#megillah

[joemerl]

Esther: Haman is trying to genocide my people!

Ahasuerus, who gave Haman permission to do that four chapters ago:

[uispeccoll]

Mini Megillah Monday!

Sometimes, you just have to make it yourself. That's what Robert E. Massmann did in 1968 when he wanted a miniature Megillah. This is copy 76 of 100.

A Megillah is a scroll containing the Book of Esther. It is traditionally read during Purim (which starts this week), a Jewish holiday that celebrates how Queen Esther was able to save her people from being killed by the advisor to her husband, Haman. To celebrate Purim, many people read the Megillah, eat hamantaschen (pastries shaped like Haman's hat), and dress up in costumes.

Housed in a beautiful wooden casing, the paper comprising the scroll is over three feet long! As you can see in the video, the scroll is able to be easily rerolled using the metal handle. As someone who has helped reroll scrolls before, we definitely appreciate this technology!

Smith Miniatures Collection BS1372.3 1968

-- Hailee M.

[estera-shirin]

Megillat Esther, Central Atlas region, Morocco, 18th century CE

[zebratoys]

תענית אסתר הוא יום צום המצוין בי"ג באדר, ערב חג הפורים. צום אסתר נמשך משחר ועד צאת הכוכבים בערב חג פורים, זכר לצום בן שלושת הימים שקיים העם היהודי בסיפור מגילת אסתר. 

Yesterday commemorated the Fast of Esther. It is a day of fasting observed on the 13th of the Hebrew/Jewish Month of Adar which is the eve of the Purim holiday. The Fast of Esther, also known as Ta’anit Esther, is a fast from dawn until dusk when three stars sparkle in the sky and observed in honor of the 3 days fast held by the Jews in the scroll of Esther. 

[themirrorofsienna]

Tarot Card of the Day: The Chariot

There is a passage in Megillah 29a that speaks with a simple and inexhaustible voice. It says that, when Israel went into exile, the Shekhinah went with them. The Presence did not remain aloof in heaven, untouched by grief. She descended, clothed herself in the dust of Babylon, and remained beside her children. Few lines are more daring. They present the Divine not as a monarch who abandons the condemned, but as a Mother who follows her own into captivity. This vision touches the heart of Marian devotion, where the Virgin is seen at the Cross, silent yet inseparable from the pain of the Son. To meditate on this truth is to recognise that the divine Presence never leaves, even when the world appears a prison.

The Chariot in Tarot is tied with the sign of Cancer, the house of the Moon, the place of maternal waters. The Presence goes into exile; the Mother enters the realm of severity; the veil is torn and the abysm glimpsed. The Chariot teaches that such descent is also ascent. The rider advances not by avoiding the abyss, but by crossing it.

More at The Mirror of Sienna.

Fiat Lux.

[girlactionfigure]

There are four mitzvot, commandments, on Purim: ⁠ (1) hearing the megillah⁠ (2) giving gifts to the poor (matanot l’evyonim)⁠ (3) giving gifts to friends (mishloach manot)⁠ (4) feasting⁠ ⁠

myjewishlearningcom

[samplerman]

My page for the Megillah Sunday Funnies project curated by Chad Bilyeu.

See all the contributions here.

[mxlabradorite]

Happy Purim!

Please enjoy my two minute megillah from a couple years ago!