Saturday, March 03, 2007
Drinking on Purim
As the director of an organization that helps teens at high risk for self-destructive behavior, Caryn Green never has a stress-free day.
Still, some are harder than others, and Green is expecting the daylong holiday of Purim – which begins tonight in the U.S. and Sunday night here – to be one of them.
"Purim is a time when, according to Jewish tradition, it's OK to drink till you're oblivious," Green, a transplanted Texan, says of the religious mandate to drink "until you cannot distinguish between Haman and Mordechai" – the holiday's villain and hero, respectively.
"A lot of rabbis even tend to supply alcohol to their students or tell them to bring their own bottle. A kid told me last night that he thought it was OK to drink on Purim until you throw up because it's just one time a year."
Green's counseling center in downtown Jerusalem works with nearly 1,000 troubled teens every year. She isn't the only one concerned with the general upsurge of drug and alcohol use among Orthodox Jews, a community that once saw itself as almost immune to these problems.
"There has always been the belief that Jews drink less than members of other communities, and although historically this may be true, we still have a problem," said Rabbi Tzvi Weinreb, executive vice president of the New York-based Orthodox Union).
Those who work with addicted Orthodox young people attribute the rise in substance abuse to several factors, including the community's increased affluence and exposure to the secular world through television and the Internet.
"The pull of the street is very strong; the atmosphere is very strong," says Rabbi Eitan Eckstein, founder of Retourno, an Israeli rehab center where 90 percent of the 80 in-house patients come from modern Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox homes.
Esther Ostroy, who facilitates the entry of overseas patients to Retourno, says foreign yeshiva (seminary) students with pre-existing problems find them exacerbated by an unfamiliar culture and newfound freedom in Israel.
"These kids are away from home for the first time. Their parents give them a cell phone and a credit card. But how many parents actually check the report to see exactly how their child is spending their money?" she says.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/features/story.asp?ID=177139
As the director of an organization that helps teens at high risk for self-destructive behavior, Caryn Green never has a stress-free day.
Still, some are harder than others, and Green is expecting the daylong holiday of Purim – which begins tonight in the U.S. and Sunday night here – to be one of them.
"Purim is a time when, according to Jewish tradition, it's OK to drink till you're oblivious," Green, a transplanted Texan, says of the religious mandate to drink "until you cannot distinguish between Haman and Mordechai" – the holiday's villain and hero, respectively.
"A lot of rabbis even tend to supply alcohol to their students or tell them to bring their own bottle. A kid told me last night that he thought it was OK to drink on Purim until you throw up because it's just one time a year."
Green's counseling center in downtown Jerusalem works with nearly 1,000 troubled teens every year. She isn't the only one concerned with the general upsurge of drug and alcohol use among Orthodox Jews, a community that once saw itself as almost immune to these problems.
"There has always been the belief that Jews drink less than members of other communities, and although historically this may be true, we still have a problem," said Rabbi Tzvi Weinreb, executive vice president of the New York-based Orthodox Union).
Those who work with addicted Orthodox young people attribute the rise in substance abuse to several factors, including the community's increased affluence and exposure to the secular world through television and the Internet.
"The pull of the street is very strong; the atmosphere is very strong," says Rabbi Eitan Eckstein, founder of Retourno, an Israeli rehab center where 90 percent of the 80 in-house patients come from modern Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox homes.
Esther Ostroy, who facilitates the entry of overseas patients to Retourno, says foreign yeshiva (seminary) students with pre-existing problems find them exacerbated by an unfamiliar culture and newfound freedom in Israel.
"These kids are away from home for the first time. Their parents give them a cell phone and a credit card. But how many parents actually check the report to see exactly how their child is spending their money?" she says.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/features/story.asp?ID=177139
Comments:
עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי רבה
What is the reason for this strange Halacha? The concept seems totally foreign to Jewish thought; in fact it's almost sacrilege that is until you have the deeper understanding. We must go back to the very Beginning we are back with Adam and Chavah by the Eitz Hadas the snake convinces Chavah to eat from the Eitz Hadas so she could become Godly defined as" knowing good and evil". What was this Eitz Hadas According to some it was a grape vine and what Chavah ate was actually grapes now she knew she was in trouble and she was going to die and she did not want to die alone so she had to get her husband to eat from the tree too, but he knew the Eitz Hadas was grapes so what did she do she made into wine and gave it to him to drink. The world is destroyed after the Mabul we get a new start. Noach Gets out of the Ark what does he do? The Medrash Tanchumah brings down he plants a vineyard in a joint deal with the Satan who after planting proceeds to Shect a sheep, a monkey, and a pig and uses their blood to water the seeds. For simple reason of course when you first start off you are meek as a sheep, after a drink or two you become brave as a lion, and after another you behave as a monkey, and at long last you are a pig rolling in mud and your own excrement. We look further in Bereishis we have Lot and his daughters thinking they are the soul survivors in the world get their father drunk and procreate the Jewish antagonists of future generations Amon and Moav. It seems the theme of the torah with drunkenness is it is overall a negative thing so again why this mitzvah? The answers lies back in Gan Eden. What was eating from the Eitz Hadas going to give? Give divine knowledge which is defined as knowing good and evil so here we are Purim fixing this very trait we will drink to the extent where can no longer differentiate between Haman And Mordechai which is the quintessential lack of recognition of the difference between good and evil, fixing Chavahs' Original mistake, and now we have come full circle and have a deeper understanding of this very strange mitzvah.
A Freilichen Purim!!!!!!!!
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What is the reason for this strange Halacha? The concept seems totally foreign to Jewish thought; in fact it's almost sacrilege that is until you have the deeper understanding. We must go back to the very Beginning we are back with Adam and Chavah by the Eitz Hadas the snake convinces Chavah to eat from the Eitz Hadas so she could become Godly defined as" knowing good and evil". What was this Eitz Hadas According to some it was a grape vine and what Chavah ate was actually grapes now she knew she was in trouble and she was going to die and she did not want to die alone so she had to get her husband to eat from the tree too, but he knew the Eitz Hadas was grapes so what did she do she made into wine and gave it to him to drink. The world is destroyed after the Mabul we get a new start. Noach Gets out of the Ark what does he do? The Medrash Tanchumah brings down he plants a vineyard in a joint deal with the Satan who after planting proceeds to Shect a sheep, a monkey, and a pig and uses their blood to water the seeds. For simple reason of course when you first start off you are meek as a sheep, after a drink or two you become brave as a lion, and after another you behave as a monkey, and at long last you are a pig rolling in mud and your own excrement. We look further in Bereishis we have Lot and his daughters thinking they are the soul survivors in the world get their father drunk and procreate the Jewish antagonists of future generations Amon and Moav. It seems the theme of the torah with drunkenness is it is overall a negative thing so again why this mitzvah? The answers lies back in Gan Eden. What was eating from the Eitz Hadas going to give? Give divine knowledge which is defined as knowing good and evil so here we are Purim fixing this very trait we will drink to the extent where can no longer differentiate between Haman And Mordechai which is the quintessential lack of recognition of the difference between good and evil, fixing Chavahs' Original mistake, and now we have come full circle and have a deeper understanding of this very strange mitzvah.
A Freilichen Purim!!!!!!!!
Comment Credit ---This article posted by 
: March 04, 2007 4:17 AM
: March 04, 2007 4:17 AM
