I don't understand megillah

amother

↑ Blue

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 2:07 pm

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

By all means please skip Purim if if you can't be bothered to acknowledged the huge miracle HaShem made.

I don't get this comment. How does questioning a practice lead into not wanting to be bothered acknowledging the huge miracle.

The current activities to acknowledge the miracle may not work for everyone. It's OK for people to speak about how it doesn't work for them or to prefer a different way to go about it.

amother

Opal

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 2:49 pm

amother Brown wrote:

I believe the mitzva is to hear, not to listen.
Personally, I think it has to do more with the Misora of passing down the Megilla , and making everyone hear it and participate as opposed to you as an individual
I hearing it, you are doing your part in the chain of the Misora

I am married 22 years and just had the most meaningful Purim of my life! My DH bought me an English sefer that my son recommended and it really deepened my connection to the day. So, it may take years like it did for me, but one day if you have the time and inclination to study, you might enjoy it.

Also your comment made me remember that my son came home and said that he learned that technically (obvs ask your LOR) if you hear the entire megillah in English and that is your spoken/understood language then you are yotzei the mitzvah. If you listen to the megillah in another language, say French, and you don't speak French then you are not yotzei cuz you didn't understand it. But Lashon Kodesh is the only language that even if you don't understand it, if you hear the whole thing you are still yotzei.

I think there's something holy and special about Lashon Kodesh that transcends understanding every word. And being a part of that is why we lain in a language where we may not get the meaning of each and every word. Which is kind of an add-on to the above comment about mesorah.

I really admire you for reaching out and asking and being willing to explore how Yiddishkeit can be more meaningful.

↑ Bnei Berak 10

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 3:05 pm

amother Blue wrote:

I replied to Butterscotch (and not to OP) who states "Purim is an illogical and frustrating holiday".
Butterscotch is entitled to her feelings. We all have a free will.
HaShem doesn't need our celebration.
He doesn't need our prayers and fasts. All Jewish holidays are for *our* spiritual benefits.

Bubby6

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 4:53 pm

amother OP wrote:

I'm not fluent in Hebrew. What is the point in someone going to hear megillah (and not being able to miss a single word) when they don't understand what is being said? What is the purpose? Am I supposed to be getting anything out of this other than stress and anxiety?

I don't have time to study in preparation so I will know what every word means and at the speed of the readings there's not even time for me to process what is being said even if I knew the words.

I would love some perspective on this.

I dont understand why I cant put cheese on my meat.
But I wont do it because I do like to do mitzvos

seeker

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 5:48 pm

Didn't read all the replies.

I think, naturally, the main function of the mitzvah on a population level is for the listeners to understand it. But for the people who don't understand it, individually, listening to the original still holds value in maintaining tradition and connecting you to the broader Jewish community. Even if you don't follow every word, you still get the vibe that you are hearing the authentic ancient words that are part of our heritage, as part of a group of Jews maintaining that heritage. If you have children, you are also passing down and role modeling this tradition to them and maybe they'll understand the words better than you too.

I think there's also a chance that as you keep repeating it year after year, the meaning might come through eventually. I took a lot longer than others to catch onto hebrew but eventually I got there. Not everyone is going to work like that but you never know what can come through if you stick with it.

amother

↑ Feverfew

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 6:23 pm

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Illogical = she doesn’t understand it
Frustrating = it’s hard for her

None of these deserved your awful telling off.

If you’re so sensitive for hashem’s kavod, you should be sensitive for his children too. She didn’t say she wants to do away with anything, she was talking about her struggle. A little validation is a better Jewish middah than what you did. This attitude is what makes questioning/struggling Jewish kids go off.

JasmineDragon

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 7:30 pm

I hear you, OP. Megillah has gotten a lot nicer now that my Hebrew has improved to the point that I understand, not every word, but enough that I can follow along with the story, even in a fast reading. I remember when the only words I recognized were the names, melech, malcha, day, and party. I would read the English translation and entirely lose track of where we were in the Hebrew, and have almost no way of finding it again.

Everyone saying you should just study and learn the words - have you ever tried to learn something the length of megillat Esther in a language you don't speak? It's not something you can do quickly and easily, and OP said she doesn't have time to study.

↑ DrMom

Wed, Mar 27 2024, 3:46 am

JasmineDragon wrote:

Everyone saying you should just study and learn the words - have you ever tried to learn something the length of megillat Esther in a language you don't speak? It's not something you can do quickly and easily, and OP said she doesn't have time to study.

You don't have to learn all the words used in the Megillah to get the basic gist of what is happening. Prioritize by focusing on the most frequently-used words.

OP, try this:

I went to ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) and wrote the following prompt:

Quote:

I will enter a block of text. I'd like ChatGPT to output a table showing the 20 most frequently-used words in this text, ranked from most frequent to least frequent, excluding words with a length of 2 characters or less.

I input the first chapter of Megillat Ester and got the following pareto table:

Word Frequency
המלך 17
אחשורש 10
מלך 7
ממוכן 7
המלכה 6
מלכות 5
אחשורוש 5
פרס 5
שושן 4
המדינות 4
מלכותה 4
יומים 4
המן 3
כתב 3
בזיתא 3
המלכות 3
עשה 3
שבעת 3
שנת 3
הסריסים 3

You could try this with the entire Megillah, requesting as output a list of words as long as you want (say, 200 words - maybe longer, since there is some redundancy, as ChatGPT doesn't know enough about Hebrew grammar to understand that we put the definite article as a prefix).

Then figure out how many words you are willing to learn each week. If you learn just 3 words/week, and you have ~50 weeks until next Purim, that's 150 of the most relevant vocabulary words.

By next Purim, you should be able to understand significantly more of the Megillah.