Study Megillah folio 4B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
The Talmud asks: Is that to say that this ordinance is for the benefit of the cities? Didn’t we learn in the Mishnah that if the 14th occurred on a Monday, the residents of villages and large towns read it on that very day? If it is so, that the ordinance allowing the villagers to sometimes advance
The Talmud continues: Come and hear a proof from a different statement of the Mishnah: If the 14th occurs on a Thursday, the villages and large towns read it on that day, the 14th, and the walled cities read it on the next day, the 15th. If it is so, that the ordinance is for the benefit of the c
The Talmud continues: Come and hear that which was taught in the following Mishnah (5a): R' Yehuda said: When is the Megilla read from the 11th of Adar and onward? In a place where the villagers generally enter town on Monday and Thursday. However, in a place where they do not generally enter town
The Talmud accepts this argument: Do not say that the rabbis allowed the villages to advance their reading of the Megilla to the day of assembly so that they can be free to provide water and food to their brethren in the cities on the day of Purim. Rather, say that the rabbis were lenient with them
§ We learned in the Mishnah: How so? If the 14th of Adar occurs on Monday, the villages and large towns read it on that day. The Mishnah continues to explain the days on which the Megilla is read. The Talmud asks: What is different about the first clause of the Mishnah, which employs the order of