B"H
Thursday, Adar 9, 5780 / March 4, 2020
The holiday of Purim will be Monday night, March 9 & Tuesday, March 10. Purim is when we celebrate the miracle of Jewish survival.
Monday evening and Tuesday morning we will read the Megilat Esther - Scroll of Esther, in which the story of Purim is recorded. Like the Torah, the Megilah is written by a scribe on parchment and is read with a special tune.
Q. Why is the Megilah spread out in layers during the reading, rather than rolled like a Torah scroll?"
A. Esther and Mordechai refer to the Megilah as "Igeret," the "letter". Thus, we fold the Megilah to look like a letter.
Q. Why do we make noise when Haman's name is mentioned in the Megilah?
A. Haman is a direct descendent of Amalek and the Torah tells us that we must, "Erase the remembrance of Amalek." When the reader mentions Haman, we erase his name by making noise.
Q. Mordechai was involved in the story of Purim together with Queen Esther. Why is the Megilah called Megilat Esther, giving credit only to Esther?
A. The Megilah tells us that Esther's Jewish identity was originally not known. Even the king didn’t know that she was Jewish, so her life was not affected by Haman's decree, which was to kill all Jews. In spite of this, Esther risked her life to plead for her people and thus revealed her Jewish identity. Since Esther put her life in danger more than Mordechai, the Megilah was named after her.
Another reason is that Esther was the one who insisted that the story of Purim be recorded and be added to our Holy Scriptures, therefore it was named, "Megilat Esther."
One of the excuses which the wicked Haman used to convince King Achashveirosh to get rid of the Jews was that they are no asset to the king because they do not work during many days of the year. They don’t work on Shabbat and their many holidays and there is no gain for the king to keep them.
G-d said, “I will perform a miracle; Haman will be hung and My people will celebrate another holiday.”
A ruler who was an avid antisemite, became very sick. He came to a saintly rabbi and asked him, “Rabbi, I would like to know on which day I will die?” The Rabbi said to him, “You will die on a Jewish holiday.
“What Jewish holiday will that be? Passover, Rosh Hashana, Purim?”
“It doesn’t matter,” said the Rabbi. “Whichever day of the year you die will be a Jewish holiday…”.
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY & SUCCESSFUL DAY