our Jewish little place: 2016-03-13

14 March 2016

Striped gold and blue milk bottle

..."He Brought Me to the House of Wine”
Ten different feasts are mentioned in Megillat Esther, each characterizing a significant stage in the development of the plot and the message that the Megilla tries to convey.
Feast celebrating the coronation of Esther (2:17-18):
And he placed the royal crown on her head and coronated her in place of Vashti;
And the King made a great feast for all his ministers and servants;
And he granted a remission of taxes to the provinces;
…In accordance with the King's bounty.

Upcycle a milk bottle to create a luxury bottle for the King's feast and to decorate your Purim festive table.
If you have some glass milk bottles put them together and re-purpose them into luxury persian bottles…
What you will need:
Glass milk bottles.
Gold spray paint and light blue spray paint ,use a Quick Dry paint ,it really did dry fast with no drips or running which made it super easy to work with.
Masking Tape
Wrap the masking tape around the milk bottle to mask off the areas you would like to be clear. If you want smaller stripes you could always cut your masking tape in half.
With the bottle standing up spray the entire surface area with gold spray paint.
Wait until the spray paint is completely dry and peel away the masking tape.
Do the same now with the blue paint covering the gold stripes.
Glue some glittered , gold trimmings between the stripes

What you will need:

What you will need:
Glass milk bottles
Gold Spray Paint – I used Dulux Quick Dry and I love it. It really did dry fast with no drips or running which made it super easy to work with (and no I’m not sponsored by Dulux!).
Masking Tape
- See more at: http://www.bonjourberry.com/2013/10/#sthash.pyX9pZtW.dpuf

What you will need:

Feasting and Fasting in Megillat Esther . By Rav Yonatan Grossman
Let us review briefly these ten feasts and , based on them , the development of the Megilla:

Purim:the story of Esther

The heroine of the book named for her, Esther is a young Jewish woman living in exile in the Persian diaspora, who through her youth and beauty becomes queen of the Persian Empire, and then by her wits and courage saves the Jewish people from destruction. The message of the Book of Esther, written in the diaspora in the late Persian, early Hellenistic period (fourth century b.c.e.), gives encouragement to the exiled Jews that they, although powerless in the Persian Empire, can, by their resourcefulness and talents, not only survive but prosper, as does Esther.
Esther first appears in the story as one of the young virgins collected into the king’s harem as possible replacements for Vashti, the banished wife of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, reigned 485 - 465 b.c.e.). She is identified as the daughter of Avihail (Esth 2:15) and the cousin and adopted daughter of Mordecai, from the tribe of Benjamin (Esth 2:5 -7). Not much is revealed about her character, but she is described as beautiful (2:7) and obedient (2:10), and she appears to be pliant and cooperative. She quickly wins the favor of the chief eunuch, Hegai, and, when her turn comes to spend the night with the king, Ahasuerus falls in love with her and makes her his queen. All this takes place while Esther keeps her Jewish identity secret (Esth 2:10, 20).

Make this little paper theatre to tell the story of brave Esther.

Download the PDF template theatre and puppets at THE TOY MAKER.COM

read more at Esther: Midrash and Aggadah
keep reading the story of Esther

13 March 2016

Gragger and Meghillat case

Purim is just around the corner, and my children wanted a gragger and meghillat case project to do all by themselves... and they did it!!

While the one my kids did is a simple revisited noisemaker let's spend Jìjust few words about the "dragger".
A ratchet, also called a noisemaker (or, when used in Judaism, a gragger or grogger (etymologically from Yiddish: גראַגער‎) or ra'ashan (Hebrew: רעשן‎)), is an orchestral musical instrument played by percussionists. Operating on the principle of the ratchet device, a gearwheel and a stiff board is mounted on a handle, which rotates freely.
The player holds the handle and swings the whole mechanism around. The momentum makes the board click against the gearwheel, producing a clicking and rattling noise. A popular design consists of a thick wooden cog wheel attached to a handle and two wooden flanges that alternately hit the teeth of the cog when the handle turns. Alternatively, smaller ratchets are sometimes held still or mounted and the handle turned rapidly by the player. The mounted ratchets allow for greater control of the duration and timing of the sound. This allows the ratchet to be used like a snare drum, placing sustained rolls in precise durations of time. Dynamics are controlled by the rate at which the ratchet is rotated.

Purim gragger greeting cards

FREE PRINTABLES

Download the cards HERE

Since this is a story about a gragger, it is of course a Purim story.
One Purim many, many years ago, in the little town of Vardik, in far-off Russia, everyone was very sad and worried. Instead of looking forward to the gaiety of the holiday, they were afraid that their entire Jewish community would be destroyed. It almost seemed like the times of the first Purim--that's how great the danger was.

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