By listening or reading the megillah is the mitzvah of zecher amalek being fulfilled?
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See Ramban on the pasuk זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק– wfbMay 24 at 23:36
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@wfb specifically?– The TargumMay 25 at 15:30
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2ולא ידעתי מה היא הזכירה הזו בפה אם לאמר שנקרא פרשת עמלק בציבור ונמצינו למדין מן התורה בשניה זכור (מגילה כט) ויהיה סמך למקרא מגלה מן התורה– wfbMay 25 at 16:26
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@wfb OY! My apologies, i thought you wrote "Rambam". Thank you!– The TargumMay 25 at 16:52
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2 Answers
The Maharam Schick Mitzvah 605 says that the mitzvah is to specifically read from a Sefer Torah in public with a minyan. He brings others who say reading the pesukim alone may work as well, but none that suggest the Megilla is an alternative.
As was pointed out in the comments, there are those who hold the whole mitzvah can be accomplished just by remembering it in your heart. However, the Minchas Chinuch in Mitzvah 603 states that even according to those opinions, there is a rabbinical requirement to read from a Sefer Torah:
כל פנים זה ודאי ברור דהמצוה ביחיד ג"כ מקיים רק פ' זכור בעשרה ובס"ת הוא מדרבנן אבל מן התורה די שיזכור בפה כל יחיד וז"פ.
More specifically to the question asked, the MB 685:16 brings a Magen Avraham that talks about someone who can only get a minyan for either zachor or Megilla, and says that he can be yotze the mitzvah of Amalek with the Torah reading of Purim morning. (The MB disagrees and says zachor is more important). From the fact that he didn’t mention using the Megilla, and the fact that the MB argues with him because the Purim torah portion doesn’t mention the mitzvah, it would seem that the Megilla is not counted according to all opinions.
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This is according to those who hold there even is a deorayta mitzva to remember amalek in some fixed way. For the other opinions the OPs suggestion is much more plausible. (In the extreme form we could even suggest that Parshat Zachor itself is a rabbinic enactment to alert us to the upcoming mitzva of Purim, like the other 3 special parshiot are alerts of upcoming mitzvot.)– Double AA ♦May 21 at 23:38
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I think you didn't fully appreciate my point. By analogy, there's clearly a mitzva to read Shkalim and about two weeks later a mitzva to give Shkalim. If someone read only he fulfilled that mitzva. But if someone read and didn't give he sort of missed the point, and the contrapositive of that is true as well that if someone gave that's a kiyyum in the mitzva of reading. By the same token, if Zachor is an obligation (which isn't disputed) to alert you to megillah then megilah is a kiyyum in remembering amalek.– Double AA ♦May 22 at 0:32
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More generally once you get out of the mentality that we're trying to substitute one action for a different formal rigid biblical action, you'll find the idea of Purim and especially megillah reading is a rather plausible kiyyum of zechirat amalek.– Double AA ♦May 22 at 0:32
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Where do you find the concept that zachor is to remind you of the Megilla? It’s a separate Mitzvah that was put before Purim because they’re related but the reading itself is a separate Mitzvah that requires a Seder Torah– ChatzkelMay 22 at 0:39
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Shkalim is also a mitzva that requires a sefer torah; no one is disputing the obligation of these 4 sections so I don't know why you keep repeating that. Youve suggested 3 are reminders and 1 is a coincidentally placed standalone chiyuv. More plausible (or at least more elegant) is they are all (also) preludes, along with the preludes of שבועות and Tishre (עזרא תיקן להם לישראל..). This doesnt detract from any's binding nature & if theres a biblical obligation to read specific text with a minyan (which would be quite anomalous but we're not here to debate that) then this can surely fulfill that– Double AA ♦May 22 at 0:53
Seemingly here https://www.sefaria.org/Peninei_Halakhah%2C_Zemanim.14.6.6?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en there is an opinion (although only one) that reading the megillah does qualify for the mitzvah of zecher amalek