Jews celebrate the Purim holiday with costumes, parties, food and drink. Yet the festivities are meaningful and permeated with spirituality.

When reading the story of Purim, something very odd becomes apparent. There is no mention of God at all.

Perhaps if we take the message of Mordechai and his legacy seriously, we will never again be threatened with annihilation.

Scroll of Esther written by a scribe on the Iberian Peninsula around 1465, before the Jews' expulsion, has been acquired by the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.

We learn from the story of Purim and from the hero Mordechai in particular that a leader must follow his convictions, regardless of the ratings.

Three Book of Esther scrolls read on Purim during the Holocaust were recently found in a hidden synagogue at the former Warsaw Ghetto site after a wall in an old building in the ghetto collapsed.