We go through this every year. The boys who want to find an excuse to drink (like some who have posted here), will use the Shulchan Aruch as an excuse to be real “tzaddikim” and get disgustingly smashed.
When the Shulchan Aruch was written down, there were no stupid boys driving around in lethal weapon cars, smoking cigarettes, whose ashes they flung along with their vomit on neighboring lawns, making doofuses of themselves. No one was causing a Chillul Hashem by waking up babies and exhausted mothers in the middle of the night, or any of a myriad of inexcusable drunken actions that occur each year, they were staying in the Yeshivah. They were not getting intoxicated to the point of alcohol poisoning and ending up in the ER. Thank G-d Hatzalah has people who do not follow this practice.
When a UPS man comes to my house to ask me (because we are somewhat acquainted from his making deliveries that I take in for my neighbor) my opinion about what to do about the drunk who hit his truck on Purim (because the driver of the UPS truck really does not want to cause problems for the Jewish community he services), that is beyond sad. What a Chillul Hashem!
Most important, our Rabbonim have repeatedly published their opinion that the Ad d’lo yada should no longer be followed as it has been in the past. It is enough to drink SLIGHTLY more than than one normally would. So a glass or two of wine is plenty and sufficient to lower one’s inhibitions. With all the concern about girls’ tznius and measuring skirt lengths,I cannot fathom how the drunken actions of the boys on Purim, some which end in hospitalization or worse, is not a way more serious issue.
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