Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 17.

With this page, we begin chapter 2 of Megillah, which focuses on how the megillah is supposed to be read. The very first rule is that the megillah is to be read in order. The text goes on to tell us that other liturgical texts, such as the Hallel (which had been discussed a few pages earlier), the Shema, and the Amidah (the “standing” prayer, consisting originally of eighteen blessings) are also to be recited in the proper order. Why is this? My sense is that this reflects a very important perspective of rabbinic Judaism, namely, that the world follows its natural order. Miracles may happen, but time does not ever flow backwards. Elsewhere (in the ninth chapter of tractate Berachot), we learn that a prayer that asks that time be reversed is considered a vain or ineffectual prayer. Similarly, one can only appreciate the Megillah’s story of the deliverance of the Jewish people if one reads it in the proper order, first hearing about the threatened extermination, then about the miraculous deliverance.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.