[Avodah] bracha on megilla

[Zev Sero]

Something that seems pashut to me, but I haven't seen anyone suggest
yet:

Let's get back to Rashi's svara, that we don't make a bracha on chibut
arava because we can't say "vetzivanu" -- He didn't command us to do it,
either directly or through the rabbanan.

The distinction between this and the cases where we do say a bracha
seems obvious to me: when we say Hallel on Rosh Chodesh, we can say
"vetzivanu" because He *did* command us (via lo tasur) to say Hallel;
just not today.  Similarly, when we light a menorah in shul we can say
"vetzivanu" because He did command us to light it, just not here.  And
when a woman does a mitzvah she can say "vetzivanu" because she's part
of klal yisrael which was commanded, even though she specifically wasn't.
But when it comes to chibut arava, we were *never* commanded to do it,
anywhere, ever, so we can't say "vetzivanu".

Now we come to the 4 non-Esther megilot.  We were commanded to read
Megilat Esther on Purim; if there arose a minhag to read it also on
the second day of Pesach, to commemorate the day when the nes happened,
then I suggest that Ashkenazim would say a bracha on it.  But we have
never been commanded to read Eicha, let alone the other three megilot.
So how can we say "vetzivanu" when we decide to read them?

OTOH those who do say a bracha might argue that this svara would be all
very well if the bracha specified "vetzivanu al mikra megilat ester".
But the bracha just says "al mikra megila", and we were indeed commanded
to read *a* megilah, just not this one, and not today, so we can say
a bracha.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas