PURIM. According to the Book of Esther, in the Hebrew Bible, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus (presumed to be Xerxes I of Persia), planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and his adopted daughter Queen Esther. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing.
“On Purim, young people think it’s possible to have fun and smoke under the guise of merrymaking,”
A MAN IS OBLIGATED TO IMBIBE ON PURIM UNTIL HE CAN NO LONGER DISTINGUISH BETWEEN "CURSED IS HAMAN" AND "BLESSED IS MORDECHAI." purim is a veritable cornucopia of paradoxes which ignite the imagination of both scholar and layman. But perhaps the greatest challenge of all is posed by this requirement to indulge in drink to the point of losing the faculty of discernment. How, ask the commentaries throughout the generations, can we be commanded to invite that very intoxication which is so roundly reviled in both Scripture and Talmud? And why such a puzzling standard of non-discernment? CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE......
