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$19.99 each
Silver Groggers |
- Purim
Grogger
- Silver
Colored
- Inner
Clown Cut Out Design
- 'Purim
Sameach' (Happy Purim) Lettering on Top
- Hand
Made in Israel
- 7" X
5.5"
A depiction of a Purim "Gragger"
(a "noise maker" when it is spun by hand) usually made
of wood and only used when Haman's name is
mentioned. Indeed, Purim was an occasion on which much
joyous license was permitted even within the walls of
the synagogue itself.
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As such may be reckoned
the boisterous hissing, stamping, and rattling,
during the public service, at the mention of Haman or his sons,
as well as the whistling at the mention of Mordecai by
the reader of the Megillah. This practice traces its
origin to French and German rabbis of the thirteenth
century, who, in accordance with a passage in the
Midrash, where the verse "Thou shalt blot out the
remembrance of Amalek" (Deut. xxv. 19) is explained to
mean "even from wood and stones," introduced the
custom of writing the name of Haman, the offspring of
Amalek, on two smooth stones and of knocking or
rubbing them constantly until the name was blotted
out.
Ultimately, however, the stones fell into disuse, the
knocking alone remaining. Some wrote the name of Haman
on the soles of their shoes, and at the mention of the
name stamped with their feet as a sign of contempt;
others used for the same purpose a rattle--called "gregar"
(from Polish grzégarz), and producing much noise--a
custom which is still observed by the Russo-Polish
Jews. Some of the rabbis protested against these
uproarious excesses, considering them a sinful
disturbance of public worship, but did so in vain. The
custom of using noisemakers in synagogue on Purim is
now almost universal. |
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