Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

Letter: Let Her?

February 26, 2026

Q May my artistic daughter fix a broken letter in my old megillah?

A The writing of a megillah is subject to the general rules of writing a sefer Torah. The Gemara (Megillah 16b) says this in the context of sirtut (line scoring), deriving it from the megillah’s self-description as “divrei shalom ve’emess (words of peace and truth),” as “truth” alludes to a sefer Torah. Rabeinu Tam (cited by Mordechai, Megillah 795) says this includes all the halachos of ksivas sefer Torah, except where the Gemara makes an explicit exception.

Some Rishonim cite another source: “Venichtav basefer (and it was written in a sefer)”—Esther 9:32, see Rashi—indicates that the megillah should be written as is a sefer Torah (see Megillah 19a). For this reason, the Rambam (Hil. Megillah 2:9) says a megillah must be written by a believing Jew, as is required for a sefer Torah. Following this source, R’ Akiva Eiger (glosses to O.C. 691) says that because a sefer Torah may only be written by someone obligated in tfillin (Gittin 45b; Rambam, Hil. Sta”m 1:13), a woman, who is not, may not write a megillah. But the Chida (Machazik Bracha ibid.) says she may. The Sha’arei Teshuvah (691) concludes that a megillah written by a woman may be used for the mitzvah bedi’eved, but a bracha may not be made on its reading.

If your daughter already repaired the letter, the megillah remains perfectly kosher, because even a megillah that is missing words is valid, so long as the majority of the words are intact (O.C. 690:3; see additional conditions there).

A boy above the age of chinuch who writes a megillah under adult supervision is subject to the same dispute as a woman, because he, too, is exempt from tfillin.

In summary: Lechat’chilah, you should not have your daughter, even if she is a bas mitzvah, or a not-bar-mitzvah son make the repair.