by rabbi judah dardik
Tzav/Purim
Leviticus 6:1-8:36
Jeremiah 7:21-8:3 and 9:22-23
If you like Purim, you’d love this year’s Purim in Jerusalem. Purim is celebrated here in the United States for one full day. But in Jerusalem and other cities with longstanding walls (including Shushan, the site of the story), it’s a whole weekend of Purim: Thursday night and Friday just like the rest of the world, followed by the enjoyment of Shabbat and all-out Purim celebrations Saturday night and Sunday.
Having Shabbat in the middle of this extended party is especially helpful, as it gives a day to recover. Dressing up, the mitzvahs of hearing the public readings of the story, giving the mishloach manot (gifts of food and charity) aren’t particularly exhausting, but the celebratory meal can take a lot out of a person.
The talmudic description of the meal (Megillah 7B) quotes Rava’s ruling that “one is obligated to drink on Purim until he cannot tell between accursed Haman and blessed Mordechai.” That’s quite a tall order, and one can easily imagine that Shabbat goes a long way in helping people to recover before Purim continues in Jerusalem.
Rava’s words seem fundamentally un-Jewish, as our tradition has long prized the value of moderation. How could we have a mitzvah to get so very drunk? Moreover, considering significant issues of health and safety, is it even possible to drink that much? The youngest of children knows the difference between these two characters. Can adults really get to the point where we can no longer tell?
(Pausing the analysis for a moment, an extremely important note is in order. The interpretation and application of Rava’s ruling is the subject of lengthy rabbinic debate, with authorities advocating a range of practices that include having just a few fluid ounces of wine coupled with a nap — at which time one cannot tell the difference between the characters — and alternately drinking a bit more than one is accustomed to. Under no circumstances are we permitted to break the law or to engage in behavior that endangers our lives or those of others. Yet the very presence of a mitzvah related to drinking and the wording of Rava’s statement invite consideration, with which I will continue.)
Another question: Despite all this merriment, we do not sing the praises of the Hallel prayer on Purim as we do on other significant holidays. Why not? The third suggestion made by the Talmud (Megillah 14A) is that the salvation was incomplete. After all was said and done, we were left as servants of Achashverosh and the Persian Empire. We ended up favored subjects, but subjects nonetheless.
And who advances this reasoning? None other than Rava, who advocated excessive drinking on Purim.
Rav Yaakov Emden explains Rava’s directive not as a quantitative directive of how much a person should drink on Purim but rather as a goal for the experience. His astute reading of the liturgical Purim song “Shoshanat Yaakov” focuses on the stanza that reads, “accursed Haman who sought to destroy me, blessed Mordechai the Jew.” He explains that we are to drink until we don’t know what is between “accursed Haman” and “blessed Mordechai,” namely the words “who sought to destroy me.” We drink to forget the anti-Semitic attempts to destroy us.
So why drink on Purim? Because we are supposed to rejoice, but are ever aware of the bottom line on Purim that we are subjects to other rulers and governments and there are those who would like nothing better than to see us destroyed. We drink until we “don’t know what is between accursed Haman and blessed Mordechai” — namely the awareness of threat. Unaware of those who would attack us, of the sad facts of exile, we celebrate a joyous Purim.
We live in special times, in a country that has been kinder to us than any other in history. We are blessed to have a state of Israel, a symbol of the past and flourishing hope for the Jewish future. But let us not fool ourselves — we have a long way to go. May HaShem protect us as we try to get there.
Rabbi Judah Dardik is the spiritual leader at Orthodox Beth Jacob in Oakland. He can be reached at Rabbi@BethJacobOakland.org.
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