Jewish Holidays

It’s common knowledge that Adar is the happiest of all months. But why should it be? True, it contains Purim in it, & Purim is indeed filled with fun & food, single malt & masquerades. But does that make it the happiest?

It troubles me that I often daydream and/or doze off for a few words during Megilla reading. Do I fulfill the mitzva under those circumstances?

But can we be commanded to be happy? Is happiness a state of mind that is divinely imposed upon us - with or without our consent - or is there some secret to attaining this gift of joy?

When the fifteenth falls out on Shabbat, Purim in that year is called Purim Ha-meshulash (“Triple Purim”), because its mitzvot are divided over three days.

Since Purim is celebrated in unwalled cities on the fourteenth and in walled cities on the fifteenth, many questions arise regarding one who travels from an unwalled city to Jerusalem, or vice versa.

Most uncertain places today rely on the lenient opinion and celebrate Purim exclusively on the fourteenth. Only in places where the likelihood that it was truly a walled city is greater, like in Tiberias and Hebron, do many people customarily read the Megilla on the fifteenth as well.