I have in my hands a luach for Eretz Yisrael for this year that gives three sets of Purim practices. This is my translation. All (parentheses) are in original; [brackets] are mine. In quotes are the original; outside of quotes are a paraphrase.
- "villages that were not surrounded by walls at the time of Yehoshua bin Nun" - Purim is 14 Adar. "The moshavot and the new cities, their rule is like all the unwalled cities and their Purim is only on the 14th."
- "the old cities in Eretz Yisrael like Jaffa, Lod, Akko, Tiberias, Tzefat, Haifa, Beersheva, and Hebron (Shechem and Gaza) (even though not all of these cities have a source for this rule, as we have explained in מק"א [?] -- leave Israel alone with the minhag that they have practiced) they are in a doubtful status of having been surrounded by walls from the time of Yehoshua bin Nun" -- do everything on 14 Adar. They used to also do Al Hanisim and the Torah reading on 15 Adar, but don't anymore. [Presumably because it's Purim Meshulash this year], do another seudah and mishloach manot on Sunday, 16 Adar. [It doesn't say whether they would read megillah again on 15 Adar in a normal year, since that's a moot question this year. Does anyone know?]
- "Jerusalem, which was definitely surrounded by walls at the time of Yehoshua bin Nun" - [normally 15 Adar. This year,] Purim Meshulash.
interesting that the most famous walled city in the time of Joshua- Jericho- does not appear on that list.
ReplyDeleteMy guess from the talmud in megillah is that it took a while before purim was a very fixed date. the talmud is concerned that people hear megillah sometime the week of the 14th of adar (usually on a monday or thursday when there were market days). So as far as the babylonian talmud's account, the main difference was not in terms of enclosure at the time of Joshua but whether you were a country or city mouse. In short, where you lived DID make a big difference in terms of the date you observed purim (unlike other holidays) but I wonder what the talmudic view on how you would know about a city's status in the time of joshua meant. (the talmud doesnt even use the argument that since shushan was walled at the time of joshua..., nor does the megillah refer to shushan as a walled city). possible that "since the time of joshua" was a phrase that meant "as old as time."
interesting that the most famous walled city in the time of Joshua- Jericho- does not appear on that list.
ReplyDeleteGreat point! Sure, there aren't so many Jews there today, but it should at least be there in parentheses along with Gaza and Shechem. Though I suppose it wasn't so walled by the time Joshua was done with it...
(the talmud doesnt even use the argument that since shushan was walled at the time of joshua..., nor does the megillah refer to shushan as a walled city).
In fact, as I've blogged before, the Talmud says explicitly that Shushan wasn't walled at the time of Joshua, and is therefore a special exception to the rule rather than (as one might expect) the source of the rule.
מק"א - מקום אחר.
ReplyDeleteAnd since there is a sizable Jewish community in Iran, about 50,000 people if memory serves, there are also Jews who live in "Shushan", which also has a legendary grave of mordecai and Esther.
Haifa and Beersheba are not good Examples, since there wasn't much there until the 20th century. I'd ask about Akko, Lod, Yaffo (and by extension - Tel Aviv).
ReplyDeleteIn a normal year, they laayn megillo, and perform all the mitzvoth of Purim, on both days. However, they recite the berokho only on the 14th. (If they had asked me, I would have said that Hevron should say the berokho only on the 15th, but they didn't ask me.)
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that many people in Teverya observe both days "mi-safeq" as to whether it counts as a walled city, or what part or something like that.
ReplyDelete