ב"ה
There are two holidays on which we spin: on Chanukah, it is customary to play with a dreidel, a spinning top inscribed with the Hebrew letters that form an acronym of the phrase, "A great miracle happened
there"; on Purim we spin a noisemaking device called a gragger to drown out the name of the wicked
Haman.Still, there's a difference: the dreidel is spun from above, while the gragger is turned from below.
Exodus 27:20-30:10 Torah Reading for Week of March 4-10, 2001 
Two brothers, four sons, eight priestly garments, twelve gems, one golden altar--and
what it all means according to sages and mystics from Moses to today.The Parshah in a Nutshell Full Parshah Summary with Commentary More on the Parshah from the Chassidic masters
It wasn't that long ago that I was apprehended, imprisoned and reprimanded on the prejudiced, presumptuous, preposterous pretext that I jolted the proper protocol of the proud Pritish Empire! This prompted me to abandon my previous preoccupation, and to make Purim my priority. Instead of joining an exasperated press probing into prominent people's privacies, I would pursue celebrities like King Ahasuerus and Vashti of Persia. I would get a better picture, or portrait, of the Megillah's principal personalities: Queen Esther, Mordechai, Haman and his sons Parshandatha, Parmashta and Poratha, to name only three. I propose that this is precisely Purim's Problem: it probably needs more and better PR.
After completing the circumcision, when he dipped his finger in the wine to place a drop in the baby’s mouth, he raised his voice and called out very loudly the Talmudic expression, Nichnas yayin yatza sod--"When wine goes in, secrets come out." Seventy years were to pass before the significance of the great sage's words would be revealed.
On the Essence of Purim 
Did you know....... why Jews get drunk on Purim? .... that "Yom Kippur" means "a day like Purim"? .... that originally, there were two different conceptions of how the miracle of Purim should be commemorated, propagated by the two heroes and founders of Purim, Mordechai and Esther?
Therapist: They have a technique? Angel: Basically, there are two tricks: One is consistency. You know, you do something over and over again, and they take it for granted... Therapist: And the other trick? Angel: That's a matching game. Gets a little more complex, but still pretty insipid. You match up behaviors with the features of objects. Eventually, people start believing that everything follows a one-dimensional paradigm of cause and effect. Isn't that crazy? It's a twenty-six dimensional universe and these guys make it look like time has only one dimension! |
 Text of the Megillah with commentary  The Parshah in a Nutshell
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