The Commentary of Rabbenu Hananel ben Hushiel to the Talmud: Megilla. Jerusalem: Machon Lev Same'ach, 1995.
David Metzger, The Commentary of Rabbenu Hananel ben Hushiel to the Talmud: Megilla (Jerusalem: Machon Lev Same'ach, 1995), 71, and n.
In the compendium on Jewish law Mishna Berura (690:37) the rule is that the
Megilla may in fact be read in any language to an audience that understands that language; however, since we do not know how to translate this particular phrase properly, in practice the
Megilla should only be read in Hebrew for the purpose of fulfilling the mitzvah.
OVERTURE AND PROLOGUE: DER NIGN FUN DER
MEGILLA (The Melody of the
Megilla); DEM MELEKH'S SEUDAH (The King's Party); VASHTI'S KLOGLIED (Vashti's Swansong)
(132.) BABYLONIAN TALMUD, TRACTATE
MEGILLA 7b, quoted in ROTH, supra note 118, at 320.
In this text, the shaved-headed
Megilla, already married to a woman named Demonassa, pursues Leaina.
(45) Maimonides, Code, Laws of
Megilla and Hannuka, 2:20.
For Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic one has 'yk' < *'yt + k' "there is" and lyk' < *l' + 'yt + k' "there is not" in the following examples: w'yk' d'mry "and there are some who say ...," Hullin 3b; 'yk' gbr' byhwd'y "there is a man among Jews," Baba Mesia 86a; and negated lyk' lm'n d'mr "there is none who said ..."
Megilla 26b; or bmqwm dlyk' psyd', Baba Qamma 27b.
Next, there is an intriguing observation in the Talmud (
Megilla, 16b) concerning Jacob's long separation from his father's house and its consequences.
He was playwright-lyricist for Broadway show "Shinbone Alley," playwright of "Better Than Wine," lyricist for "Oswego," film librettist for "New Orleans Cantata" and writer of the English section of the bilingual musical "The
Megilla."
Phrases like the Yiddish ganze
megilla (referring to someone's insistence on giving everything even when the other does not really want absolutely everything) come to mind.
This one is also found at BT
Megilla, 21a, and is originally preserved at Tosefta Menachot, 11:7.
There are then excerpts from a novel, The Book of Paradise, three short stories, autobiographical essays, critical essays, and finally poetry--ballads, Bible poems, personal lyrics, and the
Megilla Song.
Ibn Ezra offered instead the suggestion that the name of God was repressed from the text by its authors so that, when the
Megilla was read by the non-Jews of Ahasuerus' kingdom, they would not substitute the names of their own gods, thereby completely distorting the event theologically.(6)
