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THE DAFYOMI DISCUSSION LIST
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Rosh Kollel Rabbi Mordecai Kornfeld
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Sanhedrin 094a: When did the army of Sancheriv fall?
The Kollel wrote:
>>The Tzafnas Pane'ach quotes RASHI in Megilah (31a) who writes that the
>>defeat of Sancheriv occurred on the seventh day of Pesach (which is why
>>we read about it in that day's Haftarah, according to the Gemara there).<<
Moshe Kaplan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asked:
Rashi there seems to say that the fall of Sancheriv occurred on the *eve*
of Pesach, i.e. the first night. Where did the Rogatchover see that his
fall was on the *seventh* night of Pesach?
Moshe Kaplan, Har Nof
----------------
The Kollel replies:
It is true that Rashi in Megilah does not mention that Sancheriv's army
fell on the *seventh* night of Pesach. He seems to be saying that we read
about Sancheriv on the seventh day of Pesach since Sancheriv fell on "the
evening of Pesach," i.e. the first night of Pesach (while the Jewish People
were eating their Korban Pesach), as you write. This is in fact consistent
with what RASHI writes in Yeshayah 38: 1 and Melachim II 20:1, and with the
words of the MIDRASH SHEMOS RABA 18:5, cited by the TORAS CHAYIM Sanhedrin
95a and paraphrased in the poem "va'Yehi ba'Chatzi ha'Laylah" (which is
recited on the night of the first Seder).
If so, the Jewish people were *not* reciting a half-Hallel on the day of
Sancheriv's fall, and the answer of the Rogatchover Gaon will not be viable.
However, RASHI in Yeshayah 9:2-3 and 30:32 cites another Midrash, which
asserts that the fall of Sancheriv was on the *second* night of Pesach,
during which the Omer barley is harvested. This is the way the TOSFOS YOM
TOV quotes the Rashi in Megilah 31b (despite the fact that he references
the Rashi in Yeshayah 38 which states otherwise).
This is in fact consistent with what our Gemara teaches, that Chizkiyah did
*not* recite Hallel on the day that Sancheriv's army fell. This also seems
to be the Gemara's intention (95b) when it teaches that the night of
Sancheriv's fall was "when grain becomes ripe to harvest," i.e. it occurred
on the night during which we harvest the first of the year's grain (the
second night of Pesach, when the Ketziras ha'Omer takes place).
The Tzafnas Pane'ach apparently had in mind these citations from Rashi
(i.e. that the army of Sancheriv fell on the *second* night of Pesach) when
he wrote what he wrote. According to these Rashis, the explanation of the
Rogatchover is indeed viable (even if the fall of Sancheriv did not occur
on the *seventh* night, as we wrote in the Insights).
Best wishes,
M. Kornfeld
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