The Laws of Purim

Q&A: Drinking Wine

I wanted to ask, what should I do on Purim since I don’t really like wine?

Purim Is Coming Soon – What Do I Do?

Listening to the Megilla with Limited Concentration

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?

5. Purim Ha-meshulash

Chapter 17: Walled and Unwalled Cities

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.

4. Traveling between Walled and Unwalled Cities

Chapter 17: Walled and Unwalled Cities

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.

3. Uncertain Places

Chapter 17: Walled and Unwalled Cities

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.

1. What Is a Walled City?

Chapter 17: Walled and Unwalled Cities

Most places celebrate on the fourteenth of Adar, whereas Shushan, along with cities that were surrounded by walls at the time of Yehoshua bin Nun, celebrate on the fifteenth of Adar.

2. Jerusalem and Its Environs

Chapter 17: Walled and Unwalled Cities

The Sages said: “A walled city and all that adjoins it and all that is visible with it are reckoned as a walled city” Therefore, not only do the residents of the Old City of Jerusalem celebrate Purim on the fifteenth of Adar, but so do the residents of all the neighborhoods adjacent to the Old City.