Review of Yehuda Landy: Purim and the Persian Empire

Mitchell First reviews Yehuda Landy's Purim and the Persian Empire.

Purim and Paul: The Torah Veiled and Unveiled

What do Paul, Purim costumes, and Purim torah all have in common? Yehuda Fogel delves into the meaning of hiddenness and its role in revelation on Purim.

Holidays Reimagined: From Pesah To Purim To Post-Hurban Pesah

Shimon Laufer examines how Rabbinic understanding of the holiday of Passover influenced the holiday of Purim, and how one of the oldest manuscripts of the Mishnah hints that the converse may be true as well.

This Graphic Novel is a Bible Commentary. But What Kind?

David Zvi Kalman reviews Koren Publishers’ new graphic novel version of Megillat Esther.

The Agagites

For Parshat Zakhor, this short story by Shira Eliaser richly imagines the world of King Saul and the clandestine encounter that brought Haman’s Amalekite ancestors into the world.

Puritan Purim

How did Esther shape the way Puritans saw the ideal role of the contemporary woman? Cotton Mather, a major player in the Salem Witch Trials, had much to say in his Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion. Stuart Halpern of Yeshiva University explains, wishing us all a Puritan Purim.

Poets Are Purim Jews: On Contemporary Poetry’s Inexplicable Obsession with the Ordinary 

Poet Yehoshua November notices a defining characteristic of contemporary poetry—fixation on the ordinary. In light of Hasidic theology, November argues that appreciation for the holiness of the ordinary underlies Megillat Esther and the celebration of Purim.

In Plain Sight: Jewish Masquerade from Clueless to the Rabbis

Why have stories of Jewish masquerade captured audiences since ancient times? In her latest, Malka Z. Simkovich explores the hidden meaning behind dressing up, from the Second Temple to '90s cinema.

The Upside-Down Search for Hametz

Eli Genauer explores the profound impact of a printing error on the halakhot of Pesah.

Esther, Feminist Ethics, and the Creation of Jewish Community

How can the mitzvot of Purim reveal the feminist ethics of the Megillah? Aton Holzer offers an enlightening new reading of the Megillah, suggesting that there is a profound connection between the text's structure and its ethics.