Is this not a universal psak? (asking seriously)

water_bear88

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 7:48 am

I was always taught (no time to look it up now, if someone wants I'll try to do so motza"Sh) that it is ok if you miss a few words of the megilla here and there so long as you're following along and read them to yourself. AFAIK it's fine so long as you hear more than half of the words from the baal korei.

Now that doesn't solve the problem for mothers who need to pay attention to their own kids, nor of people who go to very loud kid-geared megilla readings who may in fact hear less than half. But why are people saying they had to go to a second reading because a crying baby made them miss a word or two? Is what I was taught an Ashkenazi-only psak, or maybe litvak-only?

Iymnok

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 7:53 am

water_bear88 wrote:

I just listened to a shiur on this. If you daydream but still have the place, you're yotzei. Since he is being motzi you, you must listen to each word . Otherwise he's reading and you're just listening in.

I can link the shiur if you want.

ra_mom

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 8:02 am

Anytime anyone in my family has ever called a rav about missing a word here and there, they were asked if they were following and reading along, and then the psak was that they were yotzei and did not have to go listen again.

cnc

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 8:41 am

rdmom wrote:

I learnt in a chasidish school that you have to hear each and every word. You have to keep up the whole time.

I learned in a non chassidish school exactly as you wrote.

amother

Pink

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 8:52 am

I learned in Bais Yaakov that you have to hear every word, if not you have to hear it again. I was once at a later Megillah reading and a lady there said that she went earlier and missed a few words so she has to re-listen.

amother

Brown

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 9:17 am

water_bear88 wrote:

I think what you are referring to is if you have your own real megilla scroll not just a printout then you can read it to yourself if you miss.

But most people don't have their own megilla which is why we have to be careful about hearing every word.

amother

Floralwhite

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 10:28 am

Not everyone can read as fast as the chazzan. So they will always be behind if they have to repeat words.
Or they don't trust their pronoun citation, especially with some of the really awkward names...
Or someone gets too distracted by noise and have a hard time refocusing. And now they have no idea where they are up to.
I know people like all of these situations...

Or, shockingly, they just hate it when people think THEIR convenience trumps the entire kehila.

greenfire

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 10:29 am

I've heard so many different takes on what is good enough from that we are simply there & we hear or we think we hear to we will be in cheirim if we miss even a single word

then you gotta wonder why people talk in shul ... disrespect on any given day Confused

ra_mom

Fri, Mar 25 2016, 10:31 am

amother wrote:

Not accurate. The psak is for regular follow along megilla reading material.

water_bear88

Sat, Mar 26 2016, 12:12 pm

I don't go to readings with a chazzan who speeds if I can at all help it. So for second readings, only women-reading-for-women or a male baal korei who takes his job seriously.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought the reason we all read out the psukim with the names of Haman's sons is that the baal korei says it in one breath and we're more likely to miss a word. Good to know there are different communities with different psakim.

Shuly

Sat, Mar 26 2016, 1:10 pm

I posted this on another thread too -

I think schools try to scare kids by saying that if you make someone miss a word, they will have to hear the whole megillah again, but this is not true.

You only have to hear megillah again if you miss a word and you don't say it to yourself.

(You do not have to say it from a klaf to be yotzei.)

imasinger

Sat, Mar 26 2016, 6:24 pm

Shuly wrote:

This. I am thinking about making a spinoff thread saying, "You think you learned something in school? Don't hesitate to ask a shaila. Maybe your teacher was mistaken. Maybe you mis-heard."