Megillah, Chapter Two, Mishnah 2. The Mishnah deals with the manners of reading through which a person fulfills his obligation of reading the Megillah, and with the writing materials in which the Megillah is written.
"Kara seirugin u'misnamnem - yatza":
"Kara seirugin" - he read the Megillah with interruptions. Even if he paused during one of those interruptions for the length of time in which the entire Megillah could be read, he has fulfilled his obligation. "U'misnamnem" - and likewise if he dozed, meaning that he slept partially during the reading, "yatza" - he has fulfilled the obligation of the mitzvah.
"Hayah kosvah, dorshah u'magihah - im kivein libo yatza":
The Mishnah deals with someone who is occupied with the Megillah in a way other than ordinary reading:
"Dorshah" - he interrupts his reading and delivers an exposition, explaining the words of the Megillah.
"U'magihah" - he reads it in order to verify that everything is spelled properly. In this manner he is liable, in the course of his work, to say things that are not one hundred percent precise according to the wording of the Megillah.
"Kosvah" - he is engaged in writing the Megillah at the time of the reading.
In all of these cases: "Im kivein libo - yatza" - if he had intent to fulfill the obligation of the mitzvah at the time that he read the words properly, he has fulfilled his obligation. "V'im lav - lo yatza" - if he did not have such intent, but rather his entire purpose was to expound, to verify the accuracy of the spelling, or to concentrate on the writing alone, and he is not interested in fulfilling the obligation of the mitzvah, he has not fulfilled it. It emerges that in all of these activities, explicit intent to fulfill the obligation is required.
It should be noted that in the case of "kosvah", the meaning is not that he reads from the very Megillah he is now writing, since one is obligated to read from a complete Megillah. Rather, a complete Megillah lies before him, and he reads from it while he writes a new Megillah. Here too, if he directed his heart to fulfill the obligation, he has fulfilled the mitzvah.
The writing materials of the Megillah:
"Haysah kesuvah b'sam u'v'sikra u'v'kumos u'v'kankantom, al haniyar v'al hadiftera - lo yatza" - that is, it was written with a material that is not ordinary ink:
Sam, sikra, kumos and kankantom - other writing substances. Kankantom is the material known as vitriol, copper sulfate, as well as the other kinds of substances with which one can write, but which are not defined as ink according to halachah.
Al haniyar - paper manufactured from grasses and the like.
V'al hadiftera - a hide that has not been fully processed into parchment.
With any one of these materials, he has not fulfilled the obligation of the mitzvah.
When does he fulfill the obligation? "Ad shet'hei kesuvah Ashuris al hasefer u'v'dyo":
"Ashuris" - that it be written in the Ashuris script, the script in which our Torah scrolls are written.
"Al hasefer" - that it be written on proper parchment.
"U'v'dyo" - with the same ink in which Torah scrolls are written, for this ink is permanent and clearly visible on the parchment.
The question of Tosafos - Ashuris script versus reading in a foreign language:
In the previous Mishnah we learned that one who reads the Megillah in another language to a person who speaks that language has fulfilled his obligation. But if the Megillah must be written in Ashuris script, how can one fulfill the obligation in another language?
Tosafos explain that the Megillah is indeed written in the other language, but the letters in which it is written are Ashuris letters. That is, Hebrew letters are used to spell out a foreign word, and in this manner the Megillah is written in another language.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned that one who reads with interruptions or who dozes has fulfilled his obligation; that one who expounds, proofreads or writes fulfills the obligation only if he directed his heart to fulfill it; and that the Megillah is invalid if it was written with sam, sikra, kumos or kankantom, on paper or on diftera, and it is not valid until it is written in Ashuris script on proper parchment and with ink - and even a reading in a foreign language is done with Ashuris letters.