If one reads the Megillah in inverted order he does not fulfill his obligation, it being written (Esther 9:28): "And these days are commemorated and celebrated." Just as celebration cannot be inverted (it being impossible for the fifteenth to precede the fourteenth), so commemoration (the reading of the Megillah) cannot be inverted.] If he reads it by heart, or in Targum, or in any language, he does not fulfill his obligation. [("by heart":), it being written here "commemorated," and, elsewhere (in respect to the eradication of Amalek - Exodus 17:14): "Write this as a commemoration in a book." ("or in Targum, etc.":) This is what is meant: If a Hebrew reads it in Targum, and he does not understand it; or if he reads it in any other language that he does not understand, he does not fulfill his obligation.] But it may be read to those speaking a foreign tongue in their tongue, [so long as it be written in that tongue, so that he not read it by heart.] And if one speaking a foreign tongue hears it in Ashurith, he fulfils his obligation. [Greek is like Ashurith relative to this halachah. It is just that the original Greek has been lost and been forgotten as we wrote above (1:8)].
Tosefta Megillah
One who reads the Megillah out of order does not fill [his obligation], and so too with Hallel and so too with tefillah (i.e., the Amidah), and so too with the recitation of the Shema. [If] the [public] reader of the Megillah errors or skips over one of its verses, he does not go back and read the verse by itself, but he begins from the same verse and continues until the very end [of the Megillah], and so too with Hallel, and so too with tefillah, and so too with the recitation of the Shema. One who enters the synagogue and found that they had [already] read half [of the Megillah], and he finishes with them, he does not go back and read it from the beginning until the place [where they were when he arrived], but rather he starts from the beginning and continues until the very end, and so too with Hallel, and so too with tefillah, and so too with the recitation of the Shema.
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Tosefta Megillah
One who read [the Megillah] at night did not fulfill his obligation. Said Rabbi Yosei, it so happened with Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri that he read [the Megillah] in Sepphoris at night. They said to him, a time of danger (i.e., of persecution) is not a proof. One who recited [the Megillah] by memory did not fulfill his obligation. Said Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, it so happened with Rabbi Meir that he went to Asia Minor to pass the year and he did not find a Megillah there written in Hebrew. So he wrote it from memory and he went back and read from it. One who read [the Megillah], whether standing, whether sitting, whether lying down, whether he appointed a[n Aramaic] translator, whether he made a blessing before [reading] it, or whether he made a blessing afterwards, [or whether he made a blessing] afterwards and did not make a blessing beforehand, or whether he did not make a blessing either beforehand or afterwards -- he has fulfilled [his obligation]. Said Rabbi Shimon, it so happened with Rabbi Meir that he read [the Megillah] in the synagogue in Tibin sitting down, and the congregation was sitting down, and as soon as he finished part of it, he gave it to someone else and he (i.e., the other person) blessed over it.
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Tosefta Berakhot
One that reads the Shema backwards [i.e. out of order] does not fulfill his obligation [of saying the Shema]. And the same [applies] to Hallel, to prayer [of Shemoneh Esreh], and to the Megillah [of Esther].
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Tosefta Megillah
[If the Megillah] was read in a foreign language (specifically Greek, see Jastrow (לעז)), the foreign-speakers fulfilled their obligation. [If] it was read in Assyrian, those that heard it and those that did not hear it fulfilled their obligation. In any case, they do not fulfill their obligation unless it is written in Assyrian with Hebrew letters on a scroll, and with ink.
