There are four different mitzvos that we perform on Purim: reading the Megillah, matanos l’evyonim, mishloach manos, and seudas Purim. All of these mitzvos must be done during the day of Purim. However, the reading of the Megillah is done both at night and during the day.
The source for this is the Gemara in Megillah (4a). Rav Yehoshua ben Levi tells us that one must read the Megillah both at night and during the day. He quotes the pasuk in Tehillim: “אֱ-לֹהַי אֶקְרָא יוֹמָם וְלֹא תַעֲנֶה וְלַיְלָה וְלֹא דוּמִיָּה לִי – My G-d, during the day I called out to You, and You did not answer, and at night, I did not keep quiet.” As Rashi explains, this is to recall the dire straits that the Jews found themselves in, crying out day and night. This halacha is also quoted in Shulchan Aruch (Siman 687).
Tosfos adds an interesting point. Although we read the Megillah twice, the main reading is the one that we do during the daytime, and we therefore recite the brocha of She’hecheyanu again in the morning. Tosfos brings a number of proofs to this notion. If we look closely at the pasuk quoted, the pasuk first describes their crying during the day and only then adds that they also cried at night. This would seem to imply that the main reading is during the day.
Tosfos brings another proof from the fact that the seudas Purim must take place during the day. Since the reading of the Megillah and the festivities are compared, as the pasuk says, “נזכרים ונעשים – done and mentioned,” just as the seuda must take place during the day, so, too, the main reading of the Megillah is during the day.
The Different Levels of Requirement For the Day and For the Night
But what does Tosfos mean that the reading during the day is the main mitzvah? The Noda B’Yehuda (O”C I: 41) explains that there is a fundamental difference between the two requirements. If we take a look in the Megillah, we will not find any mention of a requirement to read the Megillah twice. In fact, this requirement is not even mentioned in any Mishna. The first one to mention it is Rav Yehoshua ben Levi, based on a pasuk in Tehillim. This means that although the mitzvah to read the Megillah during the day is a mandate of Mordechai and Esther, the requirement to read it at night only came as a later enactment, and there is a fundamental difference between the two.
In general, a mitzvah that was introduced by the Chachamim is a Mitzvah Midrabanan and has different rules and regulations than a scriptural mitvzah. However, a mitzvah that is mentioned in Tanach is known as Divrei Kaballah, the words of a navi, and is equivalent to a Mitzvah Min HaTorah on some level. As Rashi (Taanis 15a) points out, whenever we find a navi giving a command, that is referred to as “Kaballah – received.” The Chidushei Anshei Sheim adds that this is because the nevi’im received their words from Hashem.
The Maritz Chiyus, similarly, quotes the Machzor Vitri, who explains that this is because the prophets did not make up anything of their own; they received everything they said from Sinai. The Ya’avetz points out that this notion is alluded to in the words of the Gemara (Moed Katan 5a) that when discussing that a certain principle is Min HaTorah, it quotes a pasuk in Navi. This, says the Ya’avetz, is because a pasuk in Navi can be considered as if it is in the Torah.
In Conclusion
According to many poskim, there is a fundamental difference between the nature of the reading during the day and the reading at night. The reading during the day has a more stringent status, equivalent to a mitzvah in the Torah, but the night reading does not.
There are numerous halachic differences between the status of a mitzvah Midrabanan and one that is Divrei Kaballah, which is equivalent to a Mitzvah Min HaTorah, which we will see next week, b’ezras Hashem.
Rabbi Scheiner
