Megillah 1:3 — Defining a large city for the purpose of reading the Megillah

The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 5 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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MoedSederסדרמוֹעֵד
MegillahMesechtaמסכתמגילה
1Perekפרקא׳
3Mishnahמשנהג׳
נושא · Topicהַגְדָּרַת עִיר גְּדוֹלָה לְעִנְיַן קְרִיאַת הַמְּגִלָּהDefining a large city for the purpose of reading the Megillah
This Mishnah is:drawing the boundary, then a listwhat does that mean?
Mishnah מגילה א׳:ג׳ · Megillah 1:3
אֵיזוֹ הִיא עִיר גְּדוֹלָה, כֹּל שֶׁיֵּשׁ בָּהּ עֲשָׂרָה בַטְלָנִים.
פָּחוֹת מִכָּאן, הֲרֵי זֶה כְפָר.
בָּאֵלּוּ אָמְרוּ מַקְדִּימִין וְלֹא מְאַחֲרִין.
אֲבָל זְמַן עֲצֵי כֹהֲנִים,
וְתִשְׁעָה בְאָב,
חֲגִיגָה,
וְהַקְהֵל,
מְאַחֲרִין וְלֹא מַקְדִּימִין.
אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁאָמְרוּ מַקְדִּימִין וְלֹא מְאַחֲרִין, מֻתָּרִין בְּהֶסְפֵּד וּבְתַעֲנִיּוֹת וּמַתָּנוֹת לָאֶבְיוֹנִים.
אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוּדָה, אֵימָתַי, מְקוֹם שֶׁנִּכְנָסִין בְּשֵׁנִי וּבַחֲמִישִׁי.
אֲבָל מְקוֹם שֶׁאֵין נִכְנָסִין לֹא בְּשֵׁנִי וְלֹא בַחֲמִישִׁי, אֵין קוֹרִין אוֹתָהּ אֶלָּא בִזְמַנָּהּ.
Which is a large city? Any that has ten batlanim.
Less than this — it is a kfar.
In these [cases] they said: advance and do not defer.
But the time of the atzei kohanim,
and Tisha B'Av,
and Chagigah,
and Hakhel —
defer and do not advance.
Even though they said "advance, do not defer," they are permitted hespeid and fasts and matanos la'evyonim [on the advanced day].
Said Rabbi Yehuda: when [does this apply]? In a place that gathers on Monday and Thursday.
But a place that does not gather on Monday or Thursday — they read it only at its [actual] time.
A reading aid, not an exact translation.

This English is a clause-by-clause rendering to help you follow the Hebrew. It is not word-for-word literal, and it is not a transcript of the recorded shiur — the audio carries explanation and context the translation deliberately leaves out.

case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTannaconditiongeneral rule
Structure
The Mishnah's Structure▾
אֵיזוֹ הִיא עִיר גְּדוֹלָה — a definition
אֵיזוֹ הִיא עִיר גְּדוֹלָה?
not the size but the people — ten communal men make a town a city
עֲשָׂרָה בַטְלָנִים
ten kept free for the town’s needs — minyan, beis din, tzedaka, teaching
עִיר גְּדוֹלָה
reads on its day — 14 Adar
פָּחוֹת מִכָּאן
fewer than the ten
הֲרֵי זֶה כְפָר
a village — reads early, 11–13
מַקְדִּימִין וּמְאַחֲרִין — a list
מַקְדִּימִין וְלֹא מְאַחֲרִין
moved earlier, never later
מִקְרָא מְגִלָּה
the villages read early on the day of entry
מְאַחֲרִין וְלֹא מַקְדִּימִין
pushed later, never earlier
זְמַן עֲצֵי כֹהֲנִים
תִּשְׁעָה בְאָב
mourning is deferred, not advanced
חֲגִיגָה
הַקְהֵל
Summary Chart
Defining a large city for the purpose of reading the Megillah▾
CaseRulingReason
What makes a place a ‘large city’?Ten batlanim → a city; fewer → a kfar (village)—
May a village advance its Megillah reading?Yes — to the yom haknissah; never delayed—
Which observances may only be postponed, never advanced?Atzei kohanim, Tisha B'Av, Chagigah, Hakhel — pushed later if needed—
What is permitted on the advanced reading day?Hespeid, fasts, and matanos la'evyonim—
When did the village advancement apply?Rabbi Yehuda: Only where a yom haknissah was in force — a Mon/Thurs gathering; absent that, read only at its proper time—
Transcript
A machine transcript of the recorded shiur.

This is the shiur as spoken, transcribed automatically and left unedited — the wording is Ephraim's, and occasional transcription errors remain. It follows the audio word by word.

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Mishnah Insights
An amalgam of commentaries, including original insights.

These insights draw on the commentaries to this Mishnah and on the recorded shiur. Those commentaries often rest on earlier sources — the Gemara, the Yerushalmi, the Rishonim, and one another — without always saying so; where they do, we generally cite the one we read. Every commentary consulted is kept, verbatim, with this card.

What makes a city: ten batlanim▾

What counts as a city: ten batlanim

A city large enough to read on the 14th is one with ten batlanim — but who are they? Rashi: ten men the community supports to be always in shul, so a minyan for tefillah and leining is always at hand. The Rambam reads it as ten communal functionaries: three dayanim and three tzedakah administrators (six), plus a scribe for documents, a chazzan, a secretary serving shul and beis din, and a teacher of children.

Move it up, or push it off — and where Tisha B'Av fits

Megillah alone is makdimin — read early. The four others (the wood-offering day, Tisha B'Av, chagigah, hakhel) are me'acharin: never early, only deferred, since none has any meaning before its date. That raises a question — the other three are Mikdash-centered; why is Tisha B'Av in the list? One answer: the Tisha B'Av here is not the fast but the first day the korban eitzim was ever brought, which the Tosefta in Megillas Taanis places on Tisha B'Av — so all four are Mikdash occasions after all.

R' Yehuda takes it back

R' Yehuda (a later Tanna, of Usha) limits the early-reading dispensation to places that actually gathered on Mondays and Thursdays; elsewhere one reads only on the 14th. He is signaling an institution already going obsolete as the old market-and-court rhythm faded. (And on the early days one may still eulogize, fast, and give matanos la'evyonim — the poor look to the reading-day for their gifts.)

שְׁאֵלַת חָכָם

Why is Tisha B'Av listed before chagigah and hakhel, out of calendar order? (Yesh Seder LaMishnah)

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Pesachim 4:5
how Tisha B'Av is observed
Mishnah 5 of 41
Megillah 1:3
The laws of observing Tisha B'Av
Next →
Taanis 2:10
a fast that falls on Shabbos

Where this sits: the laws of observing Tisha B'Av

This series treats Tisha B’Av not as a single day but as a deepening arc of mourning — minimizing joy from Rosh Chodesh Av, layering restrictions through the week it falls in, down to the fast itself. This mishnah guards one edge of that arc: when Tisha B’Av coincides with Shabbos, the fast is pushed to Sunday — never moved up — so the mourning is not accelerated. The series places it among the mishnayos that shape how the day is kept.

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