<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13px; "><blockquote><a name="ETFTOP"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#231bff"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">R' Eli wrote: </span></font></font></a><a name="ETFTOP"><span class="ArticleText" style="font-size: 16px; color: black; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#231bff">ROY discourages getting drunk on Purim and advocates a little drink and </font></span></a><a name="ETFTOP"><span class="ArticleText" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#231bff">falling asleep. </font></span><span class="ArticleText" style="font-size: 16px; color: black; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica; "> </span></a><a name="ETFTOP"><span class="ArticleText" style="font-size: 16px; color: black; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica; "><blockquote style="display: inline !important; "></blockquote></span></a></blockquote><blockquote><a name="ETFTOP"><span class="ArticleText" style="font-size: 16px; color: black; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica; "><blockquote style="display: inline !important; "><i>A person is obligated to become inebriated on Purim until he doesn't know the difference between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai. </i><i> (Talmud Megillah 7b)</i></blockquote></span></a></blockquote><blockquote><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">We know that certain things are said </span></font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">tongue in cheek</span></font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">. 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.</span></font></blockquote><blockquote><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Here's a personal perspective. In the story of Purim, Haman was </span></font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">drunk</span></font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> with power. Since he knew the difference between himself and Mordechai, we are symbolically reliving the history of pretending to be as </span></font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">drunk</span></font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> 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 </span></font><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">he</span></font></span></b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> knew the difference. For similar reasons, we wear masks to pretend we are someone else -- again, to mock Haman, y-mock shmo.</span></font></blockquote><blockquote><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Kol tuv.</span></font></blockquote><blockquote><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">ri</span></font></blockquote></span></body></html>