1. Menachem Bluming Muses: Purim Clarity

2. Nehemiah was then serving as his cupbearer in “Shushan the castle.”

3. TOPICS Adar, charity, Esther, fasting, gifts, giving, loving-kindness, mercy, mishloach manot, Mordechai, Purim, salvation

4. Perhaps she enjoyed going to the market in Shushan, where goldsmiths, silversmiths, and other merchants displayed their wares.

5. However, as time progressed Susa became more and more the real administrative center of the empire. —See ECBATANA; SHUSHAN.

6. But Purim is most obviously characterized by a Boisterous feast se'udah during which participants dress in costumes and drink to excess

7. Purim is a celebration of the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther.

8. The sages say of Adar: “Its mazal [fortune] is strong.” Purim, the holiday of Adar, commemorates the “metamorphosis” of the Jews’ apparent bad fortune (as …

9. Haman, however, sat drinking with the king, unmoved by the grief he had stirred up among the many Jews and their friends in Shushan. —Esther 3:12–4:1.

10. Purim 2011: What You Need To Know "Sharpton was a pretty big draw," says Washington schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, recalling the Boisterous crowd at Cardozo

11. Haman, however, sat drinking with the king, unmoved by the grief he had stirred up among the many Jews and their friends in Shushan. —Read Esther 3:12–4:1.