I was perusing R. Yechiel Michl Epstein's edition of Psalms (Frankfurt 1723) and I noticed the following on the last page:
After the ma'amadot additions in this book, after the table for prayers at the very end, is a list of the verses recited aloud by the congregation at the megillah reading on Purim. The megillah itself is not printed in this book. The explanation I could think of was that in 1723 printed humashim or Bibles which included Esther, much less personal megillah scrolls, were sufficiently rare that many people - presumably women, especially (?) - could be present at the megillah reading with no text to follow along with.So here, at the end of a book of Psalms, it was deemed appropriate to list these verses for those who had their Psalter with them, but no Esther so that they could say them aloud with everyone. What do you think?
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Is there a table of contents? If so, is any mention made of these pesukim there?
ReplyDeleteI think your reasoning is very sound.
ReplyDeleteWomen said Ma'amados?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it. It's a Tehillim (with Yiddish translation), so it's for women. The Ma'amados are just so that this edition has something extra to make it worth it to buy. Or perhaps some women did say it.
DeleteI know Tehillim isn't/wasn't only for women, but I was trying to imagine who was most likely to be in shul with a Tehillim and no text of Esther in front of them.
I find that 75% of my mind wanders some time during the gantze megillah. I can only hope that the 25% that's following along in the chumash constitutes enough attention to be yotzai. How did they manage then, and certainly further back in our history, without the chumash to follow along in?
ReplyDeleteRachmana liba ba'i, maybe. They came, right?
DeleteI did a post once about an interesting idea about how women used to pray before printed siddurim were common - link.
JS: "I find that 75% of my mind wanders some time during the gantze megillah. I can only hope that the 25% that's following along in the chumash constitutes enough attention to be yotzai."
ReplyDeleteContemporary poskim (e.g. RA Kotler et al) say if you're following closely enough that you can point to the place if called upon, then that's enough concentration to be yotze.
Do you always turn the page at the proper time? I would think that's the equivalent.
could be just a nice, happy way of ending the book.
ReplyDeleteWait, you have to pay attention to be yotzei? I thought it was like shofar--you just need to listen.
ReplyDelete