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Okay, the question this week is are girls allowed to get drunk when they're in a place with only girls and, they know they aren't going out at all on Purim? Seeing as Purim is right around the corner, it's a very important issue. So let's deal with this first from a halachic perspective and a hashkafic perspective. First, we'll deal with it from a halachic perspective. The Gemara says that a person should drink on Purim, A person should get drunk on Purim until they don't know the difference between. cursed as Haman and blessed as Mordechai. Now, this is just a side commentary. Let's say in our generation, unfortunately, many people use Purim as an opportunity to behave, exceptionally inappropriately, to be drunk in a way that is not becovered at all. To use Purim as an excuse for frivolity and unfortunately Purim today in many, many communities has become a b'zayin ha-teirah and a chil ha-shem, in the highest order. I myself for many years was very against drinking on Purim at all,
until one year I was invited to see a suda in a particular kailel, where the Avreichim and the kolel were men who were in their 30s and 40s who had been learning for a very long time and the behavior in their Purim suda was exquisite and exceptional. I saw people who were crying about their love for Hakadosh Baruch Hu and his teirah, some men who were drunk were seeing how many teises they could say by heart while they were inebriated and I did see that there can be kedusha but unfortunately many people use it as an opportunity to engage, as I mentioned before, in frivolous activity. Now, regarding women on Purim, women are chayiv in Shalach Manos, Krias Magillim, Atanas Avionim and in general all of the mitzvot of the day. So the simple understanding would be that women are obligated to drink on Purim just as men are. However, the Shevet HaLevi and the Rivevos Efraim make it clear that a woman is not chayiv on any level to get drunk on Purim. And in fact, it might be exceptionally inappropriate. Let's go through a little bit of the Halacha.
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So the Rivevos Efraim says that drinking is the part of the day that is a reference, a symbolic for the ultimate victory that we will have over Amalek, wiping out Amalek from this world and uniting Hakadosh Baruch Hu's name with this world. And since women are not obligated in Milchamas Amalek, they're not obligated in drinking. The Rivevos Efraim also brings from Chanukah Neros, since women, their beauty is internal, which of course doesn't mean, as we mentioned many times before, that a woman is meant to be inside. There's a difference between internal and inside, but since women are internal, we do not do outside mitzvos. So, for example, Hanukkah Nehros, which is generally lit outside, especially in the times of the Gemara, today in Eretz Yisrael, even in America, many people do it. Hanukkah Nehros are lit outside. So women who are obligated in Hanukkah Nehros are yotzei with their husbands, and similarly when it comes to drinking, drinking is a very external activity, even if a person is inside, it's an external activity,
and therefore the River of Sephariim says women should not drink. He does bring them the iri. The Me'iri says that the Torah only speaks about a ben-soromora, the wayward son and not the wayward daughter, because it is not the way of women to drink, obviously not to excess, and that would mean that for example on Pesach, where the goal of the drinking is not to get drunk, it would be appropriate for a woman to have arbekosos, but not necessarily on Purim, where the goal of the drinking is to become inebriated. Obviously when we say inebriated, we mean appropriately inebriated. If a person does not think they can be appropriately inebriated, then they should not get drunk at all. But Me'iri does say that it was not the derech of women. And again in the Shartzion, it's brought that women do not make a zimun, because a zimun is classically made over a kos, and it is not the derech of women to drink. There is an opinion of Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky, I did not see this inside, but I did hear that there is an opinion of Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky that women would be obligated to drink a revius.
of wine on Purim, but I cannot... I will say as follows, I think there is exceptional value in having a meaningful and appropriate Purim. I do not believe that today many people are having such Purims. And since I'm reticent to say that even the guys should be drinking on Purim today, I'm certainly reticent to say that the girls should be drinking on Purim, where classically it has not been a behavior that is befitting of the Kedushah, the sanctity, the dignity, the royalty of the way we treat women. I will tell you the Rambam brings down the halacha that women are not accepted as edim in the same halacha that he says a king is not accepted as a witness. Why? Because, as I heard one explanation, because whenever someone is a witness they get cross-examined in a very intense way by the courts and so it would be inappropriate for a king to be a witness because a king is of royalty, he has tremendous dignity and to put him on the stand and cross-examine.
him would be inappropriate. So too when it comes to women to put them on the stand as witnesses and to cross-examine them and to make mincemeat of them as judges do because we want to get people off it would be highly inappropriate because in Judaism we have always treated women as royalty and with tremendous respect and dignity. Having said that, I think it's exceptionally important for us and our generation to, double down on this idea. We see that in Hollywood, they've spoken a tremendous amount about equality for women and. the results have been disastrous. Not because women shouldn't be treated appropriately. Of course, they should. They should be treated more than appropriately. They should be treated with exceptional dignity. But when we look at the Hollywood culture in the world, we see that they had to come up with a Me Too movement because, with Saareno, when we, went for this notion of, everybody has to be treated the same, we lost the unique femininity of women and that's resulted in some terrible, terrible things. So it is my strong advice to any women that are listening to this and who really want to have a meaningful day.
to take the opportunity to make a beautiful sudo, to sing Zmiros, if you're going to be with just women, really to give the Reit Torah, to have an exceptional, exceptional day of Kedusha. It is a tremendous time of davening. In my community, there's a Yeshivas Mordechai HaTzadik, which is beautiful. All the kids and the adults get together and learn in the morning. It's a tremendous opportunity to deeply connect with your friends. But I would strongly suggest staying away from any form of inebriation.
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