Overview
- Israel remained under a state of emergency after Iranian missile strikes that followed coordinated Israeli–U.S. attacks, with the IDF Home Front Command banning large gatherings and closing schools and workplaces.
- Megillah readings and celebrations shifted into bomb shelters, underground parking garages, and home safe rooms, including large shelter-based events in Tel Aviv.
- Rishon LeTzion Rav Yitzchok Yosef instructed that the Megillah must be heard directly from a reader near protected spaces and not via radio, Zoom, telephone, or other electronic means, and he detailed how to handle readings interrupted by sirens.
- Other guides cited leniencies for live online listening when no safe in-person option exists, while volunteers and Chabad emissaries organized dozens of small readings and delivered mishloach manot and charity door to door.
- Diaspora communities marked the holiday with references to the conflict, with Palm Beach worshipers describing heightened meaning and U.S. rabbis emphasizing unity and resilience.