About the App
Thank you for using JOFA's Megillat Esther App. This was created to be a resource for women and men who want to learn how to chant Megillat Esther, and organize a women's or mixed Megillah reading. We hope that you find it useful as you prepare for Purim.
About the Text Please note that we have chosen to use the text established by the late Rabbi Mordechai Breuer because it most faithfully represents the text as established by the Masoretes in Tiberias, who fixed the text of our Tanach. When possible, R. Breuer used the text of the Aleppo Codex, which was written by the last of the Tiberian Masoretes, Aharon ben Asher in the tenth century, and extensively proofread. For centuries, this has been considered the most authoritative representation of the Masoretic text. Unfortunately, the Aleppo Codex is missing for Esther, as it is for most of the chumash and some other parts of Tanach. For these sections of Tanach, R. Breuer's edition is based on his methodology for reproducing what we would have seen in the Aleppo Codex based on the Aleppo Codex's principles and closely related manuscripts. The differences between R. Breur's edition and the common printed editions are minor. No words are added or removed. All that changes is, occasionally, the accented syllable of a word, and, also only occasionally, the trop (cantillation) on a word.