| PURIM PLAYS – Jewish folk-comedies, written for performance in Jewish family circles or before a Jewish public during the month of Adar, especially on Purim. While in general a dramatic performance was considered frivolous, an exception was... |
| PURIMS, SPECIAL – Certain fast- and feast-days specially observed in some Jewish communities, in imitation of the national Purim, to commemorate deliverance from some danger which threatened either a whole community or an individual family. At... |
| PURITY OF RACE – The question whether the Jews of to-day are in the main descended from the Jews of Bible times, and from them alone, is still undecided. No one denies that the Jews of Bible times were to a certain extent of mixed parentage, and... |
| PURPLE – Mention is made in the Old Testament of two kinds of purple, or purple dye: (1) "argaman" (Aramaic, "argevan"; Greek, πόρφυρα), probably the bright-red purple, which was costliest when it had the color of coagulated blood, and... |
| PYGARG – Clean animal mentioned in Deut. xiv. 5, following the Septuagint. The identity of the animal has not been established.Bibliography: Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 126.E. G. H. I. M. C. |
| PYKE, LIONEL EDWARD – English barrister; born at Chatham April 21, 1854; died in Brighton March 26, 1899. He was the second son of Joseph Pyke, warden of the Central Synagogue, London, and was educated at Rochester Cathedral Grammar School and at... |