The post Thousands gather in Hostages Square to read Book of Esther on Purim eve appeared first on The Times of Israel.

Purim traditions include reading the Megillah, exchanging food gifts, giving to the needy, and dressing in costumes.

Video shows Yehuda Gerami dancing with students, reading megillah scroll at site believed by local community to be in ancient ...

The festival of fun and frivolity has been harder for some Jews to celebrate in the wake of the destruction of Gaza.

On Purim, Jews celebrate a long-ago victory over hatred, but it's worth praying too for the frustration of some modern ...

or almost all of the book of Esther during Purim. Why? How much of the scroll of Esther must one read to fulfill the Mitsvah of reading the Megillah, asks the Mishnah. Rabbi Meir says, ...

The National Library of Israel is lending the 400-year-old artifact to the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah ...

and it may have been celebrated as far back as the 5th century B.C.E. That’s when the events described in the Book of Esther — the basis for Purim — are believed to have taken place.

During the Purim feast, Hasidim customarily acknowledge ... Only two Jewish characters appear in the Book of Esther, and both have hybrid Jewish/Persian identities. Mordechai has a long lineage ...