CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDA & THE BOOK OF ESTHER Rabbi Joseph H . Prouser
Twice in the Gemara , Rav cites , as the basis of a rabbinic stance he espouses , “ a Secret Scroll ( or , “ A Scroll of Secrets ” – Megillat Setarim ) I found in the home of Rabbi Hiyya .” 36 Rav ( also known as Abba Arikha ) was the third century sage whose arrival in Babylonia marked the beginning of that region ’ s ascendancy as a center of Jewish learning and religious life . Rav was thus a pioneering architect of Diaspora Judaism . Hiyya was his paternal uncle .
Rashi defines Megillat Setarim : “ Such scrolls were hidden because it was forbidden to commit Halachot ( Torah She- Ba ’ al Peh : The Oral Torah ) to writing . But when one heard an important , novel insight and feared he might forget it , he would write it down and keep the scroll out of sight .” 37
Perhaps especially because , by virtue of their written form , such scrolls represented a break with normative Jewish practice of the time , only the most critical teachings were included in these aides-mémoire – these confidential memoranda .
The Megillat Setarim has a great deal in common with – and may well constitute a literary homage to Megillat Esther .
First , both were born of the pressing need to remember vital principles : “ These days of Purim shall never cease among the Jews , and the memory of them shall never perish among their descendants ... Esther ’ s statement establishing these Purim observances was recorded in a scroll .” 38
36
Shabbat 96b , Baba Metzia 92a
37
Baba Metzia 92a
38
Esther 9:28 , 32
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