Purim, Drinking And Drunkenness

More rabbis than ever have called for bans on teen drinking during Purim and also have condemned the practice of certain outlier sects who would encourage drinking to the point of vomiting on Main Street. Judaism despises drunkenness.

Drinking does not drive the Purim celebration
By Rabbi Dov Fischer • LA Jewish Journal

We are an American generation sadly marred by excess, addiction, and reduced public morals. On line at the supermarket we see magazines that headline Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Spears, and Charlie Sheen.  Purim is around the corner, and the question arises: What’s the deal with getting drunk on Purim?  So here’s the deal:

An alcoholic in recovery may not drink wine on Purim and should drink only grape juice at the Passover Seder.  Others need not drink wine on Purim if they prefer not to do so.  Teens in particular should not be plied with wine.  Any wine that one drinks on Purim is meant to be drunk specifically during the special Mitzvah Feast – the Purim Seudah eaten during Purim Day, replete with the careful recital of all brakhot (blessings) for washing one’s hands preparatory to eating bread, for eating the bread itself, and for thanking G-d after the meal during the four brakhot of the bentching grace after meals.  One also may drink wine during any Purim celebratory meal on Purim night after Megillah reading.  Again, however, the wine drinking must be tempered and must be only an adjunct to eating a mitzvah meal marked by the recital of brakhot.  It is forbidden to drink too much, and Judaism points to Noah and Lot as examples of what happens to degrade the sanctity of the human spirit when one overindulges.  One absolutely should withdraw from environments where celebrants drink too much.  That is not Judaism.  It is “Jersey Shore.”

The tradition of drinking alcohol, particularly wine, on Purim stems from the centrality of wine-drinking throughout the Megillah narrative.  Stem?  Where?

The encounter begins with King Achashverosh staging a massive empire-wide party of wine-drinking and eating for 180 days, followed by seven more days of wine partying for his inner circle and residents of his capital.  The Megillah text, augmented by the Talmudic and Midrashic commentaries, tell us how detailed the wine aspect was.  Each party-goer was served wine carefully selected for each participant from the vineyards of the respective province in which he lived.  People were served wine aged longer than their respective ages.  No one was forced to drink.

Under the influence of the wine, as partiers were arguing whether Medean women or Persian women are more beautiful, the King drunkenly decided to demonstrate that his wife’s appearance surpassed all and demanded that his Queen Vashti appear completely undressed – wearing only her tiara – before his advisors.  According to the text, amplified by the Midrashic tradition, she refused and sent back a sharply worded response that her husband should be ashamed of himself for losing his sobriety in a way that her family’s men never would.  The King became enraged and, as he lost his head in anger, he had her beheaded.

Later, when the King selected Esther from among the huge selection of women with whom he was spending respective nights, he celebrated with a wine party, the “Esther Party,” also accompanied by a tax holiday in her honor.  In time, as Haman emerged with his genocidal plan to murder the Jews of all the King’s 127 provinces, Esther – prompted by Mordechai’s importuning and a city-wide three-day public Jewish fast for God’s mercy – devised a strategy to save her people.  She invited the King and Haman to a private wine party in their honor.  As amplified by the Midrash, that party made Haman oh-so-proud, but it planted concerns in the King’s mind:  “What the heck was Haman doing at the private party? Why is my wife inviting this guy to our little private cozy wine party?  Is something up between them?  Are they having an affair?  Are they planning to kill me, like anachronistically in Hamlet or something?”

It really bothered the King. That night he couldn’t sleep, maybe because he was afraid his wife and Haman were plotting his assassination.  Maybe it was his Circadian rhythm.  So, to calm himself down, and lacking a television to watch, an Ipod to hear, a Twitter account to Tweet, a computer to Facebook, or anything else, he turned to his favorite pastime:  having his aides read him his favorite stories – namely, stories about himself, from his royal diary.  They pulled out the book and started reading.  It may even be that he worried whether he had failed in the past to show ample gratitude to someone who had saved his life by conveying an insider’s tip of an assassination plot.  “Perhaps,” he may have thought, “if I demonstrate that I never forget inside-tippers, I can encourage someone else now to tell me whether Haman and my wife are conniving against me.”  With G-d’s hidden face guiding the course of events, the reader turned to a long-forgotten entry about a murder plot that had been thwarted thanks to an inside tip that had come just-in-the-nick-of-time to save the King’s life.  Hearing the story, he was reminded that he owed his life to Mordechai the Jew but never had done a thing to show gratitude.  The time now was well into midnight, and he suddenly hears noise outside his window, in his courtyard.  “Who in the world could that be at this time of the night?” he asks.  It is Haman, so excited about hanging Mordechai the Jew tomorrow on the scaffold he has erected in his backyard, that he can’t sleep either.  So Haman has come past midnight to ask the King’s OK to kill the Jew, even as the King is unable to sleep at midnight, perhaps concerned that Haman is planning with Esther to murder him . . . like, maybe, at midnight when he is sleeping?  Or whatever.

The story unfolds into the next day, and another Esther wine party.  Again, just the three of them: the triangle of King, Haman, and Esther.  And it is there, under the influence of that wine, that Esther reveals her nation, her place of birth, and that Haman is planning to murder her people. As she reveals to the king, for the very first time, that she is a Jew, a member of that people whom Haman has undertaken to obliterate, the King goes into a rage, loses his head augmented by the wine, and orders Haman hanged.

So that is the reason that our Rabbis encouraged us to drink some wine at the Purim feast.  The Jews of that miraculous period gave gifts of food to one another, so we give mishlo’ach manot.  They circulated the Megillah narrative among their 127 provinces, so we assemble to read it and to hear every word. They feasted, so we feast. They drank some wine, so we drink some wine.  In a famous Talmudic aphorism, our Rabbis taught that we should drink enough wine so that we would not be able to discern between “Arur Haman” (Cursed is Haman) and “Barukh Mordechai” (Blessed is Mordechai).  Babylonian Talmud, Mesechet Megillah 7b; Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 695:2.  In one particular outlier incident, the Talmud in Mesechet Megillah recounts that two rabbis, Rabbah and Rav Zeira, made for themselves a private Purim feast, and one got so drunk that he inadvertently killed the other.  When he sobered, he was so remorseful, prayed so hard, and called upon all his holy merits from an otherwise spotless life that he succeeded in bringing about the miracle of a lifetime, as his deceased rabbinic friend returned to life. The Talmud continues, recounting that the next year the same rabbi invited his same friend to another two-man private Purim party, but this time his friend turned him down, explaining: “I can’t count on miracles every year.” (Literally: “Miracles do not happen all the time.”)

So there we have the dichotomy: yes, good to drink wine.  Forget the difference between Haman and Mordechai.  But don’t get all-that-drunk.  Our greatest Rabbinic Sages over the centuries have wrestled with the dichotomy, looking to harmonize the themes.  One Rabbi, the Magen Avraham, noted that the gematria numerology – the sum of the letters of the words, with each Hebrew letter having a numerical value – of “Arur Haman” (Cursed is Haman) is 502.  And the letters comprising “Barukh Mordechai” (Blessed is Mordechai) also equal 502.  (See M.A. Comment 3 on Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 695:2.)  So, he said, drink only until you can’t do the tally of those numbers in your head.  Another taught that you should drink only enough to make yourself a bit drowsy, which will lead you to fall asleep, and – unless you have a Purim dream – you then will be in state where you don’t know the difference between Haman and Mordechai. (See, e.g., Ram”a on Shulchan Arukh 695:2.)  A similar approach is taken by Rambam (Maimonides). (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Megillah 2:15).

In recent years, as American culture in general, and our teen culture in particular, has grown depressingly coarse – witness television shows like “Jersey Shore” and “Skins” and a society where more people know the daily thoughts, so to speak, of Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan than they do of their Congressional representative or the Poet Laureate of the United States – more rabbis than ever have called for bans on teen drinking during Purim and also have condemned the practice of certain outlier sects who would encourage drinking to the point of barfing on Main Street.  Judaism despises drunkenness, and Rambam explicitly warned against it.  (See, e.g., Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot  De’ot 5:3; Hilkhot Sh’vitat Yom Tov 6:20)

It therefore devolves on the individual to know his or her limits, his or her values.  If you are drinking some wine at a Mitzvah Purim Feast, a Seudat Purim marked by reciting brakhot (blessings) when washing your hands and eating bread, and then reciting more brakhot at the bentching prayers after the meal, that’s cool.  On the other hand, if it is not a Seudah feast of Mitzvah, but just one more excuse to go drinking and getting a “buzz,” then such wine drinking would be forbidden as a coarse denigration of the extraordinary sanctity of the human soul that was created in the image of G-d.  It would be a mockery and desecration of the miracle of Purim.  And it would be a shame.

Rabbi Dov Fischer, adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School, is a columnist for several online magazines and is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County.  He blogs at rabbidov.com.

Comments

[steve]

Rabbi Fischer fails to mention that hard liquor is being served to underage teens and to minors. Last year, a 15 year old Orthodox Brooklyn boy literally drank himself to death. There is no mitzvah whatsoever to imbibe whiskey, beer, vodka, or any other intoxicating beverage besides wine at the seudah.

[steve]

I POSTED THIS LAST YEAR ON UOJ:

You won't find this story anywhere on Matzav or YWN, but a terrible tragedy happened on Sunday night, Motzaei Purim. A 15 year old bochur from Bensonhurst passed away, apparently as a result of mixing alcohol with perscription medications.

The crime of allowing and encouraging teenagers to consume hard liquor is another form of child abuse. I read stories of parents who have been arrested in the State of NJ for serving hard liquor to minors at their homes. Yet, every Purim we see more and more of this chillul hashem taking place. The drinkers get younger and younger and the liquor gets stronger and stronger. Only Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky (through Rabbi Horowitz' radio program) and Rabbi Ovadya Yosef publicly spoke out this year against getting drunk on Purim. The other rabbis with their "nod nod, wink wink" attitude are encouragers and enablers. The teens try to emulate their rosh yeshivos and rebbes who themselves act like drunken fools.

The minhag of drinking on Purim has been perverted, just like the laws of pidyon shvuyim, mesira and loshon hora. THERE IS NO MITZVAH WHATSOEVER TO DRINK WHISKEY OR BEER ON PURIM, NOT ON THE NIGHT OF, DURING THE SEUDAH AND NOT AFTER! THERE IS NO MITZVAH TO DRINK AT ALL DURING THE NIGHT OF PURIM OR AFTER THE SEUDAH! The Minhag is for adults to drink some wine during the seudah. Ad D'lo Yada means that one should take a nap. Rav Ovadya stated that getting drunk is a "toeva"! Just like the deaths of Motty Borger and Shua Finkelstein were swept under the carpet, the rabbonim would prefer that Michael's death be similarly hushed up. After all, it is bad publicity for the charedi community.

What amazes me is that there is such an emphasis on separating ourselves from the goyishe society. Television, movies and internet are totally taboo for charedi teens. Any parent allowing his children to anywhere near such media risks being excommunicated. However, the real vices such as drinking and smoking are totally ignored. As a result, you will typically see black hatted bochurim, 14-16 years old smoking cigarettes and drinking hard liquor. Underage smoking and drinking is more CHUKOS HAGOYIM than tv, movies and internet. The children are putting this poison directly into their bodies! More and more are becoming addicted. How much longer can we remain silent? Unfortunately, our "leadership" is more concerned with protecting violent criminals and protesting lady rabbis, than protecting our youth. They have proven that time and again with their handling of the child sexual abuse plague. Unless there is more of a public outcry about this underage drinking phenomena, there will be more tragedies like this.

[ombudsman]

Maybe if the author would be intellectually honest he would bring the sources from the rishonim all the way through the achronim that don't necessarily fit his agenda also. Same goes for Steve.

While all drinking should be done in adult, responsible way, there are more than enough sources for responsible drunkenness (I know, an oxymoron ). But anyone who is responsible at all can figure our how it's done.
The author is so well versed in pop culture, I'd argue that he an figure out how to get "wasted " while still being a responsible adult.
Peeople who are unable to do this have more global responsibility issues not confined to Purim.

[steve]

Read the Shulchan Aruch and any other halachic source. All that I wrote is well known and undisputed.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Ombudsman, rules regarding public health and safety need to be geared towards the lowest common denominator. Those are the folks who can't seem to help themselves when an opportunity for drunkenness presents itself. And kids will do stupid things because that's what they see grownups do.

It always puzzles me why frumma insist on needing biblical quotes to justify preventative safety rules which are basic common sense. Like you'd let your kids drink alcohol unsupervised because the bible doesn't say you shouldn't.

In the religious world, when are you allowed to use your own brain?

[WoolSilkCotton]

Look at the photo at the top of this thread. Will any passerby see if their fellow frummer has a pulse or is still breathing? Or does the bible not mention the need for CPR?

[bootsy]

WSC I can't believe im saying this, but I agree with you and ombudsman 100%!

[ombudsman]

Steve, are you willing to back up your silly claim that what you wrote is undisputed in any significant way? If you are I will respond to your false claim.

[Pierre]

Yes it's bad that there are young and old drink beyond their limits. yes it is bad when bad things happen as a result. Yes, underage and over'zealous' drinking should be stopped.

But LOOK AT THE "DAAS TORAH" REVISIONIST MANNER in which the open practices of centuries are cast away by these new sages - "Daas Torah" spoken in ways no different those condemned by critics of Charedi Orthodoxy (by which I mean read R. Kaminetzky's statement). Do people find it THAT EASY to do a 180 and express the views of these rabbis who proclaim it has NEVER been the Jewish practice to be drunk, to drink as has been CLEARLY done? - they even speak against those who are NOT behaving inappropriately. They aren't simply saying it is NOW no longer acceptable; they speak THAT IT HAS NEVER been so, that people NEVER had control - even while people themselves describe a CHANGE, these sages say CHANGE THE PAST. And their method is accepted by agreeing WITH THEM instead of BOTH separately disagreeing with who drinks and how much.

YES...barriers that are NEVER breached during the rest of the year are breached on Purim. I will here account my violations of propriety; I took ten minutes to say Birkat Hamazon, b'kavannah. I couldn't tell you how long I took for Minha. I hugged YES hugged and danced and sang with other rabbis and bokhrim of my yeshiva I otherwise had no words with during the rest of the year, danced in synagogues I WOULD NEVER have even been allowed to enter any other time of year, to dance B'SMICHA B'kedusha...charedi anti-zionist jews grabbing me and calling me brother in broken english and telling me I must meet my "long lost cousins". YES tragedy happens, and is tragic when it happens. I refuse call one moment of Purim in Yerushalayim that I spent a transgression of Torah.

And people find it so easy to agree with these revisionist voices SIMPLY because they're using their hegemonic power to influence on a matter that they agreed on, abide by their words that are no less revisionist than the anti-science, anti-reason views they otherwise state.

I'm glad that R. Fischer has made is statement separately (even though sources and forces and private "lock in" party concepts could be rallied for other approaches).

[steve]

Shas’ spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia, Yosef said that “drunkenness is an abominable and nefarious act” and that in Purim one must drink very little wine, only as a symbolic act to remember Ahasuerus’ feast – without getting intoxicated.

Rabbi Yosef said, “Haman was intoxicated, but we must act with good manners.” The rabbi recommended drinking until one falls asleep – a situation in which one does not distinguish between ‘Haman the agitate’ and ‘Mordechai the blessed’.”
“A man that is drunk – what good is he?” wondered Rabbi Yosef, and stated that instead a man must “take a rest, rise up and practice religion throughout the day. Some people are up to no good. They get drunk and then take the bus and act in a rowdy manner – that is defamation of God,” he said.
--------------------------------------
Rabbi Yakov Horowitz asked the Rosh Yeshiva to address this matter because many people who heard about our Purim program had asked to clarify the words of our chazal (sages) “Chayav einish l’besumei be’puria ad deloi yoda bein arur Haman l’baruch Mordechai” which loosely translated says, that one is obligated to drink [on Purim] until he cannot discern between Haman and Mordechai.
“Chas v’shalom (Heaven forbid) that our Torah would consider getting drunk to be a mitzvah!” said Reb Shmuel. He explained that the word l’besumei is derived from the root word which means to sniff something – and said that this means that one should have only “a whiff” of drinking (wine only; he was clear to state).

The Rosh Yeshiva also shed light on the words “ad deloi yoda bein arur Haman l’baruch Mordechai” and said that when one sings verses of a song when he is in a heightened state of simcha (joy) he occasionally will sing the verses in incorrect order – meaning that he will sing the verse of Arur Haman in the place of the verse of Baruch Mordechai. It is inconceivable, he stated, that this is to be taken to condone drunkenness – which is in direct contrast to the teachings of our Torah.

[steve]

Steve, are you willing to back up your silly claim that what you wrote is undisputed in any significant way? If you are I will respond to your false claim.

Find me ONE LEGITIMATE HALACHIC SOURCE that disputes ANYTHING i wrote. Who the hell are you to dispute two of the leading halachic authorities of our time, Ashkenazic and Sephardic?

[ombudsman]

Again, as you pontificate while not at all paying attention to what I said. Can you back up your ludicrous statement that it is UNDISPUTED?

[steve]

Here is a nice summation of the halachic views on the topic. Again, there is absolutely no mention of whiskey or anything except wine.

http://www.chaburas.org/wine.html

[steve]

Why don't you produce one legitimate source that disputes anything I wrote or that Rav Ovadya and Rav Shmuel stated last year? Ludicrous? The only one who is ludicrous is you. Now get lost!

[ombudsman]

That's your basis for saying its undisputed?!? I am literally ROTFL!

[ombudsman]

Obviously you aren't capable of any sort of reading comprehension because I clearly stated that I would provide said sources if you would back up your claim that it is undisputed.
As Shmarya would say, process that!

[ombudsman]

But since I'm turning in for the night, and in order that you don't take my silence as agreement with whatever drivel you will post overnight, I will just post sources, without expounding upon their content, that I will leave to you, if you have the intellectual honesty to admit what they say, or the seforim to even look them up,though I doubt you would even be able to put together these seforim names with the gedolim in whose name I am quoting.
Orchid Rabeinu volume 3 page 57
Nimukei Orach Chaim in siman 695.
Good night Angeles Good luck!

[ombudsman]

Typos should read Orchos rabeinu & good night and good luck.

[Yechiel]

פוריא may also mean a bed. So after all, not a bad traslation of that Chaz"l; drink and fall asleep. I, as an extremely religious jew detest drunkenness. Although I am generally an extremist when it comes to religious matters and don't like compromises... on this matter Imd have to agree to moderation. I truly hope that on this Purim people will respect the call of our rabbis to stay sober.

[David]

Look at the photo at the top of this thread. Will any passerby see if their fellow frummer has a pulse or is still breathing? Or does the bible not mention the need for CPR?

Posted by: WoolSilkCotton | March 13, 2011 at 06:00 PM

Frumma don't learn CPR. Since all the medicine one ever needs to know is in the Talmud and CPR is not mentioned, it is not relevant. And if the guy in the picture dies because he is not breathing or is in cardiac arrest, it is Hashem's will.

[A E ANDERSON]

That's not true. They do learn CPR so they get volunteer EMT licenses and tool around Brooklyn with emergency vehicle lighting and sirens. Sort of like an adult high school club for frummies of a certain inclination. Not to mention getting to wear pagers and cell phones to shul on Shabbes. Now that's kewl!

[Jeff]

Obviously not a Chabad rabbi.

[David]

Let's analyze the picture. The unconscious or possibly dead guy is a black hat but regarding the two frumbags walking by, one is a streimel wearer and the other is a turban wearer. Why on earth would they waste a moment to check on one that is not their own, apart from the fact they would not know what to do in any case?

[Loveandlivethetorah.blogspot.com]

Study the Turei Zahav,he explains fully what
the whole issue with Drinking is, other commentaries on the Shulkhan Arukh also say similar things.
The Talmud also brings the story of how one sage killed another while drunk to prove that getting too drunk is not good.

[bootsy]

sefer haeshkol who was a talmid of the raavad says that from the fact that they were not able to make a seuda together is the biggest proof that you should still get drunk, because if they wouldnt be getting drunk, why not party ntogether?

[Loveandlivethetorah.blogspot.com]

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreib points out in an article to which i link below,
--one must realize that the Talmud suggests only “livesumei” and does not use the term “lehishtaker,” which would mean “to become drunk.” --

R Shmuel Kamenetzky went so far as to say that getting drunk on purim is in fact an Aveirah,and not a mitzva at all.

All the major Halakhic Poskim of today,of all denominations(National Religious,Chareidi,MO,UTJ,etc)all are against excessive drinking.
Among the great Talmidei Chachamim that were opposed to drunkennes are,(from today and from years gone by)
Meiri,Rambam,R Yosef karo(in the Beis Yosef quotes Orchos Chaim: “The mitzvah to drink on Purim does not mean to get drunk, because being drunk is a total issur, and there is no aveirah greater than this!”),Rama,Chafetz Chaim,,R Shmuel Kamenetzky,R Yitzchak Abadi,R Ovadya Yosef,R Hershel Shachter,R Elyashiv,etc
(it's a very extensive list going back a thousand years).
From teaneck to the 5 Towns,And Bnei Brak to Lakewood,they all say the same thing.
Here are some links to great articles:
http://www.koltorah.org/ravj/purimdrinking.htm

http://www.ou.org/oupr/2005/purimoped65.htm

http://www.vosizneias.com/49388/2010/02/15/new-york-rabbi-dr-abraham-twerski-yeshivas-must-speak-out-drunk-on-purim-is-not-a-mitzvah

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/drinking-on-purim

I'm sure if you look around you'll find much more.