Learn about the mitzvah of eating, drinking, and rejoicing, and how these everyday activities become extraordinary acts of devotion.

From a radio show on CHIN FM Radio, Toronto.

This in-depth Gemara study of Masechet Megillah focuses on observances connected to the rabbinically ordained joyous festival of Purim. This mini-series opens with a discussion about its observances when a Leap Year includes two months of Adar. A fascinating analysis of this will eventually lead us into the iconic Mitzvah of Mishloach Manot, the Holiday Gifting of Edibles to One Another! _____________________________________ Tractate Megillah, Chapter One, Page 6b - 7a. Episode Three: "SCRIPTED IN THE STARS" As elaborated on in the previous two Episodes, our unique Jewish system of calendric calibration resolves the discrepancy left by 12 lunar months and the solar seasonal year by intercalating an extra [month of] Adar. This is what we call a Leap Year. Our Torah calendar governs many religious observances and rituals, and the extra month of Adar raises a slew of Halachic questions to be solved from Ritual Readings to Holiday Gift Giving. In our previous segment we were introduced to differing schools of Torah on the subjects at hand. Here, in part three of the mini-series, we seek to the identify the sources and jurisprudence for the variances in these Halachik approaches. As it fascinatingly turns out, a precise analysis of the Script in the Scroll of Esther can be understood in both directions! Our Sages will therefore augment that very verse with independently established Torah truisms to arrive at very different conclusions. All of these discussions are, of course, borne of our Jewish Calendar and are directly linked to the Zodiacal Heavenly orbits!

This in-depth Gemara study of Masechet Megillah focuses on observances connected to the rabbinically ordained joyous festival of Purim. This mini-series will open with a discussion about its observances when a Leap Year includes two months of Adar. A fascinating analysis of this will eventually lead us into the iconic Mitzvah of Mishloach Manot, the Holiday Gifting of Edibles to One Another! _____________________________________ Tractate Megillah, Chapter One, Page 6b. Episode Two: "RIGHT TO READ" As we learnt at length in Part One, our Jewish calendar requires a unique system of calendric calibration to balance the Lunar Months with Seasonal Years. Resolution is found in a Leap Year in which a 13th Month is added. This induces years that are pregnant with an extra month of Adar, which naturally births a litter of related Halachic questions about Public Torah Readings, far beyond solving the Mystery of the Megillah. Part Two of this mini-series on Purim observances probes the matter to deliver pragmatic and viable resolution!