilos that's the bahag one of the gim that says that even though women are they're in Milla they cannot be Mighty a man and that's very difficult we know for Kish if a woman is she could be mo right A woman can't be Moi a man in Chau for because a woman is not Chau but on MIT that she's right the says by benching if a woman is and benching she could bench for a man if she's so what type of s would it be that even though the gamor says women are in mikra Milla they're the bah says a woman cannot be Moi a man right that's inconsistent with the general rule that if you're in a Mitzvah even without arv if you're actually in a Mitzvah you could be mo another person so it's a difficult bah it's difficult to understand the in fact brings both the brings the bah that a woman should not be Moi a man or cannot be Moi a man doesn't explain the reason so there is um a safer mares and again I'll say a little few words about it because mares was a very big G but he's not so well known today uh Mar which actually means by Corban when you make a so one of the ways you can make a meal offering is in a deep fried pan so mares is a word that means a deep pan so he was saying that his Torah was deep Mar mares was was a man who was called aus who died in the Holocaust and he was the chief Dian of vilna in the time of Mo greni renski was the gor he lived in vilna but rer grenki because he was kind of the godle of CLA Israel was actually not so involved in pining the local problems of vilner vilner was a big city buter was International so to speak so his right-hand man who handled Mikvah and AR and all kashus and all of G all of the things that were going on in vilna was so he was a very very big trusted him and he was kind of handling Vila while rer was dealing with with clel so who died in the Holocaust wrote a uh a safer of Kim called Mar and in the of he offers a beautiful brilliant explanation of why the bahag holds a woman cannot be mo a man even if she is in Milla and then he actually actually has a very big Kish where he actually says she could be might him at night and not during the day it's aish in the bah that the bahag den is only going to apply to the daytime reading of Milla and not to the night time and this point is the following his point is that when kazal enacted the Mitzvah of reading Milla right it's considered although it's in tanak but it's considered rabic reading milla's D Mor is also D so when were that were to read Mill there are actually two different aspects that we are fulfilling by reading Milla there are two things where accomplish ing two mitzvos are in mikra Milla aspect number one is pum Nissa which is similar to Kaneka we're publicly describing the Miracles that Hashem did for us we read the Milla we're ma the just as when we light kanah candles we are ma the so one Kum of mikra Milla uh is pum Nissa but there's another aspect of mikr Milla and that is it is also a fulfillment of remembering the evil of Amal remember that ham is from AAG AAG was the king of amalik that sha was supposed to kill and sha had rim and AAG and AAG had a brief uh time of freedom and during that that time he impregnated a woman who became the ancestor of hon Shu killed AAG but the pregnant woman was not identified and hon came from a hon is aik and when we talk about the destruction of hamon we are actually fulfilling the Mitzvah of remembering amalik and eradicating the memory of amalik that interesting contradiction remember to eradicate their memory don't forget to forget about them again it's interesting definition of the Mitzvah so it turns out mikra Mill is really two mitzvos in one rically mikra Milla is pum mikra isik and even though we did fulfill the shabas before porm but kazal also by enacting Milla actually Incorporated another aspect of remembering amalik through the M Milla now are women in the Mitzvah of remembering aik now you probably think yes because when it comes to which is the mitah remember women have special and everything else but the truth of the matter is the says women are not in in the mitvah of remembering amalik why would that be so it's notama it's notama why would a woman be putter in the midst of remembering a so the says the following the Tyra wants you to remember Amal so you will wage war against them and wipe them out meaning remembering Amal is connected to the Mitzvah to destroy amalik women are not obligated to physically destroy an enemy because that's an aspect of combat and women are excluded from Mil right that's for sure a woman is not allowed to even participate in combat so the safer argues since the purpose of remembrance is to fulfill the Mitzvah of eradication women who don't have the Mitzvah of eradication don't have the Mitzvah of Z which means according to the at least women do not have to hear Although our custom is to be mo but women are exempt from so now says the the following if women arees in Milla reading it is only because of the purua aspect and that's the Lan they too were in the miracle it's not because of the amalik aspect because women the like the women are exempt from so yeah is a woman to he Milla yes but a woman is only for one reason and a man is for two reasons a man is for and so the same principle that says if I am putter from a Mitzvah I can't be mo you right that's well known a we also say if I'm only in one aspect of a Mitzvah not the other aspect I can't be Moi a person that is in both aspects because leab the second aspect of Amal I am pter not I the woman the woman is is pter therefore the bahak says even though a woman is in M that's only because of P not because of am the man is even as well asum so since the woman is not she cannot be might a man in that obligation now what about why can't you do it for that reason so again uh both like the dova and like raber you have an answer like the dova uh who learns in the rush nashim don't have Harvest for men and like Rabbi ke AER there's no AR on a Mitzvah that the person is poter from so if the woman ister from like the she has no RAV to be sure that a man does it meaning either like the either like DOA or reer once the woman is putter you're not going to be ble to invoke to let it do it for the man right so this is a brilliant brilliant explanation of why the bahag says a woman cannot read Milla for a man even if she wasn't y yet because her is only purum is not because the follows the opinion of the who says that only applies when you have a Mitzvah to eradicate women do not have a Mitzvah to eradicate because that is and therefore the sa concludes women are not therefore their obligation in Milla is only aspect one not aspect two and somebody who only has aspect one cannot be Mighty someone who's in one and two and arus is not going to work either because of the dog's understanding of the rush or because of reer of the rash that if you're putter from a Mitzvah you have no arvas to help another another person uh yeah um you said before that the women were exempt in the com in combat yep technically part of combat uh well well you are correct we we do have not only the story of yehudis which is a Kana story but in tanak itself y uh actually you know killed a general of cisra uh the short answer is we certainly do have women who heroically killed R but they had no obligation to do that meaning they're not BOS M they are exempt from combat so yehudis was not part of the army yel was not part of an army Etc butami there were that that that did act uh yeah so a case of like you have an action that really is MIT at least for a man so if we agree that a woman a woman cannot she's not even y but she pursu yeah so she gets that sheilla how come if she does it for a man he doesn't get like that part of it meaning what if he a woman did it for a man he he get yeah that's a that's a that's a good that's a very interesting point but I I would say this when the created the Mitzvah of mikra they defined the Mitzvah that it has to contain a package of two components it's not just two separate mitzah which I do one without the other they said mikra Milla requires that you incorporate two Mitzvah so if you only get one Mitzvah you have zero meaning it doesn't count as a valid Mitzvah of Milla until it has the double the double package yeah ask Toad the Army ask toad it yeah well yeah well for sure for sure that's the case D'Or was not Jon of Arc she did not you know fight in in combat she was more of the spiritual leader and the truth of the matter is D is a very very I mean we'll we'll eventually get to it I hope um it's it's a very extreme case because number one even without the war D was a judge and thean a Chet chetes and normally a woman puzle to be aaet so how could dor do that so obviously the this was a very very unique case maybe s an emergency situation and and the yeah mentioned something about maybe the woman still being able to yeah so now so now I want to mention the mares is fascinating Kish the mares brings different MOS that the obligation to wage war against the Seven Nations and amalik is only a d daytime obligation it's not a nighttime obligation we don't wage war at night unless we're attacked of course but but but the to go out and kill am only applies in daytime hours because nighttime hours you're supposed to learn so the makes the following connection if there's no war against at night and if we go with the that the m of remembrance is connected to war that would mean there's no Mitzvah to remember so it turns out that the definition of mikra Milla at night is only a puma fulfillment and not a like fulfillment since on the purum level men and women are equal so the wants to be mes that even like the bosos a woman could be Moi a man at nighttime regular reading even though a woman could not be Moy a man on daytime aular reading now you got to be careful when you're talking to a audience Ora so someone's GNA quote me or the T Bri says you know it's okay for women to read mcgilla for men uh so you're going to bring your sister here porm Knight and you know uh she'll read McGill in the Yesa that's not going to happen uh so so again uh we're we're not addressing a whole bunch of other issues where I'm not addressing Kisha I'm not addressing M I'm not addressing SAS of course those are going to be issues we're focusing on maybe a a narrow case of a wife for a husband okay no problem right a husband is allowed to hear his wife sing so all I'm saying is so the say mades right and such an Ian that the problem the bahag has is only the Kila in the day and not the ca Milla at night now the truth of the matter is that extension is a little questionable first of all the bahag doesn't say it if the BAH if there is such a the bah himself should have said that the problem is only in the day but second of all the argument that because you don't wage war at night therefore there's no Z at night that's not necessarily Ironclad logic because one could say that even if you go with the idea that the purpose of remembrance is to wage war but maybe you always need to remember in order to wage war in the day meaning in order to wage war in the day you got to think about the enemy even at night meaning to say that you're exempt from Z because it's not as that itself does not follow but this was the kbone that the mares made so according to the mares even the bosos would actually say that a woman could read Milla for a man at night now what if the woman was already y so at that point you get back to the makus of yesterday between the dog merva and reaber according to the dog so once the woman was y she could not read it for her husband uh and according to reer since at night she does have this even though she was y there would be arvas right so that that's if you already heard Milla that would be the same M we discussed yesterday if she didn't hear Milla so the mares learns that even like the bahag for sure she could read it at night not during the day but as I say not everybody agrees with the bahag there are many sheas that say even during the day the woman could could read it because you don't subdivide it into these two components okay so this is again a very very interesting in terms of subdividing mik into two different uh someone to use it someone to give actually the mar himself actually gives another way of splitting it the two splits or the split that he had said so far was pum andik but but he then splits it another way uh the gar asks Sasha why don't we say Hal right Kaneka is coming up we're gonna say a full Hal for eight days for the Miracles of Kaneka the wars of Kaneka and by the way just to be sure you understand this the Hal of khaka like if I were to ask you why do we say Hal on khaka and you might be likely to give me the story of the oil that was supposed to burn one day and burned eight days and that is a miracle that happened but that's not why you say Hal and khanah you say Hal and khaka because the Jewish people were saved from an enemy that wanted to destroy them spiritually and created a war in other words the Hal of Kaneka is not on the Miracle of the oil although such a mirac of course occurred the of is in war against an enemy that tried to destroy us spiritually primarily it's important to know that the morale writes uh you don't make Kal just because God did I mean the N of the is a Wonder wonderful Miracle but Hal is always connected to Miracles that are mat claw Israel not St Miracles so the gamorra asks if we say Hal because of the Miracles of khaka then why don't I say Hal for porim saved usim right the G of porim H wanted to kill every single Jew so the gamarra actually gives three answers why we don't say Hal porm answer number one is the reading of the Milla is a fulfillment of Hal we do say Hal but we say Hal by reading the Milla reading the Milla is Hal we're praising Hashem for what Hashem did that there's a sheet of the who actually says that if you're on a desert island and you're stranded on porm and you didn't don't have a Milla with you but you have a sitter you should actually read Hal with AA because you're Hal but Milla takes the place of Hal but I don't have a Milla I got to read Hal that's the me okay that's one answer the second answer the Gomorrah gives is we don't say Hal on Miracles that take place outside of er Israel unlike the Kaneka story in which the victory took place in ER Israel the porm story took place outside of er Israel we don't say Hal on Miracles outside of er Isel so you might be thinking right away what about the Hal of PES the Hal of p is to commemorate that happened outside ofel right so if you don't say because you don't say why do you say on P so the answer is until we came to ER Israel meaning PES was on the way until we come to erel then even Miracles Ines could create the H but by the poem story we had been in erel and we had been exiled at that point we don't say Hal when we're for goess miracles right was before we came to ER Israel uh the porm story is the Gus from that's that's answer number two answer number three is very interesting it says we only say Hal when as a result of the miracle were out of danger by Kaneka we defeated the avanim and we established an independent government the enemy is no more by contrast in the story of porm even after we defeated hamon we were still in a state of subjugation to a and that means the next day some other guy might become Prime Minister meaning you're not out of the water yet you're in the same situation of potential danger and that's why we don't say Hal so we have three reasons why we don't say Hal one is is Milla is the Hal number two we don't say Hal and miracles that happen in and number three we're still we were still slaves of now of those three reasons we actually Pas actually P reason number one meaning Milla is so now the mar supplies the same analytical logic to this idea that maybe the two components of Milla are puma and Calo in other words this is just cutting it a different way instead of saying anduma it's Hal and purum okay so then he says women are in fact putter from Hala he says they could they could do it optionally but is that's not one of the exceptions so once again we're back to the same story when a man reads Mela he's M two things he is M Hal of porim and he's Muma when the woman reads Milla she's only M Puma because she's P from Hal now here he he also wants to come up with the night distinction because he points out that normally we don't say Hal night the only time we say Hal at night is Le seder which is a special thing but normally Hal is not a Mitzvah at night Argo the Milla reading at night it's the it's m much the same V except he's just substituting instead of am he's focusing on Hal as the other component and he'll come to the same conclusion it really doesn't change anything it's just two different ways of describing it that a woman at night could read mcgilla for a man yeah why don't we say a man you could you could say that yeah you're right in point of fact it's it's it's it's uh fine you can certainly say that because um all the conclusions are are going to be the same that of the three components a woman only has one of them and the man has two or three three of them and in the day at night the man also only has one of them right so that's kind of the over all the overall structure actually this was uh the mares it's interesting just as a little aside the mar wrote a uh I think the saer was was from the 20s or maybe early 30s it was not it was before the Hol when he published but uh at the time brisker der of Li which was kind of a new analytical Derk of learning was Conquering the Yeshiva World it became to this day to this day although there are many variations and it's hard to be MOG very few people except maybe in brisk and even then have the pure brisker der but to this day uh all virtually all advanced Yesa learning and at least in nonas is really based in r one one cannot believe the influence of r on on the D of Li of all advanced yba learning was in 1917 or 1918 so it's been a while and he was like the one whose DK conquered the Der by the way my owna r i remember in his office he had it's probably still there uh with the raelan I don't know uh he had a huge picture like a full body picture of raim salic and I always remember the eyes it's one of those eyes you know feels like he's looking at looking straight at in fact they say R's eyes were so piercing people were afraid he wore glasses even though he didn't need glasses the glasses just had plain glass in them so cover up his eyes because it was like scary but whatever it is but ran mentioned other of was the nicest person actually he was not a scary person at all but but he had a certain appearance that frightened you a little bit uh the uh story go vman used to tell say that when he was 9 years old he was already like an Eloy like brilliant so he was taken in to meet Sal the great R of brisk the G and in the middle of so you know you know gave him a little what whatever it would be and in the middle somebody came in they needed to talk to raim about a very important matter of and education so R and the nine-year-old Was Gonna Leave the Room said no you could sit it's fine you can sit and this boy little boy just stayed in Rim's meeting with this person and rman said what he heard as a nine-year-old from Rim gave him andos in how to run a Yeshiva all of his life he says he remembered kind of EAS dropping on that meeting it's almost as if maybe maybees that this little boy is going to start aiva and this was a discussion about how do you run a Yeshiva he wanted the 9-year-old to hear and R says he remembers the conversation and it guided him in making decisions throughout throughout his life so I'm bringing this up because D like conquered all of the Yeshiva World like like a storm like a tsunami but there were many many l who were like a pre and the was one of them and the mar Just Like apologizes in his he says he knows he is naked of the golden garments of light that have been introduced into the world of yeshivos and he is from the oldfashioned I'm not sure if it was sarcastic or not it's not clear says he knows he's one of the old-fashioned lamdan that have not necessarily followed the brisker ways but he hopes that his words will still have meaning even in these new fangled times with new Jim of learning so he actually has this uh kind of almost an apology for not being a brisker uh in his in his orientation okay maybe we'll stop here we can take care so M next week back to saer Yeshua we're going to go to the next uh Pim next subject okay thank you for listening to this awesome production to find out more and to partner in our mission please visit o.edu