c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Two? Four? Seventeen? How many glasses of wine, or shots of whiskey or vodka, is an observant Jew to drink Sunday (March 4) for the festive holiday of Purim?

That sacred Jewish writings demand at least some alcoholic indulgence on this day, there is no doubt. The best-known passage of Talmud on the subject favors drinking until good and evil are indecipherable.

“One is obligated to become inebriated on Purim until he can not distinguish between `Cursed be Haman’ and `Blessed be Mordecai,’ ” the passage says, referring to the respective villain and hero of the biblical story read on Purim.

Conservative and Reform Jews tend to neglect the “mandate.” Indeed, the Jews who get most shikker _ Hebrew for “drunk” _ on Purim are the Orthodox, where, in the yeshiva tradition of debate, the obligation is not just observed each year but discussed spiritedly.

At what point, it is asked, should a man (the custom doesn’t include women) stop drinking? Should he really be so sloshed he literally can’t sense bad from good, as the Talmudic passage suggests? Is it OK to drink just enough to bring on sleep? Or maybe just a little more than one usually drinks?

For centuries, respected rabbinical voices have weighed in, even Maimonides, the Spanish scholarly giant from the 12th century. In the current era of blogs and heightened social awareness, the debate includes Orthodox women who complain online that husbands and sons overdo it; and Jewish community leaders from yeshivas, the Orthodox Union and Jewish ambulance services, who lament Purim excess by adults and yeshiva students.

One reason commonly put forth by rabbis for Purim imbibing is that it helps remove inhibitions that on a daily basis make a person feel separated from God’s impact on the world.

Yet those who drink and act without restraint miss the meaning of the holiday, said Rabbi Mordecai Feuerstein of the Suburban Torah Center in Livingston, N.J.

“The minute restraint is loosened, the person has to be careful,” he said. “Maybe it’s twice as tempting if you can convince yourself _ erroneously, of course _ that there’s something spiritually good about going to excess. But the mitzvah (commandment) is to sense that God is present, not that Johnnie Walker is present.”

Wine does play a visible role in the Book of Esther, which Jews read twice on Purim. The story involves a Jewish queen, Esther, and her uncle, Mordecai, who work to foil a plot by the Persian prime minister, Haman, to annihilate Persian Jews. In the story, said to have occurred 2,300 years ago, the Persian king, Ahasuerus, is well lubricated at more than one party.

Regardless of their alcohol policies, synagogues around the world will celebrate Saturday night and Sunday with candy, costumes and humorous skits known as Purim shpiels. It is also a big day for charity and gift-giving.

In places with large numbers of Orthodox Jews, groups of students will run house to house, dancing upon arrival, collecting money for various causes and partying for a while as welcome drop-ins.

So when should a Purim-observant Jew stop drinking?

A popular explanation, endorsed by Maimonides, that happens to give rabbis a way to deter excess drunkenness, is that a person should drink just enough to bring on sleep. When a person is asleep, the theory goes, they can’t hear the difference between Haman and Mordecai.

“I’ve always told people that the obligation can be satisfied by going to sleep,” said Rabbi Yaakov Wasser, of Young Israel of East Brunswick, N.J. “It would be irresponsible for me to tell people to get drunk.”

Another answer given is that a person should not drink if they know they can’t handle it, or if they won’t be able to say their evening prayers.

“You’re not to become to the point where you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re wild,” said Rabbi Moshe Herson, of the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, N.J. “That removes the purpose, defeats the purpose. The purpose is to maintain a certain sanctity of the holiday so you come to a position where you’re elated, with happiness.”

Herson, incidentally, said his fellow Orthodox Lubavitch Jews, who are partial to vodka on Purim, tend to reject the “enough alcohol to fall sleep” approach as an “easy way out.”

The Internet has allowed anti-drinking sentiment to spread more widely than before.

“Don’t get carried away this Purim,” booms a flier, printable from the Internet at http://www.hotzolahems.org, from a Passaic, N.J.-based Jewish ambulance service warning against excess. “ … Many rabbinical authorities have stated that if drinking wine may cause one to violate Mitzvos or act improperly, one should not drink.”

Another Internet flier, signed by two dozen Jewish leaders, cautions that “in recent years, the problem of dangerous drunkenness on Purim, especially among b’nei yeshiva (yeshiva students) has reached alarming proportions.”

Urging hosts not to serve alcohol to visiting students, it reads, “Medical doctors as well as representatives of Hatzolah (Jewish community ambulance services) have reported numerous instances of bochurim (students) having to be rushed to hospital emergency rooms, some of them even placed on life-support systems, because of over-drinking on Purim.”

(Jeff Diamant is a staff writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.)

KRE/DS END DIAMANTEditors: A version of this story is also being transmitted by Newhouse News Service. Also note time element: Purim starts at sundown on Saturday (March 3).

A related story, RNS-ORTHODOX-BOOZE, was transmitted on Wednesday, Feb. 28.