[Avodah] Getting Drunk on Purim

[Cantor Wolberg]

R' Eli wrote: ROY discourages getting drunk on Purim and advocates a  
little drink and falling asleep.
A person is obligated to become inebriated on Purim until he doesn't  
know the difference between cursed is Haman and blessed is  
Mordechai.                                        (Talmud Megillah 7b)
We know that certain things are said tongue in cheek. Many things that  
are written are not to be taken literally, and I believe this is one  
of them.  I find it hard to accept that one will be taken to task and   
punished because he didn't get drunk on Purim.
Here's a personal perspective. In the story of Purim, Haman was drunk  
with power. Since he knew the difference between himself and  
Mordechai, we are symbolically reliving the history of pretending to  
be as drunk as Haman was -- and to show that we are nothing like him  
(God forbid) -- we act as if we don't know the difference between  
Haman and Mordechai, just to spite the fact that Haman thought he knew  
the difference. For similar reasons, we wear masks to pretend we are  
someone else -- again, to mock Haman,        y-mock shmo.
Kol tuv.
ri
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