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Q & A - WITH RABBI RISKIN
Question: How can Halakha command us, "It is incumbent upon an individual to get
drunk on Purim until he can no longer distinguish between praising Mordechai andcursing
Haman" (B.T. Megillah 7a)? What about the mitzvot of the necessity of our
being holy and the importance of balanced sobriety, the Golden Mean?!
Answer: The first thing we must remember is that Purim is fundamentally a Galut
holiday. All of our festivals require that we celebrate the way the original celebrants
celebrated; for example, "It is incumbent upon every individual (on the Seder night) to
see himself as if he came out of Egypt." In the Galut they celebrate by getting drunk;
indeed, the whole beginning of the Scroll of Esther describes a community in the
midst of assimilation, where every Jew enjoyed Achashverosh's feast despite the fact
that there was no kashrut certification.
Remembering that we have now returned to Israel, I would strongly urge that we
never drink till drunkenness but that it is necessary to stop before going over the red
line ("Ad velo ad bichlal"). Moreover the Sheiltot insists that the only justification for
drunkenness is if the individual is certain that in his inebriated state he will spout forth
only words of praise to G-d and interpretations of Torah; the Meiri underscores this
point by saying that the Aramaic word "el basemei", translated as drunkenness, can
also be based upon the Hebrew "bosem" which means perfume. Only if wordsof sweet-smelling fragrance will emerge from your mouth after drinking, do you have
the right to drink - even, or especially on Purim!
If you have a question for Q & A, send it to ots@ohrtorahstone.org.il . We cannot guarantee that all questions received will be answered in this column.
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