Grager

A grager (Yiddish: גראַגער, 'rattler'), also gragger, grogger or gregger,[1] is a noisemaking device, most commonly a ratchet, used to make noise by the congregation when the name of Haman is read out during the recitation of the Megillah in the synagogue during the celebration of Purim in order to blot out Haman's name. This is done in accordance with the passage in the Midrash which commented that the verse from Deuteronomy "Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek"[2] must be understood "even from wood and stones". Traditionally Haman is believed to be an offspring of Amalek, and a tradition had developed to write the name of Haman on stones and to knock them until the name is blotted out.[3][4]

Yitzhak Shamir spinning a gragger

Knocking out Haman's name from stones

18th century Megillah reading; children with graggers in the back

A number of prominent rabbis, including Sefardi chief rabbis of Jerusalem, Raphael Meir Panigel, and of Izmir, Haim Palachi, protested against the noisemaking tradition, considering it an improper disturbance obstructing the reciting of the Megillah.[5]

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf suggests that any noisemaker will do: "alarm clocks, toddler xylophones, dolls that cry with the push of a button, a toy police car with siren and flashing lights or anything else that will make a wonderfully annoying noise".[4]

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda initially suggested the word Hebrew: מנענע, 'shaker', for the Purim noisemaker, but under the influence of Yiddish the term Hebrew: רעשן ra'ashan for rattler (from the Hebrew ra-ash, meaning 'noise', suggested by Ben Yehuda's son, Itamar Ben-Avi)[6][7] was accepted.[8]