Not Childs Play
The Vilna Gaon says a tremendous chiddush! On the pasuk "Vizichrom lo yasuf mizaram" [9/28] The memory will not case from your seed, he says that this means that children must hear the reading of the Megilla. Wait a minute. We all have a Rabbinic mitzva to train ["chinuch"] our children to keep mitzvos but here we see that there is a Biblical obligation for a minor to fulfill this mitzva. The reason might be that the children were also in danger of being murdered so they too must hear the Megilla in order to appreciate their salvation. However the Rambam writes at the beginning of the laws of megilla "Mechanchim es haktanim" so he holds that a child only has a Rabbinic obligation like every other mitzva. [See Tshuvos Vi'hanhagos 3/229]
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