For the source text click/tap here: Megillah 19
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The Megillah is called sefer/ ‘book’ and it is also called igerret/ ‘letter.’ It is called ‘book’ to show that if it is stitched with threads of linen, it is not fit for use; and it is called ‘letter’ to show that if it is stitched with three threads of sinew, it may be used.
Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: The above ruling is limited to when the Megillah is read publicly, but when it is read privately, one may use a Megillah that was written together with other scrolls.
The general approach is that the Megilla is referred to as a ספר — a book, but it is also called an אגרת, a letter. This teaches us that in certain areas, the Megilla is to be treated as a formal text, just as a Sefer Torah, while in other regards its laws are more lenient.
“The Rishonim (Rashba, Ritva, and Ramban) ask why it is necessary for the Gemara to derive the laws of writing the Megilla from a special gezeira shava of ketiva-ketiva when the Megilla itself is called a sefer as we find later in our Gemara-Besefer Nichtav(and a Defer Torah must be written with indelible ink in order to be Kosher(Shabbat 103b)?”
We explore the halachic and historical difference between a sefer/scroll and an igerret/ letter ...