Megillat Esther is not just a story, let alone a simple one. There are lessons to be gleaned that can help us to address issues that are eclipsing life. Let’s begin with Haman the vizier who was able to pass a decree calling for our annihilation. How did we Jews ever get ourselves into the

As we approach Purim, the focus of the days immediately preceding the holiday becomes the long history of the relationship between Amalek and the Jewish people. Beginning with the few pesukim comprising Parshas Zachor, we remember Amalek’s original attack on the Jewish people shortly after the Jews left Egypt. Then, we read the less famous

Purim is here, and nobody’s getting left behind. The residents of Ichilov Hospital’s children’s ward (in Tel Aviv) were surprised when volunteers dressed as Superman, Batman and Spiderman began scaling the walls of the building using cables attached to the roof, in an effort to reach its inhabitants, on a mission to deliver them mishloach manot,

Rav Shlomo Wolbe, in his Sefer Alei Shur, teaches a fascinating idea about the nature of the miracle of Purim. He explains that unlike other miracles, which required an “open revelation” of sorts, the miracle of Purim occurred completely within the laws of nature and was characterized by the trait of tzniut as it was

My father is always ready with a humorous marriage joke. One that generates noticeable laughter is when he quips, “I’ve been married for forty years but it feels like two days…(pause for an “aww” from the audience)…Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av!” Although it is satirical to equate marriage with a 25 hour self-afflicting fast, unfortunately

The month of Adar is a period of celebration on the Jewish calendar, culminating in the celebration of Purim. The consumption of alcohol on Purim is just one of the many ways we celebrate the great miracle that took place in the time of Queen Esther – the story we read about in the megillah.

From YNet: Following the attacks at the airport and subway station in Brussels Tuesday morning, the Jewish community has cancelled its Purim celebrations at the behest of the police. Over a thousand members of the Jewish community were supposed to attend the megillah reading (reading of the Book of Esther – ed.) at the Great

Rabbi Gil Student writes in the Jewish Link of New Jersey: The holiday of Purim celebrates the story told in the biblical book of Esther. Yet, as we read the Megillah, some people ask whether the story is historically accurate. Historians have long questioned the historicity of the events described in Esther. The Megillah reads

“Rava said: One is required to become intoxicated on Purim until the point that he cannot differentiate between ‘Cursed be Haman’ and ‘Blessed be Mordechai.’” (Gemara Megillah 7b) Why is inebriation halachically mandated? Do other forms of celebration not suffice to express our joy at the salvation precipitated by the nes (miracle) of Purim? The

The belief in the eternity of Israel—that the Jews will be saved somehow no matter what—poses a challenge to Mordechai as he urges Esther to place her life in the balance for her people. For if “relief and deliverance” will surely come from elsewhere, then what possible reason can there be for Esther to act at