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The mitzvah to get wasted

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By Avi Frier - FJN Publisher

Comedian Henny Youngman would often quip "I read about the evils of alcohol, so I gave up reading."


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I think of that as one of those funny lines that really isn’t funny at all. To me, the joke shows a keen insight into the way we think, and how our own (guilty) consciences can prevent us from recognizing the truth about our own behavior.

Or in some cases, we do the exact opposite: Instead of avoiding topics that make us uncomfortable, we convince ourselves that we are tackling them head-on, when we’re really doing nothing more than just going through the motions.

Case in point: Last year’s "Dry Shul Fad." I refer to it as a fad because it seems to have gone the way of the hula hoop and the pet rock.

About a year ago, there was an emergency meeting called by all of the top rabbis at the Orthodox Union. As a result of this meeting, shuls across the country were called upon to ban the consumption of liquor on their premises.

To use an old cliche, a lot of shuls jumped right on the bandwagon. And to use another, perhaps more appropriate expression, many of these shuls fell off the wagon almost as quickly.

Last year, I spoke with Rabbi Hershel Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere. His was the first shul to successfully implement a no-alcohol policy. One of the stories he told me about their transition was positively amazing.

"A few weeks after the policy went into effect," Rabbi Billet said, "one of my congregants pulled me aside to thank me. Until we put a stop to the Kiddush Club, this man was drinking so much on Shabbat morning that he would fall asleep somewhere around the middle of lunch and wake up in time for Mincha if he was lucky.

"He thanked me for giving him back his Shabbat. Suddenly he was spending Shabbat afternoon with his children, rather than sleeping off a drunken stupor."

I know of a few South Florida shuls that implemented similar policies last year. At some, these policies were never enforced from the very beginning. At others, they lasted a few weeks at the most.

It was as if we had to go through the motions of establishing a policy so we could all pat ourselves on the backs and congratulate each other for dealing with the issue head on. But all we’ve really done is swept it further under the rug.

I wonder how many people experienced a Shabbat with their families for the first time in a long time as a result of these policies, even if only for a week or two.

I wonder how many others still sleep Shabbat away, dreaming that everything’s alright, that they don’t need help, that they’re not abusing alcohol, that they can stop drinking any time they want to.

I wonder how many shuls have abandoned the "iron-clad" policies they established hardly a year ago. I wonder how many shul members knew, even as they were attending Alcohol Policy Committee Meetings late into the night, that these policies would prove to be nothing more than a passing fad.

With Purim coming in a few days, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind all the shuls out there that once upon a time, we were confronted with issues that forced us to take decisive action. And if we allow our decisive actions to fall by the wayside, we will face the same issues again and again and again.

It’s amazing how religious and learned a person can become when presented with the right motivation. So many can quote word for word the line from the Talmud that "requires" us to get drunk on Purim until we don’t know the difference between "Cursed is Haman" and "Blessed is Mordechai."

We’re learned enough to know that Gemara, yet ignorant enough to cast aside (or never even bother learning) the many differing viewpoints that say otherwise.

So rather than stand here on my soap box and tell you what to do, what’s right, and what’s wrong, instead I’ll present you with a little challenge: Call your rabbi. Ask him how the Jewish law requires that you conduct yourself on Purim, and what type of example you should be setting for your children at the Purim feast.

Ask him not to simply tell you the answer, but rather to learn the answer with you, so you’ll be able to pass it along to your children.

It might just make a great D’var Torah for your Purim Seudah table.

Have a happy and safe Purim!


Posted by Avi Frier - FJN Publisher on 03/10 at 01:00 AM • Hits: 177



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