העורך Editor

On Censorship (Let’s Blame It on the Russians!)

The Coming of the Book – The Impact of Printing 1450-1800, p. 205-206:
From the start printing was an enterprise monopolised by Church and state in Russia. It had its origin in the administrative measures instituted by Ivan the Terrible after the conquest of Kazan in the middle of the century, being intended as a response to the growth of the artisan and merchant classes and to the urgent need for government censorship of liturgical books. It was an instrument of the policy of centralisation and coercion.
See more from the same book here.

You Can Eat Before Giving Mishlo’ach Manos!

Let alone before giving to everyone on your list.

Rabbi Avi Wiesenfeld quotes Rabbi Elyashiv who made the following ingenious argument:

Since eating on Purim is also a mitzvah, there is no special order of the mitzvos of the day. כפתור ופרח.

I suspect some people (children! I meant children!) misbehave on Purim since they haven’t had a solid meal yet…

For more, follow the references here (I haven’t).