Should Women Read the Megilah?
Gaps between the roles and competencies of modern men and women have narrowed. There are not that many areas in which, as a generalization, one gender consistently outperforms the other. Still, there is a yin/yang kind of polarity between masculinity and femininity that we lose at our peril. Masculine and feminine polarity creates energy like the electricity created by the polarity of positive and negative. There can be comfort without polarity, but not energy. Masculine-feminine polarity generates the balance of universal energy, it underpins kedushah (sanctity), and it nourishes successful relationships.
This masculine-feminine polarity helps to explain aspects of women's roles in public Avodah such as Tefilah Betzibbur, Keriat Hatorah andMikrah Megilah (Public prayer, Torah reading and Megilah reading). These roles are often socially contentious and Halachikly complex.
The case of Mikrah Megilah is particularly interesting. Women arechayavot (obligated) to hear the Megilah but, according to theShulchan Aruch (O.Ch: 689:2), are not able to read the Megilah on behalf of men. Why, at least in communities where this would not be considered inappropriate (Kavod Hatzibbur) or within the confines of a private home, should a man not fulfill his mitzvah if he heard theMegillah read by a woman?
Reading To or Reading For?
There is something quite unique about the mitzvah of Megillah-reading that is different from Torah-reading. In the case of Torah reading one is required to hear the Torah being read from a kosher scroll. In the case of Megillah, the mitzvah is to read the Megilah, not merely to hear it read. The Ba'al Korei (reader) in the case ofMegilah, is not reading it to the community, he is reading it as theirshaliach, on behalf of the community. He represents and stands in place of each person in the community. When he reads, it is as if each individual is reading from the scroll.
Women however have a different relationship to the Megilah. Their responsibility is to hear the Megilah, not to read it (Mordechai[1] andRamah[2] in Shulchan Aruch). Women have no obligation to read theMegilah for themselves or to appoint a shaliach (an agent) to read it for them. It is for this reason, suggests the Ba'al Halachot Gedolot[3]that a woman cannot read the Megilah on behalf of a man: because one may not act as an agent for another if one is not obligated to do that mitzvah in the same way as the other is. The Mishna Berura[4]also gives that as the reason.
Even though women, because they were as much part of the Purim miracle as men, are obligated to hear the Megilah reading, theirhalachik relationship to the Megilah is different from that of a man.
Masculine and Feminine Energy
Understanding men and women's different Megilah obligations, requires an appreciation of some Kabalistic differences between feminine energy and masculine energy. Masculine energy is outgoing and action oriented. Feminine energy is deep, personal, inward and more passive. Masculine energy is about quantitative outcome; feminine energy is about qualitative process.
The Shem Mishmuel[5] (5678) explains that these two energies appear in the Purim miracle. There was the passive salvation of the Jewish people, and there was also an active physical battle that had to be fought and won. The battle resulted in Venahafoch hu (the scales were reversed): not only were the Jews saved from their enemies (that alone would have been miraculous) but they also ruled over their enemies and dominated them, a double miracle. Women experienced the first facet of the miracle, the salvation. In fact they not only experienced it, they in the person of Esther actually facilitated it. This is why Aff hein hayu be'otto haneis (women too, were part of the same miracle) and have to participate in hearing themitzvah of Megilah. However, dominating the enemy after a bloody battle was a particularly masculine facet of the miracle in which women were not directly involved.
The Shem Mishmuel sees a reflection of these two facets of the miracle in the two facets of the Megilah Reading. Reading theMegilah out aloud to the community is the facet of the Mitzvah driven by the masculine energy of public action. Hearing the Megilahinwardly, allowing its sounds and meaning to penetrate to the depths of the Jewish soul, is the facet of the Mitzvah driven by feminine energy. It is the delicate harmony of masculine and feminine energies, the reading of and the listening to the Megilah, that makes the occasion perfect. Women as guardians of the feminine energy in the world, perform the listening facet, while men perform the reading facet. This existential balance would wobble if a woman, who has no obligation to read the Megilah, did so on behalf of a man who is obligated to read it out aloud.
The way the mitzvah of reading and hearing the Megilah is constructed, maintains the polarity of masculine and feminine energies and enhances their harmony. The men read out aloud. The women listen inwardly. This harmony underpins kedushah and nourishes relationships.
Men (or masculine energy) dominate; women (or feminine energy) facilitate. Men need to win; women want to succeed. That is the difference. Women in a dating situation, playing a game or sport against men are often anecdotally advised to "let him win." When hewins, she succeeds. When the men of Shushan overcame theAmalakite bands of Hamman's brutes, they celebrated victory and they still do: by reading the Megilah out aloud in public. And while they do this, the women listen quietly and deeply with the inner knowledge that the victory being declared by their men is the success that they as women orchestrated. This male-female polarity playing out in the Megilah-reading, ignites the spark that is Purim.
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