Drinking Parties in the Book of Esther
Introduction The 60th episode of The Jewish Drinking Show features a discussion on the drinking parties in the book of Esther, featuring first-time guest Professor Joshua Joel Spoelstra. Guest Bio Professor Spoelstra is a professor of World Religions at Piedmont College, the Pastor at Downtown Community Fellowship in Clemson, SC, and whose dissertation was “Life-preservation in Genesis […]
A Kabbalistic Approach to Purim-Drinking
Introduction With Purim on the horizon, the next three episodes of The Jewish Drinking Show are all Purim-related, kicking-off with the 59th episode on A Kabbalistic Approach to Purim-Drinking, looking into Rabbi Hayyim Vital’s approach to the topic. Bio The guest for this episode is Professor Vadim Putzu, an associate professor at Missouri State University, whose […]
![Podcast Episode 20: Purim-Drinking in [Lubavitcher] Hasidic Thought](https://jewishdrinking.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Rabbi-Drew-Kaplan-and-Rabbi-Eli-Simpson-Purim-drinking-episode-600x333.png)
Podcast Episode 20: Purim-Drinking in [Lubavitcher] Hasidic Thought
In the 20th podcast/video episode, Rabbi Eli Simpson returns to the show to share Hasidic and Lubavitcher Hasidic thinking on drinking on Purim. It’s no secret that Chabad Hasidim drink on Purim (as do all Hasidim), so what deeper insights do they have into drinking on Purim? And despite discussing the texts on Megillah 7b […]
Drinking on Purim in The Talmud
With Purim coming up in just two weeks, this episode is the second in JewishDrinking’s Purim 2020 series, with a third episode to be published next week. This week’s podcast/video episode features Professor Jordan Rosenblum, the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism, the Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, […]
Rava, Mordechai, and Purim-Drinking
With Purim right around the corner, it’s time to gear up for “the drinkingest day” on the Jewish calendar. To that end, this week’s podcast/video episode features a discussion with Rabbi Ayalon Eliach on the topic of the most famous statement related to Purim-drinking: “.אמר רבא: מיחייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור […]
An Initial Consideration of the Drinking Events in Megillat Esther
Over this recent Purim, I was curious to keep track of the drinking parties, since I knew there were multiple such events, but hadn’t quite remembered what each of them were. While tracking them, though, I was fascinated to not only have a sense of what they were, but maybe also somewhat of a pattern. […]
![Drinking on Purim [Megillah 7b]](https://jewishdrinking.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/beer-glasses.jpg)
Drinking on Purim [Megillah 7b]
Introduction One of the more familiar aspects of Purim practices is getting drunk, with Purim being one of the most drinking-heavy days on the Jewish calendar. While neither the Mishnah nor Tosefta mentions any such practice (focussing mostly on reading of Megillat Esther and secondarily on providing financial assistance to the poor), a couple of texts […]
Purim Drinking II: Which Beverage(s) to Drink?
Having begun a discussion of drinking on Purim, (and what got me re-interested in this topic), I wanted to do an initial post on which beverage one should drink in order to intoxicate oneself on Purim. Curiously, in neither Rabbi Jacob, son of Asher‘s Four Divisions1 nor in Rabbi Joseph Karo‘s Set Table2 is any specific beverage mentioned in order to intoxicate, […]
Purim Drinking I: Prolegomenon
With Purim occurring two months from today, my mind turned over shabbat towards one of the most well-known aspects of the festival: drinking. The amusing thing about drinking being a(n in)famous aspect of the holiday is that it was not initially a main part of the festival – it was not a Tannaitic element (the primary ones were reading the megillah, […]