Why Josh Can't Be Left Alone

Here it is Purim night...And I'm blogging. Loser? Maybe. Happy I'm far away from any drunk idiots? Definitely. I've never liked Purim. Well that's not exactly true. I used to love Purim growing up. The dressing up. The candy. The lack of class. It was great. That all changed my first year in Israel. The whole Purim was pretty bad, just a whole bunch of stumbling drunks that the day before had been my sober friends. And the turning point would definitely be the point where my roommate came back and puked all over our room. But don't worry he took pictures to remember it by. There he is, sitting in his own vomit, smiling at the camera. He still wistfully looks back at those days, his best. I'd rather shoot them than relive them. Since studying in a full time Yeshiva, and back at Yeshiva University in New York, I've learned how people have hijacked a holiday to camoflage their adolescent tempations in halachic (religious) parameters.

While the relationship between the Purim holiday and drinking is historical and religious in context, there is ample debate as to whether it is integral or tangential. In fact a careful reading of the Rema will point out that taking just a sip of wine and taking a nap is a form of "losing consciousness" on par with getting drunk. And a simple reading of the Mishnah Berurah shows that this method is fact preferred. (See the full, uncensored discussion in your local Mishnah Berurah, in the Siman of Hilchos Purim dealing with the Mitzvah of Seudas Purim.)

But it just never ceases to amaze me what my compatriots manage to do. They make absolute fools of themselves and embarass their religion through their drunken actions. And they have the chutzpah of couching their behavior in religious terms! They are merely finding an outlet for their rebellious, High School selves. The immature, irreligious youth that they bury deep within them comes out this one time of year, where anything goes.

One theme of this holiday is the concept of "V'Nahafochu," "Reversibility." The "turn of events" in the Purim story is supposed to serve as a lesson that we can let the bottled up spiritual feelings escape this one day of the year, without feeling encapsulated by the surrounding environmental factors. The idea of drinking is that it is supposed to enable this release by halting the rational inhibitions we place on our self. To borrow a term from the literary world, we assume a willing suspense of disbelief, and allow ourselves to be in another world, where we don't worry about the impression of others, and freely express our religious passions. However, from what I see, the only reversal occuring is people who have grown up religious for socio/cultural reasons revealing the true basis for their religious decisions. There is no religious passion being unleashed here. When I was in Yeshiva, IPurim made me regret being there . For once, I'm happy to be in Chicago.