Megilla 20 Any Time of Day/Any Time of Night

The rabbis add to their dispute about whether or not a person who is deaf can recite the Megilla (and be heard by others to meet their obligations to hear the Megilla).  They move back to the example of the Shema.  The Shema is to be heard and spoken because of its wording, "Hear O Israel...".  However, Rabbi Meir believes that the Shema does not need to be spoken aloud, for the following phrase from Deuteronomy (6:6) are "(and these words) that I command you today shall be in your heart...".  Because the "words"of the Shema go after the intent of the heart, hearing is not required; the words need not be spoken aloud; people who are deaf can lead this prayer.  This is followed by another example of people who are deaf fulfilling mitzvot that - by the letter of the law - are not obliged.

Contrary to this example, we learn that minors are not exempt from their exemption!  Rabbi Meir argues about minors doing the mitzvot of terumah based on his own experience.  Through this example we learn another principle: one cannot teach a proof text based on his own experience.

A new Mishna teaches that certain acts must occur after daybreak - before sunrise but after the first light of sun:

• read the Megilla
• perform a circumcision
• immerse in a mikvah
• sprinkle water of purification (regarding ritual impurity due to contact with a corpse)
• immerse in a mikvah following two days non-bleeding for every one day of menstrual bleeding

The Gemara walks us through each of these requirements, providing prooftexts as they go.

Of particular interest is the rule regarding women's immersion.  Why are these women not 'covered' by the first guideline regarding immersion?  The rabbis suggest that this extra reminder is necessary because women have to remember to count their days without bleeding without counting half-days, as might happen for a man who is a zav.  Zavim are able to immerse the same day that they witness discharge in certain situations; this is never the case for women who have menstruated.

Amud (b) explains the last  guideline in our Mishna: if one does these things after daybreak, they are valid.  The Gemara discusses our understandings of day and night, based on the verses in Genesis 1:5.  G-d called the light day means that becoming lighter means daytime.  And the darkness He called night means that which becomes darker and darker is called night.  But wouldn't that mean that night would be any time after sunset?  How could this be when we know that we require three stars to be seen before we call the evening 'night'?  The rabbis turn to teachings of Rabbi Zeira to help confirm that 'daybreak' has the same meaning as 'day'.

We are introduced to another new Mishna.  If something is allowed during the day, it is allowed at any time of day.  If something is permitted at night, it is allowed at any time of night.

Daytime, any time, is also appropriate for 

• reading the Megilla
• reading Hallel
• sounding the shofar
• taking the lulav
• the additional prayer
•  the additional offerings
• Confession over the bulls (brought by the Sanhedrin or High Priest to atone for mistakes they had made in their instructions given to the people)
• declarations regarding tithes on Pesach
• confession of sins on Yom Kippur 
• placing hands
• slaughtering
• waving
• bringing meal-offerings near the altar
• scooping out a fistful of flour from a meal-offering to burn on the altar
• burning the flour
• pinching the necks of turtledoves/young pigeons as offerings
• receiving the blood of an offering in a vessel
• sprinkling
• having a sotah (a woman suspected by her husband of adultery) to drink the bitter waters
• breaking the neck of the heifer (when a corpse is found outside of town and it is unknown who killed it)
• all steps in purification process of the leper

The following acts can be performed at any time during the night:

• reaping the omer
• burning the fats
• burning the limbs of burnt offerings

Where is it written that these things must be done during the day or night?  The Gemara finds prooftexts for each of the listed actions.  We end today's daf with the justification for the trial of a sotah during the day.  Using the word "Torah" as their marker, the rabbis note that "the priest executes this Torah" on the sotah (Numbers 5:30) and that "According to the Torah... and according to the judgement" (Deuteronomy 17:11).  Because judgement is done only by day (Deuteronomy 21:16), the sotah's process must be done by day, too.

Amazing, the meticulous detail that has gone into the creation and recreation of this document over centuries.  I have heard it said that the Torah is a blueprint - if that is true, the details of the Talmud are like the tiny, precise notes that accompany that blueprint.  Just amazing to witness the thousands and thousands of hours that have been dedicated to each phrase that I read.