The holiday of Purim is observed today with a fast day called the “Fast of Esther” that precedes it on 13 Adar. Some Jews observe the fast day from morning until sundown. It does not begin the night before as Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av, and is, in essence, a half day fast. [1] [...]
The current practice is that Purim is celebrated as a one-day holiday. Cities that were walled at the time of Joshua’s conquest of Israel – most notably Jerusalem – celebrate Purim on Adar 15, as a commemoration of the end of hostilities in the walled city of Shushan, where the battles occurred on Adar 13 [...]
I am reposting this essay since Purim is coming shortly. My book “Ruth, Esther, and Judith,” tells, among much else, what the biblical book Esther really states, not what people want it to state. It is remarkable how a reading of the biblical text itself without any preconceived notions reveals many things that is [...]
