Chapter 1: What is the confusion surrounding drinking on Purim?
Okay, recently, I think Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky came out with a psalm that there's absolutely no mitzvah to get drunk on Purim, and that it's asr to get drunk on Purim, and it caused a lot of confusion, because people learned Masech HaChis Magillot of Zion and the Bays, and it sounds from there that there is a mitzvah to get drunk on Purim.
So I just wanted to go through, and this was one of the requested topics, just go through some of the marmakamos in terms of what exactly the nature of this mitzvah possible chiyuv is, and give some hadracha into how to best fulfill this mitzvah slash chiyuv. Here's the Gemara Megillah. The Gemara Megillah is the starting point of everything.
Rabbi says that a person has to become intoxicated on Purim to the point that they don't know the difference between Rabba and Rabbi Zehra, in fact, had a suda sperm together. They got drunk. Rabba got up and he shechted Rabbi Zehra. He killed him. The next day, he davened for him and he brought him back. The next year, he invited him again. Want to come to my house? We'll do suda sperm together.
It'll be lots of fun. He said, It's not every day you can hope for a miracle. Last year you got lucky. God listened to your prayers, brought me back to life. I don't want to take my chances again. Thank you very much.
Chapter 2: What does the Gemara say about getting drunk on Purim?
That is the Gemara Masechas Megillah pretty much beginning to end in terms of the nature of the Chiyuv. So how do we Paschan? Do we Paschan like Rava's statement that there is a Chiyuv? So the Torah very clearly says that yes, that we Paschan. One must get drunk to the point that they don't know the difference between Ar-Rahman and Baruch Mordechai. Seems very, very clear.
The Rabbeinu Ephraim is quoted in the Rahn who says, and he has the exact opposite take on the Gemara. He says, no, you see from this Gemara that there's no chiv to get drunk. Because what happens, Yevrava comes along and says, you should get drunk. And then the very next line, the Gemara tells a story that's a Maisa Lister. It tells a story where someone got drunk and it was a tragedy.
It was horrible consequences that came about from it. And therefore they committed the following year not to get drunk again because of that, because of the terrible consequences of it. So says Rebbeinu Ephraim, you see from this story that you're not supposed to get drunk. on Purim.
The Pre-Chadosh points out that no, he thinks you see from the story that Tafka, you are supposed to get drunk on Purim. Because what happened the following year? He said, why don't you come over to my house again? We'll have Suda's Purim together.
Chapter 3: How do different authorities interpret the mitzvah of drinking on Purim?
If they had already realized that it was a mistake and that they shouldn't get drunk, so then he could take the invitation. Go, have a good time, have Suda's Purim. They're not getting drunk anyway. Nothing's going to happen.
From the fact that he had to reject the invitation and he had to say, no, I'm not going to come because he knew what was going to happen, it means that they were planning on getting drunk again. He just knew that Rabba was a lousy drunk. He's not the kind of guy that you want to be around when he's drunk. So that's what the pre-chadr says. That's why Rabbi Zehra was scared.
At the end of the day though, no matter how you hold in terms of do you Paschan like Rabba, do you not Paschan like Rabba, it seems pretty clear that if you look through the Rishonim, that both those who do Paschan like Rabba and those who don't Paschan like Rabba pretty much hold the same thing.
Everyone seems to hold that you're supposed to drink on Purim to the point where you become slightly impaired and that you're not supposed to make a total fool out of yourself. It seems clear that way from several Rishonim. The Bach writes in some Tafresh Tzadihei that Rabbeinu Efraim is correct, but what does Rabbeinu Efraim mean? Not to get drunk?
You shouldn't get full-blown, totally, completely shickered. That's what he means. But to get a little bit tipsy, to have a little bit of simcha, to have a little bit of field of simcha, that's certainly okay. Larchos Chaim, quarter in the Beis Yosef, says don't get too drunk because it's going to lead you to too many averos. On the flip side, the Midyari says, we're Paschal like Rava.
But even if you're Paschan like Rava, don't get too drunk, because then it's going to be hololess. So no matter which way you hold, whether you're Paschan not like Rava, or you're Paschan like Rava, everyone really holds the same thing. That you should get drunk, just don't get crazy.
That a person shouldn't get to the point where they're going to, and Mishabur famously says, don't get to the point where you're going to miss out on minyan and benching, and you can't compromise halachas based on this. That a person should become impaired to the point that he adds simcha, yes, that for sure is true, but not to the point where he makes himself into a total fool.
and he gets to a point where he's completely sick. Either way, it's still a little bit strange that the Torah is going to require us to become impaired. Normally, the Torah way of life is one that focuses on logic and keeping control of ourselves and of our actions. And when you drink wine, even if you're not completely gone, you lose a certain sense of control. So where does such a tiyuv...
really come from. So there's a Gemara where the Gemara says that everyone's modem on Purim you need a certain sense of Lachem in your Simchas Purim and the Limud that we have that you need a sense of Lachem In your Purim, it says, It says by Purim that it's Yimei Mishda V'simcha. The Megillah itself describes it as Yimei Mishda V'simcha.
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Chapter 4: What lessons can be learned from the story of Rabba and Rabbi Zehra?
So it seems that getting drunk, although, can be done more easily and quickly and efficiently, perhaps, with even a smaller glass, if you were to have scotch or something. But the idea is that you have yayin. You drink Ya'in to the point that you get drunk and you fall asleep in your drunkenness. Now, a couple of things that we see from there. First of all, you see that it's only Ya'in.
The other thing you see from the Rambam is how does that start? He starts with the phrase, How does one fulfill the mitzvah of Suudas Purim? The mitzvah of Suudas Purim may only be fulfilled during the daytime, may not be fulfilled during the nighttime. So if you're going to be doing it only in the context of Suudas Zu, it has to be in that context of Suudas Purim. There's logic to that also.
Besides for the fact that, you know, that that's just what, that's the most, that's the time where you're expressing the simcha with eating and drinking, so it makes sense, that's when you should drink. There's a philosophical logic to it as well.
When a person is running around all day, even before they had automobiles, where being impaired on an automobile is taking your own life and everyone else's life into your hands, when a person is running around all day, it's much more likely that being impaired is going to lead him to make a complete fool of himself.
When a person is around the table with family and they're around the table with people that they interact with in a normal, controlled setting, it's a much safer environment for a person to become impaired.
So it could be that the idea of doing it during the Su'udah, while the reason for it may not be this, it's certainly a positive benefit of doing it during the Su'udah only, and not at any other time during the day, is that it certainly leads to a fulfillment of what all those Rishonim say, of not having a simcha of halalos, not having a simcha of just complete nonsense, but a simcha that's going to lead not to acting crazy, it's going to lead to some miros, it's going to lead to...
saying the right Torah, it's going to lead to a controlled environment, generally is going to lead to a much better kind of simcha. The Abu Dhram explains that the whole idea of yayin, of dafka, drinking on Purim, is because the whole nace of Purim happened through yayin. And since it happened through yayin, it's logical to do it to celebrate through yayin as well.
What's the idea of between Ar-Rahman and Baruch Mordechai?
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Chapter 5: How do we determine the halachic perspective on drinking on Purim?
So there are several Shitos, and you could have a book of Ner Limei, about a hundred answers to the Kasha by Ner Hanukkah, about why we have eight days of Hanukkah. You could probably have a book, I'm sure there probably is one, a book of a hundred answers of what it means, Ar-Rahman and Baruch Mordechai, all of them shot in Ar-Rahman and Baruch Mordechai.
There are several quoted by the Dake Moshe on the bottom of the Torah. where he writes that the gematrios of each one is equal. So it means, means you're impaired to the point that you're not going to be able to focus to work out the gematrios, to see that they're equal. Not to the point that you don't know the difference between the two phrases.
I remember in Yeshiva, when I was in Karambi Avni, there was a guy who was drinking way too much. He was getting terribly sick. And every time he took another drink, he would say, Arham Baruch Mordechai. Not yet. And he would just drink more. Like he was convinced that he wasn't there yet. So the Dr. Moshe says, no, that's not the pshat.
To be able to figure out the cheshvin is the Arahama Baruch Mordechai. The Dr. Moshe also says there used to be a pisma and there used to be some type of song that the stanzas would end with either Arahama or Baruch Mordechai. And it means that if you get confused with the ending stanzas of the song, that you forget some of the words of the song. So it's laf dafka this song.
Take any song that has different stanzas that switch off, And when you get confused, that's the point where you're impaired. Bottom line is, according to both of those pashatim, what does it mean? It doesn't mean you're completely gone. It means that you don't have that same level of focus. That's all it means. You don't have the same level of clarity. The Rambam had a very interesting line.
The Rambam says, how much? To the point that you sleep in your drunkenness. The Rambam brings that down several notches. The Rambam says, no, not in the sense that you're so drunk you collapse on the floor. Asleep. No. He says, drink a little bit Yosemite Mudo, a little more than you usually drink, which if you normally drink nothing is a sip or a couple of sips of wine.
And then take a small nap, take a short nap. And that's going to be the point that you'll get some Adliyat Ben Arham Lebaruch Mordechai. So that's the, generally speaking, when it comes to halacha, Ashkenazi Jews follow the Pesach of the Ramah, as far as I know.
So the Ramah is very, very, I don't know if you say Machmir, Mekel, whatever, however you want to call it, the Ramah is very light on how much a person should drink. It doesn't think that it should be too much, just a little bit more than whatever you normally drink, if you're the kind of person. So now that I'm, you know, it took me a while to get to even be able to stand the taste of wine.
So now at a Shabbos Sudah, I'll have sometimes a glass of wine or something, or at a Yont of Sudah, I'll have a glass of wine. So maybe I should have a glass and a half of wine. I'm one that can't hold my, you know, whatever. If I have a glass and a half, two glasses, forget it. But anyway, so a glass and a half of wine, just to be a little bit besimcha, but certainly not to be crazy in any way.
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