[Avodah] Pirsumei Nisa

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 02:31:37PM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: I'd like to get to better understanding of the concept of Pirsumei
: Nisa. I know for example that it applies to three mitzvos: Ner Chanukah,
: Mikra Megillah, and Arba Kosos. I also know that it is a very important
: concept, so important that the usual 20% spending limit for a mitzva
: aseh does not apply.

Minor rephrase: Pirsumei nisa is a deOraisa that is the underlying
motivation for three mitzvos derabbanan.

I am looking at it in a manner parallel to the way davar shebiqdushah
could be a deOraisa (and thus the chiyuv of a minyan is from derashos)
and yet Qaddish, Qedushah, Barekhu, etc... are matbei'os coined by
the rabbanan.

Or, for that matter, the chiyuv deOraisa for berakhah acharonah vs
making the three berakhos that are the original matbei'ah. Or the
deOraisa of tefillah vs Shemoneh Esrei. To take a line from another
thread, if someone omitted yaaleh veyavo, he clearly couldn't have
failed to fulfil the chiyuv of tefillah -- it predates Shemoneh Esrei
altogether! So why does he have to go back?

That hypothetical parallels yours:
: For example, if someone cannot afford wine for the Arba Kosos, but
: he does have enough matzo, isn't that an adequate way of publicizing
: the miracle? Matzo very clearly commemorates both the slavery and the
: liberation. The four cups commemorate freedom only for those who are
: familiar with the drash and the pasukim, which makes it appear (to me)
: like a rather poor way of publicizing the miracle.

: So if a person has matzo, but has no money for wine, why should he
: have to sell his shirt for wine? Why isn't the matza good enough?

In both cases, one fulfills the de'Oraisa, but not the derabbanan.

As for the question about how the 4 cups actually qualify as pirsumei
nisa to begin with, it is discussed in "The Brisker Hagaddah", not that
I recall the answer nor know where I put it with the Pesach stuff.

Another question... Given that the seider has a pirsumei nisa, why no
"she'asah nissim la'avoseinu" beforehand like for menorah and megillah?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The mind is a wonderful organ
micha at aishdas.org        for justifying decisions
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