THE PURIM LEAP- משוורתא דפוריא

                                                                 THE PURIM LEAP- משוורתא דפוריא

On Lag Baomer in Eretz Yisroel, children light up bonfires on every street corner and backyard etc. This practice is fairly

new and there is no Mokor (source) for doing so. It is done for fun and perhaps to imitate the Hadlakah in Meron.

However, there was such a Minhag of children lighting bonfires but it was done on Purim. This Minhag  goes  

back to the times of the Gemoro.

The Gemoro says ( Sanhedrin 64b)  "כמשוורתא דפוריא." Rashi explains “On Purim, children made a fire  in a pit and 

jumped over it.”

The Rema (*Darkei Moshe O.Ch. 690) quotes from the Aruch who writes,"All Bachurim make an effigy of Haman and hang it on their roofs for a few days. When Purim arrives, they make a fire and they have a ring on which they hang the effigy over the fire. They jump from one side (of the fire)to the other. This ring is called **משוורתא דפורים."

*This Darkei Moshe is printed only in the new Turim or in the

single volume Sefer D.M.(not in Tur)

* *Shavarta = leap-jump