Intoxication before God

Purim celebrants and Christians see through a glass darkly | Marvin Olasky

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According to a tradition that may be close to 2,000 years old, celebrants of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which occurs on March 20-21 this year, are supposed to get drunk: "On Purim, one has an obligation to become intoxicated to the point that he does not know the difference between 'Blessed is Mordecai and cursed is Haman.'"

That's weird. But, curiously, this strange instruction fits alongside a deeper teaching that's also almost two millennia old, the apostle Paul's writing in chapter 8 of Romans: "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us . . . we know that for those who love God all things work together for good."

The basis for Purim is the history book of Esther, a book without mention of God that could be seen as sanctioning immorality. After all, Esther's adoptive dad, Mordecai, assents to her entering the royal harem of a king who has kicked out his queen after she refuses to dance, perhaps naked, before hundreds of drunken nobles.