[Avodah] Purim on the 13th

[Elazar M. Teitz]

RMicha Berger wrote:

>On Y-mi Megillah 1a, there is a machloqes amoraim whether reading on the
11th and 12th was from AKHG, or if AKHG only left reshus that a later
generation utilized to allow it. The 13th was added later either way,
on the grounds that it was sandwiched in. (Which doesn't sit well with
me, but that's my problem.)<

     I don't believe that the Yerushalmi says the 13th was a later addition.  It says that there wewre to be days added "kayamim asher nachu," which was interpreted as the 11th and 12th.  To this, the question was asked, perhaps the days referred to shoulkd be the 12th and 13th, and not the 11th?  To this the answer is given that since they fought on the 13th, it wasn't "nachu."  Then the question is asked, why then do we read on the 13th?  And the answer is that it made no sense to be able to read before and after the 13th, and yet not be able to read on it.  There is no indication that this reason was not applied until some time after the original addition of days, rather than immediately when the 11th and 12th were added.

>Could we suggest that in AKHG's cheshbon (as in ours), Purim never fell
out on Wed or on Shabbos, and therefor they didn't have a need to permit
reading on the 13th?<

     I don't understand the question.  The purpose of the earlier reading was to have it be on'yom hak'nisa, either Monday or Thursday.  Since Purim can come on Tuesday and Friday, the 13th is a necessity.  Furthermore, from 3b it is apparent that if they kept the dechiyos, it was only not to have Purim on Shabbos and Monday (to prevent Yom Kippur from being on Friday and Sunday; i.e., they kept lo D"U, but not lo alef).  They had no need to have Purim not be on Wednesday.

>Given the level of observance among the olim miBavel, it would make
sense that AKHG would try to implement lo Adu rosh or another rule
that minimized chillul Shabbos. As RRW noted in the past, YT sheini
shel galiyos doesn't fit lo BeD"U Pesach except a safeiq of Shabbos
vs. Sunday -- there are no other pairs of adjacent days possible for
Pesach. So even if this hypothetical rule was in place during early Bayis
Sheini, it was apparently not in force between then and some time after
Abayei. Including when our mishnah was written.<

     Lo BD"U was only necessary to prevent RH from being on AD"U; and AD"U was not instituted to prevent chillul Shabbos, but to make its observance less onerous and potentially dangerous by having consecutive days on which vegetables could not be prepared for eating and the dead could not be buried.  

>Then, with the loss of the Sanhedrin, we were at a point of needing
to avoid tempting people into chillul Shabbos again, and the lo AD"U
and lo BeD"U rules were revived.<

     When there was no fixed calendar, lo AD"U could be observed without lo BD"U -- the number of days between Pesach and Rosh Hahana was not fixed, since there were not necessarily 3 29-day and 3 30-day months between Nissan and Tishri.  Thus, they could have had lo AD"U throughout Bayis Sheini, and not have needed lo BD"U.  (This assumes that the above-referenced Yerushalmi on 3b refers to the time after the fixed calendar was instituted.)

EMT



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