Orthodox Jewish men gather as they mark the holiday of Purim, a celebration of the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, in the Mea Shearim neighbourhood of Jerusalem, March 25, 2024.
ne is required to become ‘spiced’” — that is, intoxicated — “on Purim.” Thus teach the sages of the Talmud. How spiced? (Only a Jew could respond to such a command with such a question.) “Until he does not know the difference between Cursed Haman and Blessed Mordechai.”
Jews feast and drink on Purim, celebrated today, to recall the story of the Book of Esther. In ancient Persia, the charming Jewish orphan for whom the book is named wins King Ahasuerus’s beauty pageant and becomes queen of a massive empire, while keeping her Jewishness secret. Her uncle Mordechai refuses to prostrate ...