Rava’s Innovative Obligating of Getting Drunk on Purim

Rava’s Innovative Obligating of Getting Drunk on Purim[1]

Rabbi Drew Kaplan

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 the book of Esther describes Purim as to be celebrated with drinking parties (Esther 9:17, 9:18, 9:19, & 9:22), there is no such prescription for getting drunk. In rabbinic literature, while neither the Mishnah nor Tosefta mentions drinking on Purim (focussing mostly on reading of Megillat Esther and secondarily on providing financial assistance to the poor), a couple of subsequent texts are produced that form the foundational textual basis for this practice. Both of these texts are included within the pericope concerning sharing food with other people on Purim (Megillah 7a-7b).

 

Text #1: Rabbah’s & Rabbi Zeira’s Memorable Purim
The first text concerns an infamous Purim celebration between two third-generation amoraim in Sasanian Persia (Megillah 7b):

רבה[2] ורבי זירא עבדו סעודת פורים בהדי הדדי איבסום
קם רבה שחטיה לרבי זירא
למחר בעי רחמי ואחייה
לשנה אמר ליה ניתי מר ונעביד סעודת פורים בהדי הדדי
אמר ליה לא בכל שעתא ושעתא מתרחיש ניסא

Rabbah⁴ and Rabbi Zeira were enjoying a festive Purim meal with each other and they got drunk.[3]
Rabbah got up and slew Rabbi Zeira.
He prayed for mercy the following day and revived him.
Rabbah said to Rabbi Zeira the following year, “Dear master, come and let’s enjoy another festive Purim meal with each other!”
Rabbi Zeira said to Rabbah, “Miracles don’t happen that frequently.”

 

Between these two leading rabbinic sages of the third amoraic generation,[4] we experience this incredibly drunken scene on Purim in which they are greatly enjoying their meal and get so intoxicated that one of them slays his colleague. Moreover, this slaughtering is not described simply as he killed him, but that he slaughtered him, drawing upon the language of the ritual slaughtering of animals, which is to be done by drawing a knife across the animal’s neck (Ḥullin 27a). One wonders further if this was done in a drunken way to demonstrate the way to ritually slaughter his colleague. What’s somewhat peculiar is that there “is humor in the way in which this killing is narrated without affect, as if the slaughtering of a rabbi were as mundane as the initial invitation to dinner.”[5]

Following this slaughtering, Rabbah then revives his colleague, although whether or not he actually killed him and revived him the following day[6] is an interesting question,[7] but what is being imparted to the reader is an extreme state of drunkenness – so much so that he harms his colleague. Indeed, the killing and reviving “in this legal narrative are what make this story fascinating.”[8]

When approached the following year for a similar experience, it seems that Rabbi Zeira may be looking forward to a great eating and dining celebration for Purim, but is leery not so much for the potentially deadly situation in which he will be putting himself, but seemingly more concerned that he would not be revived again. To some degree, it seems to the reader that “Rab Zêrā’s comic refusal ends the story in blatant comedy”,[9] or, at the very least, certainly catches the reader’s attention. Indeed, “It is precisely the expectation that the two rabbis will perform their Purim feasts in exactly the same manner as previously that yields the reader’s laughter following Rab Zêrā’s retort. The story’s comedy, in other words, draws energy from its play with the expectations of mandate.”[10] This comedy is something that is sure to grab the audience’s attention.

 

Text #2: Rava’s Obligational Statement
One of the leading rabbinic lights in the subsequent generation[11] then articulates an apodictic formulation of drinking on Purim (Megillah 7b):

אמר רבא מיחייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי

Rava said: “A person is obligated to get drunk on Purim until he is unable to distinguish between the cursedness of Haman and the blessedness of Mordekhai.”

 

This articulation in the early fourth century seems to be the first obligatory statement in rabbinic literature regarding drinking alcohol on Purim. And, as any reader can glean, it is no small amount of drinking he is advocating – he demands a level of drunkenness in which morality gets blurred in one’s mind. Why this much drinking? We have two questions: what’s going on with mandating drunkenness, and also why that much (what is its significance)?

 

Considering Drunkenness
With regards to getting drunk, is this a peculiar behavior for the Talmudic rabbis up until Rava’s time, or is it a common activity? While there is no other prescriptive statement in the Talmud to get drunk, this is quite the novel prescription by Rava. “While one is required to drink four cups of wine at the Passover Seder, the goal there is the freedom that such drinking communicates rather than inebriation.”[12] So then how can we understand drunkenness within the Talmudic context?

Preceding Rava, while there are tannaitic statements regarding drunkenness in the Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 51a, Eruvin 65a, Yoma 49a, Zevaḥim 14b, and Gittin 70a), none of them either obligate nor forbid drunkenness.[13] While there was a concern about mandating people getting drunk at mourners’ houses (Ketubot 8b), it does not seem to be that people getting drunk there was necessarily problematic insomuch as it was to mandate their getting drunk. In the first couple generations of amoraim, while there are some statements that either qualifiedly discourage drunkenness or otherwise valorize those who never get drunk,[14] there are also multiple instances of rabbis getting drunk with no negative moral valence perceived.[15] There are some texts from the third generation of amoraim that precede Rava, none of which either prescribe drunkenness, proscribe drunkenness, nor otherwise provide a generally negative moral valence to it.[16] Thus, it seems that drunkenness is something that was very much a part of the lives of these third-century rabbis.

It may be that Rava is looking to make this Purim-drinking into quite the event. Perhaps one way of reading his statement in this “obligation is to say that he is following the Megillah’s lead, and making inebriation on Purim religiously meaningful.”[17] As such, he is articulating a new religious obligation. An alternative to this perspective, perhaps displayed by Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira, is that heavy drinking was already taking place during this time and he sought to make it a normative practice “in order to attempt to rabbinically authorize and make meaningful a popular drinking practice.”[18] Either way, Rava is articulating the vision of one enjoying oneself with others, imbibing to a level of drunkenness.

A further aspect to consider is Rava’s own frequency of getting drunk. While we have no records of him ever getting drunk, we do read often of him drinking wine,[19] so it is not unlikely that he would avoid drunkenness. Moreover, where he served, Meḥoza, is described as a place where drunkenness is common (Ta’anit 26a), so it is possible that this milieu was an instance where “Rava’s creativity was fueled by his cosmopolitan urban environment”,[20] seeing that this drunkenness which was taking place somewhat commonly could be channeled for a religious celebration.

 

Considering the Threshold of Rava’s Obligational Statement

Now that we see that drunkenness is not perceived during Talmudic times to be a problematic behavior, we then move on to the next question: why does Rava advocate for this level of drunkenness? Rava “does not say simply that one must get inebriated on Purim. Rather, … [it] is supposed to create a confusion of characters such that one does not know whether to bless the hero or curse him, to the villain or bless him.”[21] Indeed, the “threshold makes it seem as though there is inherent value in confusing the Megillah’s hero and its villain. Why would this be?”[22]

While there is an earlier description in the Talmud of a very far-gone level of drunkenness, that of Lot’s drunkenness (Gen. 19:33 & 19:35), as described by Rabbi Ḥanina (Eruvin 65a), that would seem to be the most extreme level of drunkenness. This level of drunkenness, of lacking the ability to differentiate these two biblical characters, however, is quite curious. Is it a very high level, albeit not as much as Lot’s drunkenness, or is it a lower level of drunkenness?

A fascinating perspective on this difference is the argument that Rava actually does not think highly of Mordekhai, as articulated by Rabbi Ayalon Eliach: “Again and again and again throughout the Talmud, Rava basically goes out to bash Mordekhai. To say that he’s not just not a hero not just that he’s decent, but that he’s kind of a bad guy. He goes out of his way to read verses in the book of Esther that really cut against the grain that place Mordekhai in these really precarious and weird positions.”[23] One such example he points to is from Megillah 12b-13a:

רבא אמר: כנסת ישראל אמרה לאידך גיסא: ראו מה עשה לי יהודי ומה שילם לי ימיני. מה עשה לי יהודידלא קטליה דוד לשמעי דאתיליד מיניה מרדכי דמיקני ביה המן. ומה שילם לי ימיני דלא קטליה שאול לאגג דאתיליד מיניה המן דמצער לישראל.

Rava said: “The Congregation of Israel said from the opposite perspective: ‘See what a Judean has done to me, as David did not kill Shimei, that Mordekhai was born from him, against whom Haman was jealous, and how a Benjamite has repaid me that Shaul did not kill Agag, from whom Haman was born and he caused suffering to the Jewish people.'”

 

The way that Rava frames Mordekhai and his lineage is “not something you generally say about a hero.”[24] Ultimately, Eliach posits, “the point is not that these are two polar opposites but that the point is that you’re drinking just so you can open up your mind to the possibility that this person you thought was a hero is actually not a hero and he’s actually pretty similar to the archvillain in this story.”[25]

As we read of Rabbi Eliach’s approach, while there is still getting drunk, it does not read Rava’s prescription of getting so drunk as to approach the drunkenness of Lot (cf. Eruvin 65a), but a much lower level of drunkenness, since – as Rava would argue – Mordekhai and Haman are not as terribly morally opposed as one might expect. On this, one wonders if “Rava originally made his statement in the jestful mood that befits the Purim holiday.”[26]

 

 

Considering Rava’s Obligational Statement in the Subsequent Chronological Context

As Rava was a student of Rabbah,[27] whether Rava was present at that infamous Purim meal between Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira or he had heard of that story, it may very well have influenced this prescription of his. What is unclear is how it influenced him:

• Was it seeing leading scholars in the previous generation getting very drunk and Rava now simply articulated a practice from that incident?
• Was it seeing them and realizing that such a practice is a unique enhancement and highest form of experiencing Purim?
• Could it have been that seeing them participating in such endeavors made him realize that, with all of the frequent drinking taking place in Megillat Esther, how could one not drink?

And there still yet may be further possibilities of this influence.

 

Considering Rava’s Obligational Statement in its Literary Context
What is fascinating about these two texts from a different perspective is that the Talmudic editors arranged these stories in reverse chronological order. “Textually, Rava’s statement precedes the story of Rabbah and R. Zeira. Chronologically however, Rabba and R. Zeira lived in the generation before Rava. Therefore, it is unlikely for Rabba and R. Zeira to be reacting to Rava.”[28]

This literary arrangement creates intrigue: is the story that took place before the apodictic statement an illustration of the lengths to which one should go in one’s drinking on Purim, or is it an example of a Purim drinking party that goes too far?

On the other hand, maybe the editors arranged the illustrative story so as to temper Rava’s apodictic statement: You may want to take Rava’s statement seriously, but you ought to be careful, since there are dangers inherent taking it to its logical conclusion. “Coming on the heels of an explicit mandate to drink to excess, the story implies that it is dangerous to drink too much. But to complicate the story further — rather than offering an unambiguous rejection of the law, it concludes with a funny punchline.”[29]

Moreover, perceiving this story coming after the prescription, the “narrative text with its dire consequences overwhelms the legal dictum and eliminates its mandated behavior even as optional behavior; the legal narrative has changed the law from mandate to prohibition!”[30]

However, while “the story comments on the practice of becoming inebriated, it does not appear, upon fuller reading, to undermine or contradict the practice.”[31]

A very different approach, however, could be that while one might read Rava’s statement as being a bit extreme – does one see the illustrative story as telling its audience, “You may think Rava is stating mere hyperbole and you shouldn’t really get drunk, but see this story – you actually should get very drunk”?  In this way, the story serves as a way of solidifying Rava’s statement as not being mere hyperbole.

Either way, the ambiguity provided by this literary arrangement leaves a wide-open space for speculation and, unsurprisingly, subsequent commentators stake out a variety of opinion positions on the role of this story.[32]

 

 

Lack of Specified Beverage
Throughout Megillat Esther, we encounter a lot of wine-drinking, so it would be logical to expect the Talmudic rabbis to articulate any obligatory drinking to be carried out with wine. However, the lack of specifying any particular beverages, in either the incident involving Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira or Rava’s obligational statement, seems awfully curious, especially since Rava appears to be the Babylonian Talmud’s biggest wine-lover.[33] Why isn’t wine specified?

My suspicion for this omission is that those around Rava were likely not drinking wine, since they were living in Sasanian Persia, in which beer was more commonly found while wine was a lot less commonly found.[34] Rava may not have wanted to obligate people to drink a particular beverage, owing to one’s particular drinking landscape/culture, especially since one of his teachers was big into brewing and drinking beer,[35] while one of his students was also really into brewing and drinking beer.[36] While Rava was disgusted by beer (Pesaḥim 107a), nevertheless, Rava was allowing for a more pluralistic way of enjoying this celebration.

 

Summary
While the book of Esther repeatedly depicts Purim as a time of feasting and drinking, neither the Mishnah nor the Tosefta mandates alcohol consumption, let alone intoxication. Rava’s formulation—requiring a person to get drunk is the earliest rabbinic statement to make inebriation a religious obligation. In the broader rabbinic culture, drunkenness was neither forbidden nor stigmatized and was, in fact, widely practiced. The notorious story of Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira drunkenly celebrating Purim, culminating in Rabbi Zeira’s ritual-style “slaughter” and miraculous revival illustrates how extreme intoxication already belonged to the Purim landscape before Rava articulated it. Whether Rava was reacting against or for such episodes, his ruling gave religious meaning to what had previously been merely a practice.

 

The literary placement of Rava’s ruling prior to the Rabbah–Rabbi Zeira narrative intensifies this ambiguity. The Talmud’s editors place the prescription before the story, forcing readers to decide whether the tale warns against Rava’s mandate or dramatizes its seriousness. Neither Rava nor the narrative specifies wine as the beverage of choice. This omission is likely deliberate, reflecting the beer-drinking culture of Sasanian Persia and Rava’s pluralistic sensitivity to local drinking practices. In obligating drunkenness rather than wine, Rava crafted a ritual flexible enough to travel across cultures while still preserving Purim’s essential intoxicated joy. Together, these strands reveal Rava’s Purim ruling as a bold theological intervention: a ritualized intoxication designed to collapse moral certainties, authorize popular festivity, and embody the radical reversals at the heart of the Purim story itself.

[1] An earlier version of this essay first appeared as “Drinking on Purim [Megillah 7b]”, Textual Insights (30 January 2019) [http://texts.rabbidrew.info/purimdrinking-megillah7b/], which was also published as “Drinking on Purim [Megillah 7b]”, Jewish Drinking (30 January 2019) [https://jewishdrinking.com/purimdrinking-megillah7b/].

[2] While most manuscripts witness Rava here (MSS Goettingen 3, British Library 400, Munich 140, Columbia 294-295, Oxford 366, and Vatican 134) and only one witnesses Rabbah (MS Munich 95), one might read Rava here. Yet, “since Rabbâ is R. Zêrā’s contemporary, it is likely that the story is about Rabbâ” (Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law, 177, n. 82).

[3] Rabbi Shlomi Yitzḥaki (Rashi), commentary on Megillah 7b, s.v. ואיבסום. While there are people out there who claim this term does not mean drunk, we do see that this term appears a few other times in Talmudic stories depicting people getting drunk (Sanhedrin 38a, Shabbat 66b, and Bava Batra 73b).

[4] Cf. Wilhelm Bacher and Jacob Zallel Lauterbach, “Rabbah b. Naḥmani”, in The Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isidore Singer, vol. 10 (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1905), 292-293 and Joseph Jacobs and Jacob Zallel Lauterbach, “Ze’era”, in The Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isidore Singer, vol. 12 (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1906), 651-652.

[5] Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law, 28.

[6] Perhaps in the morning? “Vatican 134, Munich 95, Munich 140, British Museum and Pesaro claim this happened in the morning. British Museum and marginal notes in both Vatican 134 and Munich 140 add ‘כי פקח חמרא’” (Barry Wimpfheimer, “Purim: A Day Beyond Full Rabbinic Control”, TheGemara.com (21 March 2016) [https://thegemara.com/article/purim-a-day-beyond-full-rabbinic-control], n. 5). See also Barry Scott Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 177, n. 84

[7] Such as suggested by Rabbi Shmuel Eidels (1555-1631), מהרש”א חידושי אגדות on Megillah 7b, s.v. קם רבה שחטיה לרבי זירא.

[8] Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law, 26-27.

[9] Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law, 28.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Wilhelm Bacher and Jacob Zallel Lauterbach, “Raba (b. Joseph b. Ḥama)”, in The Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isidore Singer, vol. 10 (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1905), 288-289.

[12] Barry Wimpfheimer, “Purim: A Day Beyond Full Rabbinic Control”, TheGemara.com (21 March 2016) [https://thegemara.com/article/purim-a-day-beyond-full-rabbinic-control].

[13] Cf. also my, “Drunkenness in the Babylonian Talmud, Part 1”, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #165 (4 December 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJeDulPFeEE [https://jewishdrinking.com/drunkbavli1/] (see also my “Drunkenness in Early Rabbinic Literature”, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #163 (5 November 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDdto31E4n8 [https://jewishdrinking.com/rablitdrunk/] regarding drunkenness in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and midreshei halakhah).

[14] There are some statements that seem to disfavor drunkenness in that Rabbi Yoḥanan said from the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai urges king and princes to not get drunk (Sanhedrin 70b) and Rav Hamnuna said a drunk person may not pray (Berakhot 31a), we further also read that God loves those who do not get drunk (Pesaḥim 113b) and, according to Rav Yehudah quoting Rav that the forty-two-letter Name may be transmitted only to one who is – amongst other behaviors – does not get drunk (Kiddushin 71a).

[15] Despite these, we also read of Rabbi Ḥiyya’s sons getting drunk at a meal with Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (Sanhedrin 38a), a pair of Sages who got drunk at the wedding of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s son (Berakhot 9a), and Rav Huna, Rav, and Rabbi Ḥiyya enjoyed getting drunk at the houses of Rav, Rabbi Ḥiyya, and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, respectively, blessing them for it (Shabbat 66b), yet none of these incidents yielding a negative moral valence or other condemnatory statements.

[16] Rabbi Elazar (Berakhot 31b) and Rabbah son of Rav Huna find it to be problematic to pray while drunk (Eruvin 64a), Rabbi Aḥa bar Ḥanina describes judges as refraining from drinking when judging (Sanhedrin 42a), and Rabbi Levi describes children that came from drunken sex to have improper behavior (Nedarim 20b). For more on amoraic texts on drunkenness, see my “Drunkenness in the Babylonian Talmud, Part 2″, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #166 (22 December 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb8Ebkpx1Wo [https://jewishdrinking.com/drunkbavli2/].

[17] Wimpfheimer, “Purim”.

[18] Wimpfheimer, “Purim”.

[19] He would swallow large gulps of the cup of blessing (Sukkah 49b) and he would spend the afternoon leading up to the Passover Seder drinking wine (Pesaḥim 107b and Berakhot 35b).

[20] Yaakov Elman, “The Babylonian Talmud in Its Historical Context”, in Sharon Liberman Mintz and Gabriel Goldstein, eds., Printing of the Talmud (New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2005), 27.

[21] Barry Scott Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 29.

[22] Barry Wimpfheimer, “Purim: A Day Beyond Full Rabbinic Control”, TheGemara.com (21 March 2016) [https://thegemara.com/article/purim-a-day-beyond-full-rabbinic-control].

[23] Rabbi Ayalon Eliach, “Rava, Mordechai, and Purim-Drinking”, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #18 (18 February 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5kyFJZV2M8 [https://jewishdrinking.com/rava-mordechai-and-purim-drinking/], 11:25-11:59.

[24] Ibid., 13:41-13:44.

[25] Ibid., 14:07-14:23.

[26] Daniel Alder, “Drinking on Purim: When to Say When?”, Judaism 40, Issue 1 (Winter 1991), 12.

[27] Bacher & Lauterbach, “Raba (b. Joseph b. Ḥama)”, 288.

[28] Rabbi Josh Yuter, “Drinking On Purim”, Yutopia (3 March 2004) [https://joshyuter.com/2004/03/03/judaism/jewish-law-halakha/drinking-on-purim/].

[29] Wimpfheimer, “Purim”.

[30] Barry Scott Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 25.

[31] Wimpfheimer, Narrating the Law, 28.

[32] For such subsequent rabbinic opinions, cf. Rabbi David Fried and Rabbi Drew Kaplan , “Medieval Jewish Legal Authorities (Rishonim) on Purim-Drunkenness”, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #61 (23 February 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IuMaivue6M [https://jewishdrinking.com/rishonimpurim/]; Idem., “16th-17th Century Rabbis on Purim-Drinking (Early Aharonim)”, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #94 (8 March 2022), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zytj09QNusc [https://jewishdrinking.com/earlyaharonimpurim/]; and Idem., “18th &19th Century Rabbis on Purim-Drinking (Later Aharonim)”, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #127 (28 February 2023), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDXj2PvllwQ [https://jewishdrinking.com/lateraharonimpurim/]

[33] See for instance his statements that, along with spices, wine refreshed him (Horayot 13b and Sanhedrin 70a), he would spend the afternoon leading up to the Passover Seder drinking wine (Pesahim 107b and Berakhot 35b), amongst others.

[34] Cf. Rabbi Ḥiyya’s teaching on wine storages in Israel vs. beer storages in Babylonia (Pesahim 8a)

[35] Rav Ḥisda’s attributes his wealth to his beer-brewing (Pesaḥim 113a). Rava directly quotes Rav Ḥisda several times (Eruvin 103b, Betzah 17a, Yevamot 74b, Bava Metzia 72a, and Zevaḥim 19a).

[36] Like Rav Ḥisda, Rav Pappa attributed his wealth to his beer-brewing (Pesaḥim 113a). Moreover, Rav Pappa appears to be the Babylonian Talmud’s biggest beer-lover, as many statements by and about him refer to beer (e.g. Shabbat 140b, Bava Batra 91b, Avodah Zarah 31b, Bava Kamma 35a, and others). For more on Rav Pappa and beer, see Jordan Rosenblum and Rabbi Drew Kaplan, “Rav Papa – The Talmud Bavli’s Beer Baron”, The Jewish Drinking Show, episode #4 (21 January 2020), https://youtu.be/Sbtxa3L1B3c [https://jewishdrinking.com/ravpapa-beerbaron].