| How times have changed! Today Megillat Esther | | | | during the reading. |
| can be downloaded onto your iPod and | | | | When the Megillah is read in shul it is unrolled and |
| conveniently slipped out of your pocket for the | | | | folded to look like a letter, reminiscent of the |
| reading in shul - including various sound effects | | | | epistle sent by Mordechai "to all the Jews in all the |
| you can play when the word "Haman" is recited. | | | | lands...near and far, the observe...the days that |
| Quite a far cry from the megillah scrolls of yore! | | | | were transformed from mourning to celebration" |
| One particularly striking Megillat Esther - one of | | | | (Esther 9:22). |
| the earliest known - is housed at the Library of | | | | The atypical size of this megillah scroll and its large |
| Congress in Washington D.C. Written in the 14th | | | | letters (three-fourths of an inch high) may have |
| or 15th century CE, it features extraordinary | | | | been intended to allow the entire congregation, or |
| calligraphy and an unusual scroll height. Stretching | | | | much of the congregation, to see. This would |
| 32 inches from top to bottom (for comparison, | | | | allow congregants - especially those who could not |
| large Ashkenazi megillot rarely reach 24 inches in | | | | afford a megillah of their own - to fully carry out |
| height) the scroll is difficult to fold on the bima | | | | the mitzvah of "reading. |