The following letter submitted to TLS is an open letter from Dr. Reuven Shanik, and Dr. Jonathan I. Cohen, addressing the several safety concerns they say need to be addressed before Purim: Drinking of alcoholic beverages constitutes major public health risks.How is it possible that consuming large amounts of alcohol for teenagers and young adults cannot have deleterious effects? In addition to the negative effects of alcohol on the brain, liver and other organs, drinking also contributes to many unsafe behaviors. Each year we hear of young men walking in the middle of the street late at night. Is it necessary to rely on a miracle to make it through another Purim without a disaster?
We would like to suggest guidelines, which may help to produce a safer environment.
Parents: Please secure your alcohol. Do not send your sons collecting with a supply which you have given them. Call your sons Rebbi or Menahel. Stress to them that they have responsibility for your son’s safety. Do not serve other young men alcohol when they come to collect.
Rebbeim and Menahalim: Remember that you are responsible for these young men. If something should happen to one of your talmidim, i.e. should he get sick, have an accident or worse, you may be legally responsible.
Baal Habattim: When you serve alcohol to minors, anything which may happen after that is your responsibility. For instance, if one of these young man should leave your house and become injured or fall ill this may legally become your responsibility. You may be culpable and liable to lose much more than you can imagine.
We beg you to help keep Lakewood safe. Help to keep our children safe. Help to keep yourselves safe. Avoid unnecessary tragedy and potential legal and/or financial issues if such a tragedy should occur.
Thank you. Wishing you a meaningful and safe Purim.
Jonathan Cohen, MD Reuven Shanik, MD.
Thank you Dr. Shanik once again. Hopefully everyone will listen. A “shot” of alcohol on Purim is 1 shot Dr. Shanik will certainly agree should NEVER be given to any child
A BIG YASHER KOACH TO THE TWO TZADIKIM OF LAKEWOOD
I was in shul this morning and overheard the following brief exchange, almost verbatim, between two boys very late teens or early twenties.
“So, what are you doing for Purim?”
“I’m getting drunk.” (with a DUH! intonation)
“Where?”
“Flatbush, maybe Lakewood.”
Sadly, this has become Purim for some.
I tink vee shood brring beck de prrohibition
Sad but true should grow up
and get a job.
He never said thats all he is going to do on Purim.
People like you should mind their own business.
why were you listening to another conversation to misrepresent what they were saying.
You know?
The following, written by Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, echos much of what Drs. Shanik and Cohen have to say, but bears repeating anyhow as he brings some halachic sources as well:
In the Talmud, there are differing opinions on some halachos, and we must conduct ourselves according to the rulings of the poskim. For example, R’ Yosi Hagelili believes that the issur of meat and milk does not apply to fowl, but the psak halachah is otherwise. Anyone who eats butter-fried chicken is a treifniak.
After the early poskim there were the later ones, and because they were in the position to weigh all the earlier opinions, we follow their psak, which is essentially in the Shulchan Aruch. There were great poskim after the Shulchan Aruch, and for all intents and purposes, klal Yisrael has accepted the Mishna Berurah by the Chafetz Chaim as our halachah today.
In regard to the mitzvah to drink on Purim, Ramah says that one need not get drunk, but to drink just a bit more than one usually does, and take a nap. The Mishnah Berurah (695), says “This is the proper thing to do.” This is the halachah we must live by today. Getting drunk is improper. That is the halachah.
Experience in the past several years has been that particularly young people who drink to excess on Purim get into both shameful and dangerous behavior. Hatzalah cannot keep up with the calls to take these young men to hospital emergency rooms! Can anyone conceive that this is a mitzvah?
Beis Yosef quotes Orchos Chaim: “The mitzvah to drink on Purim does not mean to get drunk, because being drunk is a total issur, and there is no aveirah greater than this!” I believe that based on this, and the observation of the tragedies resulting from excess drinking on Purim, Hagaon Harav Shmuel Kamentzky made the bold statement that “Getting drunk on Purim is an aveirah, not a mitzvah.”
Parents! Exercise your authority to prevent your children from harming themselves or others! Make it abundantly clear to them that you will not tolerate excessive drinking, regardless of what their misguided friends may do.
Baale batim! When bachurim visit your homes on Purim, do not serve them alcohol. Neither wine, beer, nor liquor. They can have the permissible amount (no more than 4 ½ ounces of wine) at home, under their parents’ supervision.
Remember this! If you serve a young man alcohol, and it has a harmful consequence to him or others, you are responsible for that mishap!
Rabbanim and Rebeeim! B”H, our children look up to you for guidance. Help them and the community stay healthy and well by speaking out unequivocally against getting drunk on Purim. They will listen to you more than to others.
May we all enjoy a truly joyous and safe Purim.
Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D. is the Founder and Medical Director Emeritus Gateway Rehabilitation Center a 28-day alcohol and drug dependence treatment center.
http://yehudamondfoundation.org/programs/lechaim.asp
Facts that many in the frum community may not be aware of:
1) It is issur to give people under 21 alcohol –Kitzur Shulchan Aruch- Perek 32, halacha 18.
2) It is illegal for an adult to offer minors alcohol or host a party where it is present and accessible to them, even in your own home –Teen Party Ordinances.
3) It is proven that younger one starts drinking, the more irreversible brain damage occurs, each time they drink.
4) It is proven that the younger one starts drinking the higher the chance they develop serious alcohol addictions. No one can predict who will become an alcoholic- it is not just people from “messed up” homes. Some people have a biochemical tendency towards addiction, and once they are introduced to drinking they continually crave and need more.*
Debora Nussbaum Cohen reported in a 1999 article in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix: “A high percentage of Jews possess a genetic mutation that regulates an enzyme responsible for determining how the body breaks down alcohol. This mutation makes people more sensitive to alcohol – in other words, they get drunk very quickly.”
In other words, if you offer kids alcohol, you are facilitating making their lives much more difficult and maybe destroying them. CH”V.
Wine strengthens the natural body heat, improves the digestive process, helps evacuate waste products, and helps the body health when drank in average quantities. One who has a weak head should be careful of wine, which will worsen his weak condition, and harm1 the head. Wine is good for old people, and harmful to children, since it increases the natural (body) heat, like adding more fuel onto an existing fire. One should be careful of wine until one is over 24 years old. It is preferable not to drink wine before eating, except a small amount to open the intestinal tracts, and not while one still feels hungry, and not after washing or while sweating, and not after wearisome labour. During eating one should only drink a little.
1) lit. fill with vapours.
Bais Chabad of Lakewood…where are you quoting from?