Description

Vintage brass Purim ratchet Grogger handmade with engravings. The engravings on vintage brass Purim ratchet Grogger handmade & hammered copper showing the preparation for the king’s feast. Handmade brass copper grogger made by a Jewish emigrant from middle East during the 1950’s  

Dimension diameter 7.5 cm X 23 cm approximately.

A gragger,  also is known as grogger or Raashan, is a noise maker used only on Purim. It is comprised of a handle and a revolving part that makes noise as you rotate it energetically.  Noise making during services in the synagogue is forbidden the whole year, but on Purim adults & children make noise. During the Megillah reading, every time the Megillah reader mentions Haman name, making noise is like you eliminate evil. The custom is to make noise and the gragger is the traditional Purim noise maker. The message to all Amalek: the gragger is a reminder for us to eliminate the memory of Amalek totally. That we all should return to G-d with a whole and pure heart. In this manner, we will reach the joy of G-d’s divine protection and only then shall we live secure.

Blotting out Haman’s name occurs 54 times during reading, the congregation engages in noise making to blot out his name. This practice tradition can be traced back to the 13th century Rabbis the Tosafists   based on a passage in the Midrash.  The verse “Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek“^[50] is the base of this custom . Another tradition was to write Haman on the soles of their shoes, as a sign of contempt. Another method was to use a noisy ratchet, called a Ra’ashan  in Hebrew and in Yiddish a Grogger.

In some Jewish communities there are rabbis protesting against this tradition, considering it as a disturbance of public worship. But the custom of using a Purim Grogger in synagogues on Purim is now universal.   The Spanish and Portuguese Jews  communities consider the use of Groggers breaches the serenity and respect of synagogues.

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