Sign In Forgot Password

TETSAVEH/PURIM 5781

02/25/2021 06:00:44 AM

Feb25

TEIn honour of Purim, we’ll change the nature of our devar Torah.

Here are some Purim jokes:  scroll down for the answers:

  1. What was Esther’s gown made of? (I know, a preposition is something you never end a sentence with!)
  2. Why do some people drink on Purim?
  3. The proper name for Yom Kippur is Yom Ha-Kippurim, which could be translated (well, not really) as “a day like Purim.” So, what do these 2 holidays have in common (My thanks to my grandson Shmuli Novogoder in Israel for this question.)
  4. Why is it that, when the holiday is first named in the megilla, it is not called Purim” but “Furim?” (This is not really a joke, but is a technical point.)
  5. What dance do we do on Purim?

 

Answers:

  1. The gown was made of poly-ester!
  2. Because it is called “pour-im!”
  3. They have lots in common!  (Meaning: on Yom Kippur, in the Temple, they cast lots between the 2 goats. And, of course, Purim means the casting of lots.
  4. A basic rule of masoretic vocalization. When the letter pe comes at the beginning of a word, and immediately follows a word ending in the letters yod, he, vav, or ‘aleph, and the musical note that comes before the word is a conjunctive note, the dot disappears, changing the letter from what linguists call a plosive bilabial to a fricative bilabial. (This is really true! See Esther 9:26.)
  5. hava megillah

 

Happy Purim and Shabbat shalom!

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784