Af Hen Hayu Be'oto Ha-Nes: Level, Scope and Nature

A woman certainly lights, for Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Women are obligated regarding the Chanukkah light, for they, too, were [central] in the miracle.

Joshua b. Levi also said: Women are obligated to read the Megillah, since they were also part of the same miracle.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Women are obligated to drink four glasses of wine on the Seder Night, since they were also part of the miracle.

Since they were also part of the same miracle. Rashbam explained, that the primary part of the miracle was done by them; Purim - by Esther, Chanukah - by Judith, Pesach - for they were saved in the merit of the righteous ones of that generation. And this [interpretation] is difficult, for the language "since they were also" implies that they were secondary, and according to his [Rashbam's] interpretation, it should have said "since they were". Therefore, it seems to me, that they were also potentially going to be wiped out and killed, and so too on Pesach, when they were enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt, and in Chanukah, the decrees applied to them too. In the matter of Matzah, there is one who asks why do we need this comparison, that everyone who is included in the prohibition of eating leavened bread is included in the positive commandment of eating Matzah. [Why not] learn it from them having been part of the same miracle? And it should be said, that this reason [part of the same miracle] does not obligate one but Rabbinically, so we need the comparison. And our Rabbi Joseph, of Jerusalem, explained that you might exempt them from it, by means of a comparison, for [Pesach] is on the 15th, and so too Sukkot is on the 15th [and women are exempt from the Sukkah], as I have explained in the chapter of Eilu Ovrin (Tosafot on Pesachim 43b:1).

They were in that same miracle: Rashba"m explained that they [the Jews] were redeemed through them [the women]. And similarly, in the Megilla, through Esther, and in Chanuka, through Judith. And it is difficult, since "even" implies that they aren't the main thing. And also, the version in the Jerusalem Talmud is "even they were in that same uncertainty," implying in that danger of "to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish" (Esther 3:13). And this that we say that they [women] are exempt from [the commandment of] sukka, even though that even they were in that same miracle, is [based on] "that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths" (Leviticus 23:43), there, is regarding a positive Torah commandment. However, regarding the four cups, which is rabbinic, they established it also for women, since they were in that same miracle.

Mishna: The eve of Pesach, close to [the time of] Mincha, one may not eat until it gets dark. Even an poor Jew cannot eat until he leans [at the Seder]. And they should not [give] less to him than the 4 cups of wine, even from the soup kitchen.

(12) The mitzvah of the Hanukkah candle is an extremely dear one. And one must be careful with it, to publicize the miracle and to increase the praise of God and the thanks to him for the miracles he has done for us. Even if one does not have anything to eat except from charity, he borrows, or he sells his clothes and gets oil and candles and lights.

To include women - who are obligated in reading the Megilla, and are fit to read it and to enable men to fulfill their obligation.

(1) The Reading of the Megillah in its (proper) time is a positive commandment of the Scribes. And it is known that it is an enactment of the Prophets. All are obligated in its reading: men, women, converts, and freed slaves. And we educate minors in its reading. Even Priests engaged in service [of the Temple] cease their service and come to hear the reading of the Megillah, and similarly do we cease Torah study to hear the reading of the Megillah. How much more so, then, are all other commandments of the Torah superseded by the reading of the Megillah. There is nothing that the reading of the Megillah does not supersede, except the burial of a deceased person who has no one to bury him; one who encounters his [corpse] buries it first, then reads [Megillah].

Women are obligated in reading the Megilla. From here it appears that women may fulfill the obligation on behalf of others, from the fact that it does not say "to hear the reading of Megilla." And this is also implicit in Arachin (2b), which states, "All are obligated in the reading of Megilla." And it concludes, "All are obligated, to include whom?" And it answers, "To include women," implying that that can fulfill the obligation even for men. But there is a difficulty, because in the Tosefta it states explicitly that a tumtum cannot fulfill the obligation on behalf of his type or another type, and an androgynos can fulfill the obligation for his type and not for another type. And it is obvious that a woman is no greater than an androgynos [for this matter]. And so ruled the author of Halakhot Gedolot, that a woman may fulfill the obligation for her gender but not for men. And one can respond that we would have thought that their reading is ineffective even to fulfill the obligation for women; it comes to teach that they are obligated - that all are obligated in listening: servants, women and children.

(1) All are obligated in reading [the megillah]: men, women, resident aliens, and freed slaves. We teach the children to read.

(2) It is the same whether one reads or hears from someone who reads - he has fulfilled his obligation. That is, if he hears from someone who is obligated in reading it. Therefore, if the reader was a deafmute, or a minor, or mentally infirm, one who hears from him does not fulfill [his obligation]. And there are those who say that women do not fulfill the obligation for men. Gloss: And there are some who say, if a woman reads for herself, she blesses "to hear the megillah," because she is not obligated in reading (Mordechai first chapter of megillah)