Megillah 18a — the Talmud in English

“Afterward the Children of Israel shall return

to the Land of Israel,

and they shall seek the Lord their God and David their king.”

For this reason we say here the blessing, “And cause the shoot of David Your servant speedily to flourish”.

And once David comes—

the prayer comes.

For it is established for us [in tractate Sanhedrin, page 20b] that it is a mitzva to appoint a king before the building of the Temple. And once

it is stated: “And I shall bring them to My holy mountain and make them rejoice in My house of prayer,”

and “My holy mountain”—this is the Temple, necessarily the son of David has already come beforehand. For this reason we say here, after the blessing “The shoot of David,” the blessing “Hear our voice”.

And once the prayer comes—

the Temple service comes. As it is stated

at the end of the above verse:

“Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon My altar.”

For David preceded prayer, which is service of the heart, to the service of the altar. For this reason, after the blessing of prayer, we say the blessing “Be favorable, and so on, and restore the service, and so on”.

And once the Temple service comes—

thanksgiving comes. As it is stated: “He who sacrifices a thanksgiving offering honors Me.”

We see that thanksgiving is after slaughtering, and slaughtering is service. For this reason we say here “We give thanks”.

And what did they see to say the blessing of the kohanim after thanksgiving?

For it is written: “And Aaron raised his hands toward the people

and blessed them, and he descended from performing the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.”

And we object: If so,

let us say

the blessing of the kohanim

before the service?

And we answer:

It cannot enter your mind, for it is written: “And he descended from performing the sin offering, and so on.”

For

is it written “to perform”?

Rather,

“from performing” is written,

which implies that he had already performed the service; if so, the blessing is after the service!

And we object:

And let him say

the blessing of the kohanim

after the service,

and before thanksgiving?

And we answer:

It cannot enter your mind, for

it is

written: “He who sacrifices a thanksgiving offering,”

which implies that thanksgiving is after the service.

And we ask:

What have you seen that you rely upon this verse

of “He who sacrifices a thanksgiving offering”?

Rely upon this

verse of “And he descended from performing, and so on,” which implies that the blessing is after the service and before thanksgiving!?

And we answer: In any event,

it is logical

that

the service and thanksgiving are one matter,

for thanksgiving too is service of the Omnipresent; for this reason we do not interrupt between them with the blessing of the kohanim.

And what did they see to say

the blessing

“Grant peace”—

after the blessing of the kohanim?

For it is written

after the blessing of the kohanim:

“And they shall place My name upon the Children of Israel, and I shall bless them.”

And

the blessing of the Holy One, blessed be He

is peace

itself.

As it is stated: “The Lord shall bless His people with peace.”

And we ask:

But since one hundred and twenty elders, among them several prophets, already instituted

the

prayer in order, what did Shimon HaPakuli arrange?

And we answer: After the elders instituted the prayer—

they forgot it, and

Shimon HaPakuli

arranged it . .

From this point onward,

after they instituted these eighteen blessings—

it is forbidden to recount the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He

in the establishment of a blessing.

For Rabbi Elazar said: What is [the meaning of] that which is written: “Who can recount the mighty acts of the Lord, who can make heard all His praise”? To whom is it fitting to recount the mighty acts of the Lord—

to one who can make heard all His praise,

but there is no one who can make heard all His praise! Therefore, one should not add to recount the praise of the Omnipresent on his own initiative, but only what the Sages instituted .

Rabba bar bar Hana said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: One who recounts the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, excessively—

is uprooted from the world .

As it is stated: “Can it be recounted to Him, when I speak, or can a man say that he will be swallowed up?”

And thus he expounds the verse: Can all the praise of the Omnipresent be recounted if I multiply words of praise?! And if, nevertheless, he undertakes to do so—“he will be swallowed up”!

Rabbi Judah of Kefar Gibburya expounded, and some say: of Kefar Gibbor Hayil: What is [the meaning of] that which is written: “Silence is praise for You”?

For

the remedy for all of it,

the choicest of all remedies—

silence,

not to multiply words. And this is the verse, “Silence is praise for You”.

When Rav Dimi came, he said: In the West they say: A word—

for a sela, silence—

for two!

That is to say, if you wish to purchase the word for a sela, purchase the silence for two .

We learned in our Mishna:

If he read it by heart, he has not fulfilled [his obligation], and so on.

From where do we know this?

Rava said: It is derived by [the equivalence of] “remembrance”—

“remembrance.” It is written here

in the Megilla:

“And these days are remembered,” and it is written there

in the section concerning Amalek:

“Write this as a memorial in the book” .

Just as there—

in a book, so here—

in a book,

specifically.

And we object:

And from what [do you know] that this remembrance

there—

is reading; perhaps it is merely study

alone?

And we answer:

It cannot enter your mind. For it was taught in a beraita,

it is written:

“Remember

what Amalek did to you.”

Could one

say that this remembrance—

in the heart

is meant?

When it says: “You shall not forget,” the forgetting of the heart has already been stated.

Therefore,

how do I fulfill “Remember”? Orally!

We learned in our Mishna:

If he read it in translation, he has not fulfilled [his obligation], and so on.

And we inquire about it:

What are the circumstances? If it was written in the biblical language and he read it in translation, that is reading by heart!

For he is not reading it as it is written in the book!?

And we explain:

It is necessary [to state this] only where it was written in translation, and he read it

also

in translation.

We learned in our Mishna:

But it may be read to those who speak foreign languages in their foreign language, and so on.

And we ask:

But you said

at the beginning that if

he read it in any language—

he has not fulfilled [his obligation]?

And we answer:

Rav and Shmuel both say

that here it is speaking

of Greek.

And we inquire about it:

What are the circumstances? If it was written in the Assyrian script and he read it in Greek, that is reading by heart!

For he is not reading it as it is written in the book!?

Rabbi Aha said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: It is written in the Greek foreign language.

And Rabbi Aha said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: From where [do we know] that the Holy One, blessed be He, called Jacob “El”?

As it is stated

concerning Jacob: “And he set up an altar there

and called it El, the God of Israel.” For if it enters your mind

that the verse is saying

that Jacob called the altar “El,”

then

“and Jacob called it

El”—

it should have been necessary

for the verse to say so!

Rather,

the verse necessarily says this:

“And He called Jacob ‘El.’ And who called him El? The God of Israel .”

He objects to Rav and Shmuel, who say that one fulfills [the obligation] with Greek foreign language:

If he read it in Egyptian, Hebrew, Elamite, Median, or Greek—

he has not fulfilled [his obligation].

We see that even with Greek foreign language he has not fulfilled [it]!? And we answer:

This

of the Mishna

is comparable only to this

beraita, for it was taught: If he read it

in Egyptian—

for Egyptians; in Hebrew—

for Hebrews; in Elamite—

for Elamites; in Greek, for Greeks—

he has fulfilled [his obligation].

For the Mishna too is speaking in this manner, that he read it to those who speak foreign languages. For we learned: “But it may be read to those who speak foreign languages in their foreign language.”

And we ask:

If so, why do Rav and Shmuel establish the Mishna specifically as referring to Greek foreign language,

only;

let them establish it as referring to every foreign language,

for this law applies to every language: if he read it to those who speak that language, he has fulfilled [his obligation]!?

Rather,

we retract it. In truth, the

Mishna—

even

like the beraita,

and it speaks of every language: if he read it in Egyptian for Medians, he has not fulfilled [his obligation]. But it may be read to those who speak foreign languages—in their language. And there is no dispute between the beraitot, and the Mishna is like both of them.

And when Rav and Shmuel were stated—

they were stated generally,

and not concerning the Mishna. And this is what was stated:

Rav and Shmuel both say: Greek foreign language —

is valid for everyone,

even for those whose language it is not.

And we object:

But it is taught

in the beraita:

“Greek for Greeks,”

which implies that for Greeks—

yes,

he has fulfilled [his obligation], but

for everyone—

no?

And we answer:

They,

Rav and Shmuel,

speak in accordance with Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel. For we learned: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Even books they permitted to be written only in Greek,

we see that he holds that Greek is valid for everyone.

And

we object: If so,

let Rav and Shmuel say

Rav and Shmuel:

The halakha is in accordance with Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel?

And we answer:

If

they had

said, “The halakha is in accordance with Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel,” I would have said, these words

apply to

the other books, but

with

the Megilla, in which it is written: “According to their writing,” let it be said

that

it does not

fulfill [the obligation] if he wrote it in Greek;

it teaches us

that he does fulfill [it] .

We learned in our Mishna:

And the foreigner who heard it in the Assyrian script has fulfilled [his obligation], and so on.

And we object:

But he does not know what they are saying?

And we answer:

It is just as with women and uneducated people,

for they too do not know what they are saying—and they fulfill their obligation.

Ravina raised an objection against him:

What difficulty did you have initially, and what did you need to resolve by saying that it is like men?

Are we,

the Torah scholars , the verse of

“the ahashteranim

“sons of the ramakhim”—

do we know

its explanation ?

Rather, the mitzva of reading and publicizing the miracle

is;

here too,

a foreigner who heard it in the Assyrian script,

the mitzva of reading

is,

and publicizing the miracle

also exists, for although they do not understand the reading, they ask those who hear it how the miracle was, and they inform them.

We learned in our Mishna:

“If one read it intermittently, he has fulfilled his obligation,” etc.

The Sages

of Rabbi

did not know what “intermittently” .

They heard the maidservant of Rabbi, who said to the Sages who were entering Rabbi’s house in intervals,

that they would enter a little—and stop, and enter another little—and stop:

“Until when will you enter intermittently, intermittently!?”

And this is also the meaning of “intermittently” in the Mishna: one reads a little—and stops, and reads again a little—and stops.

The Sages did not know what “haloglogot” meant [

which was taught in several places, such as: “Throughout all seven days he would not eat garlic and haloglogot.” Yoma 18a].

They heard Rabbi’s maidservant, who said to a certain man who was scattering parpahinei [

a type of vegetable]:

“Until when will you scatter your haloglog?”

The Sages did not know what

the explanation of this verse was: “Acquire wisdom, etc.,

“examine it, and it will raise you up.”

They heard Rabbi’s maidservant, who said to a certain man who was arranging his hair: She said to him, “Until when will you examine your hair?”

And from this they learned that silsul—examining—is an expression of searching and turning over .

The Sages did not know what

the explanation of this verse was:

“Cast upon the Lord your burden.”

Rabba bar bar Hana said: Once I was traveling with a certain Arab [

Ishmaelite],

and I was carrying a load [

and I was carrying a burden].

And that

Arab

said to me:

“Take your burden—and throw it onto my camels.”

We learned that “your burden” is an expression for a load .

The Sages did not know what

the explanation of this verse was:

“And I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction.”

They heard Rabbi’s maidservant, who said to her companion: “Take the broom and sweep the house.”

The Sages taught: “If one read it intermittently”—

he has fulfilled his obligation.

He read

“in reverse order” [

backward]—

he has not fulfilled his obligation .