March 14 • 2019 17
jn

Too Far?

Drinking on Purim can
leave lasting impressions.

LOUIS FINKELMAN
Y

ou can look through the entire 
Hebrew Bible and nearly all 
of rabbinic literature without 
finding anything positive about get-
ting drunk. That is, until you come to 
Rabba’
s statement: “A person must get 
‘
spiced’
 on Purim until he does not 
know the difference between cursed 
Haman and blessed Mordecai” (Talmud 
Megillah 7bj). 
The statement attracted pushback 
over centuries. The Talmud also reports 
“Rabba and Rabbi Zeira shared a Purim 
feast together and got ‘
spiced.
’
 Rabba got 
up and slaughtered Rabbi Zeira. The 
next day, Rabba prayed for mercy and 
revived him. The next year, Rabba invit-
ed Rabbi Zeira to share the Purim feast 
again, but Rabbi Zeira declined, ‘
Not 
every day does a miracle occur.
’
” 
Some later rabbis advise against drink-
ing on Purim. Others suggest taking a 
nap. While asleep, you cannot discern 
between Haman and Mordecai. 
Some people, though, often teen boys, 
try to implement the recommendation 
to imbibe scrupulously. 
One former Detroiter writes about his 
first year away from home as a 13-year-
old yeshivah student in the 1960s. On 
Purim, students would visit their Talmud 
teacher and lie on his living room floor 
listening to him lecture about morality as 
they drank heavily. 
“I had never ingested more than a few 
ounces of wine on Shabbat or Jewish 
holidays,
” he writes. “My initial shock 
turned to disgust as the room began to 
reek of sweat and vomit.
” 
Another anonymous informant, now a 
respected rabbi, recalls a Purim morning 
when he dormed at his Midwest yeshi-
vah high school. A classmate he did not 

know wound up at a teacher’
s house, 
three miles from the dorm. The admin-
istration did not, he recalls, treat the stu-
dent’
s wandering as an emergency and 
did not warn students against drinking.
Daniel Jacobovitz of Oak Park recalls 
three bad memories of Purim drinking: 
 
“The first: I was delivering mishloah 
manot (Purim treats) in Oak Park about 
20 years ago, when I was 14. One of 
the places I went was a school. I was 
astonished to see kids about my age just 
drinking; some were just wasted. 
“The second: I was having the Purim 
feast with my extended family. It was not 
a drinking party, but a feast with plenty 
of food. One person — about my age 
then, 13 or 14 — kept sneaking alcohol. 
No one said anything. By the end, he 
made a complete fool of himself. 
“The third: A few years later, some-
body I knew was drinking and kept on 
drinking. After I left, I heard someone 
took him to the emergency room … He 
spent the night in the hospital; they said 
he had alcohol poisoning. 
“I just turned 34. I don’
t drink. I 
haven’
t seen anything like that since, 
but, then, I don’
t hang around people 
seriously drinking. These stories have 
been bothering me for years. I am glad I 
finally got to tell them.
”
Rabbinic scholar Dina Najman, head 
of an Orthodox synagogue in Riverdale, 
N.Y., (and a former Detroiter), writes, 
“We have a responsibility to explain this 
is not only a medical concern (preserv-
ing life) but also . . . halakhic . . . exces-
sive drinking is the opposite of giving 
praise to God.
” ■

The nonprofit Detroit Chaverim will run a free bus 
from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Wednesday, March 20, and 
from 1 p.m.-1 a.m. Thursday, March 24, traveling 
between Coolidge and Southfield roads, and from 
Nine Mile Road to 11 Mile Road. Call (248) 658-
8111 for an appointment for a group, or, if you 
see the bus, hail a ride. DetroitChaverim.org.

This 19th-century Purim painting shows 

Chasidic Jews celebrating with plenty of wine. 

jews d
in 
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