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**Frownland** · 03-01-2018, 05:13 PM

Happy Purim everyone.

Quote:

On Purim day, a festive meal called the Se`udat Purim is held. Fasting for non-medical reasons is prohibited on Purim.

There is a longstanding custom of drinking wine at the feast. The custom stems from a statement in the Talmud attributed to a rabbi named Rava that says one should drink on Purim until he can "no longer distinguish between arur Haman ('Cursed is Haman') and baruch Mordechai ('Blessed is Mordecai')." The drinking of wine features prominently in keeping with the jovial nature of the feast, but also helps simulate the experience of spiritual blindness, wherein one cannot distinguish between good (Mordechai) and evil (Haman). This is based on the fact that the salvation of the Jews occurred through wine.[46] Alcoholic consumption was later codified by the early authorities, and while some advocated total intoxication, others, consistent with the opinion of many early and later rabbis, taught that one should only drink a little more than usual and then fall asleep, whereupon one will certainly not be able to tell the difference between arur Haman ("cursed be Haman") and baruch Mordecai ("blessed be Mordechai"). Other authorities, including the Magen Avraham, have written that one should drink until one is unable to calculate the gematria (numerical values) of both phrases.