Why Are Jews Commanded to Drink on Purim?

Among all the Jewish holidays, Purim is the only one on which we are encouraged – in fact, obligated — to drink. There are plenty of festive days in the Jewish calendar, most of which carry an obligation to eat and be merry. But only Purim has the added mitzva (commandment) to “eat, DRINK, and be merry.” What is it about Purim that makes drinking a mitzva?

Let us look at the verse in the Book of Esther that describes Haman’s plot to exterminate the Jews. It says that Haman wanted ”…to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, children and women, in one day, on the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their goods.”

Why is Scripture so repetitive? What does it use so many synonyms to describe the destruction of the Jews?

It is explained that each expression of destruction refers to a different aspect of Jewish existence. For example, “destroy” refers to Haman’s desire to destroy anything spiritually Jewish, such as the Torah and Jewish observance. “Kill” refers to killing the unique Jewish spark that is found in the soul of every Jew. As we can see, Haman did not merely want to kill all the Jews in the world; he also wanted to eradicate any memory or remembrance that the Jews ever existed – in other words, annihilation. And of course, he wanted to plunder all the Jews’ possessions so that there would simply be nothing left. This near-destruction was certainly different from all others.

Fortunately, we know the end of the story. In fact, it is similar to the end of every Jewish holiday: “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!” The Jews survived, while Haman and his Amalekite brethren are nowhere to be found.

As such, we celebrate our physical survival by indulging in the physical. We eat and drink. We give gifts of food and drink to our friends (the mitzvah of “mishlo’ach manot”). We ensure that even the poor have what to eat on Purim (the mitzvah of “matanot l’evyonim”). But since the Purim meal celebrates a near Holocaust, we are told that the meal must be different and more grand than other holiday meals. Hence, the added mitzvah to get sloshed – I mean drunk – was added.

This is actually a very hard mitzva to fulfill…to get drunk without going overboard. There is no other holiday like it!

普珥节的诫命之一是喝醉了，“不能说出诅咒为哈曼”和“福禄是莫德凯”之间的区别。

在所有的犹太节日中，普珥节是唯一一个我们被鼓励 – 实际上，义务 – 喝。 在犹太历法中有许多节日，大多数都有义务吃饭和快乐。 但只有普珥节有添加mitzva（戒律）“吃，喝，和快乐”。什么是普珥节，使喝一个mitzva？

让我们看看以斯帖记中描述哈曼灭绝犹太人的阴谋的诗句。 它说，哈曼希望“在一个月的第十二月十三日，即一个月的阿达尔，在一天内毁灭，杀害和消灭所有的犹太人，年轻人和老人，儿女和妇女，并掠夺他们的财产 “。

为什么圣经如此重复？ 它使用这么多同义词来描述犹太人的毁灭是什么？

据解释，每一种破坏的表达都是指犹太人存在的不同方面。例如，“毁灭”是指哈曼想要毁灭任何属灵的犹太人，例如摩西五经和犹太人的遵守。 “杀死”是指杀死在每个犹太人的灵魂中发现的独特的犹太火花。我们可以看到，哈曼不仅想杀死世界上所有的犹太人，他也想根除任何记忆或纪念犹太人曾经存在 – 换句话说，湮灭。当然，他想掠夺所有的犹太人的财产，以便没有什么剩下。这种近乎破坏是肯定不同于所有其他。

幸运的是，我们知道故事的结束。事实上，它类似于每一个犹太节日的结尾：“他们试图杀了我们，我们赢了，让我们吃！”犹太人活了下来，而哈曼和他的阿马莱特弟兄无处可寻。

因此，我们通过放纵身体来庆祝我们的身体生存。我们吃喝。我们给我们的食物和饮料的礼物给我们的朋友（“mishlo’ach manot”的mitzvah）。我们确保即使是穷人有什么吃在普珥节（“matanot l’evyonim”的mitzvah）。但是，由于普珥节菜肴庆祝近的大屠杀，我们被告知，膳食必须是不同的，比其他假日膳食更盛大。因此，添加的mitzvah得到sloshed – 我的意思是醉。

这实际上是一个非常困难的mitzva来实现……喝醉了，不要超过。没有其他的假日喜欢它！