Dear readers of YWN.
I am not a supervisor, coordinator, or in any other way a big “Macher”. but rather I am a simple EMT, a volunteer in Hatzalah.
I love volunteering in Hatzalah. I get to help people in their time of need. I love to do it, but it does come at a price. I often have to leave my home, put aside my work, to run out and help another yid in need. And I do it gladly, without hesitation and without complaint.
This Sunday I will be sitting down like everyone else to eat Seudas Purim with my family. I know from years past that the chance of me actually getting to enjoy the entire Seuda with my family is almost zero, and I know from past experience that the call I will be running out on my family for, is not some poor soul suffering some traumatic or medical emergency, but rather a self inflicted infliction.
We at Hatzalah will get call after call for people who are drunk.
I don’t have to explain what is wrong with excessive drinking, the immediate dangers of being incapacitated by intoxication, and the literally life wrecking problems of alcoholism. Rather this Purim before you drink yourself to oblivion or allow someone in your care to do so, I want you to also think about me. Ask yourself what right you have to pull me away from my family because you are too drunk to protect your own airway! Who gave you the right to do that?!
And what kind of chutzpa does it take, to take away resources from your entire community, tying up personnel and ambulances for your drunkenness when they may be needed for someone Chas Veshalom having a heart attack!
Chag Purim Sameach!
Say Lechaim within moderation, stay safe, and remember we are always there for you.
A Hatzolah Volunteer.
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11 Responses
He’s having his Purim Seuda this Thursday?! That’s so interesting. Must be a new minhag.
I wish this plea would work, but there’s a huge disconnect between mind and heart. Once a person already has a tendency to do something, it usually takes many years of self-discipline and mussar to reach appropriate levels of control.
Purim is Sunday this year. I think!
Does the Hatzolah member have to respond if
it is a call from a self inflicted drunk person?
Yes we respond to suicides, attempted or successful, partial (as in this post) or complete. And many other self-inflicted situations.
Antagonizing people who get drunk on Purim definitely doesn’t help. They get upset, and their natural response is to drink.
I really think that the overall intelligence of YW has dropped to an all time low. Here we have a volunteer, who gives of his time, energy, and probably money to help us and our families. And the responses are to point out a typo? What is wrong with you people? The only appropriate response is “thank you Hatzolah member for all that you do, please thank your wife and children, please thank your entire family for your tireless efforts”. Whether his approach will work or not is really not the issue. The issue is that you point out flaws before seeing the more important issue.
Hatzalah, zaka, Chaverim run to help in some very trying circumstances. They never refuse, they are there in seconds, and I agree with this post 100%. Anyone who has ever needed Hatzalah (as I have for literally life & death situations) surely must agree that these heroes deserve not only our gratitude and support, but also our consideration.
It’s one thing calling them out for a heart attack or accident or the like; it’s another when they are called out because some idiot decides its fun to drink to excess because he thinks it’s “fun.”
Just out of curiosity, Mr. Hatzalah…. how often are the vomiting & out of control drunks women?
Let’s be clear here. In Megillah (7b) Rava said: A person is obligated to drink on Purim until he does not know the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordechai”. In Hilchos Megillah the Rambam says “What is the obligation of Suedas Purim? That one should eat meat … and drink wine until he is drunk”. All major Halachic authorities rule that it is a mitzvah to drink to excess, on Purim. The mitzvah on Purim is not to “Say Lechaim within moderation” but to do as the Rambam brings down. There is no reason to be more makpid on this mitzvah than any other but there is no reason to be less makpid either.
What does it say about us systemically as a religion and a culture that an article like this is even needed.
Not when I was young.
#9 – The Rambam says that one should fall asleep because of the drunkenness. Getting stoned to the level of unconsciousness is not in accordance with this.