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Tylenol & alcohol can lead to liver failure, stimulants like Ritalin can lead to a heart attack, benzodiazepines with alcohol causes many deaths each year.
Please use extra caution about drinking when taking a medication. Several years ago a precious bachur died afer ingesting alcohol, he was also taking a stimulant.I cannot say this for all medications, simply because I did not study it in that detail. But the heading for this thread is correct – alcohol is a bad ingredient to add to any medication. Peruse package instructions for any medication, including those mentioned in the OP, and any others. Almost every one I have seen spells out that it should not be mixed with alcohol. That means, when taking it, don’t drink at all. Even if the combination is not lethal (and many are), the medication loses its effectiveness. I safely say that halacha exempts anyone on meds from drinking alcohol on Purim, as well as for Kiddush. Find me a posek that says differently.
This is a place to ask a simple question about Purim. The Gemora brings a halacha, which appears to be refuted in the context of the gemora, but was included in Shulchan Aruch, the famed חייב אינש לאבשומי בפוריא. In the Megillah itself, we find 4 mitzvos of Purim – Reading the Megillah, Matanos Lo’evyonim, MIshloach Manos, and Seudah. Nowhere is drinking as one of the mitzvos of the day mentioned in the Megillah. It seems apparent that it is an addition that is secondary to the other mitzvos, presumably Seudah. As such, it is not its own “mitzvah”, and the discussion about how to be machmir on this seems to be baseless.
In the context of the question I posed, the idea to be “machmir” to drink when there is danger involved, becomes quite the opposite.
I don’t understand your shtickle Torah. You wouldn’t read the Megilah either if there was danger involved.
The Biur Behalacha 695:2 explains that we drink because all the great miracles happened through drinking. First, Vashti was killed because of drinking as we see when Achashverus became sober he regretted what he did. Haman was decreed to be hanged at the meal , where their drinking most probably encouraged it.
The mitzva of drinking is not a mitzva by itself but part of the sudah to be get lighthearted as explained before.
Also too much caffeine (energy drinks etc.) and alcohol can cause cardiac arrest since they have opposite effects on the heart. Use caution!
DY:
I don’t see anything in my question that should be hard to understand. We are privy to the debate about getting drunk every year, and the proponents of shikrus steadfastly insist that they are being machmir by losing all forms of reason. These threads are begun or recycled every year, and some commenters proclaim their holiness by getting completely smashed. Their claim is that this a great mitzvah. I claim the complete opposite. I hold that shikrus to be an abomination, and an affront of major proportion to the kedusha of Purim. The only sane argument these drunks put forward is the chumrah one.
My question is – which mitzvah are they adopting for chumrah? Are they showering Matanos Lo’evyonim on a grand scale, which would be a chumrah on one of the mitzvos hayom? Or are they giving Mishloach Manos on a grand scale, also from the mitzvos hayom? Perhaps they are making a huge seudah to benefit many, also from the mitzvos hayom? Are they engaged in circulating to homebound people to insure they have Mikroh Megillah – another of the mitzvos hayom? Those would be chumros, all about benefitting others, without regard to personal pleasure. The chumrah about drinking to extreme limits (which I already shared that I consider it abominable) is definitely not its own mitzvah, and is secondary (probably to the seudah).
Lastly, this deserves mention. I have often heard people discuss Purim in the context of “letting go”. I protest that. There is never any mitzvah that is about letting go. Not overeating, not overdrinking, not overdoing anything in the way of physical desires and passions. The drinking on Purim, as is mentioned in halacha, is an avodas Hashem that loses any semblance of kedusha or spiritual meaning when we cannot attend to the purpose of it. It is blasphemous to translate “ad deloh yodah” as shikruso shel Lot.
Where do you get this idea that getting drunk on Purim is a chumrah?
I understand that it’s not one of “the four mitzvos of Purim,” but the Shulchan Aruch says “Chayav…”
The word עד in עד דלא ידע is not inclusive but drink until you cannot differentiate but stop a little before or until you fall asleep.
TLIK, you got your yearly rant in, but didn’t even come close to answering my question.
I wrote under the topic Purim Question;
The Chidushei Harim has an interesting idea about drinking on Purim. A man collected and set aside a lot of money to do an averoh. He met a very poor family who needed the money. Having mercy on them, he completely forgot why he put aside the money and gave it to them. The heavenly court became very impressed with his deed and decided to grant anything he wished. They became afraid that he will wish something that they are not ready to grant him, the redemption. So, they decreed that his whole life he will have to be drunk to be out of his mind. Purim is a very sacred day where they grant any wish כל הפושט יד נותנים לו whoever stretches up his hand is granted whatever he wants. We can ask for the redemption but it might not be time yet, so the chachomim decreed to be drunk this day.
The word עד in עד דלא ידע is not inclusive but drink until you cannot differentiate but stop a little before or until you fall asleep.
The Briskers say it’s a p’tur.
I know like sippur yetzias mitzraim there is constantly a new chiyuv after you drink untll you fall asleep, when you fall asleep there is no new chiyuv.
Meno, where is alcohol mentioned specifically?
I believe Rashi on the word לבסומי says להשתכר ביין.
The word לבסומי used in Shulchan Aruch Arech Chaim 695;2 from Tractate Megilla 7:2 as traslated by Rashi meaning to get drunk with wine.
In that case, as a chumrah, one should avoid all other forms of alcohol to ensure that one’s drunkenness is caused by wine.
It could be. We find by Chanukah who insists to use shemen zayis because that caused the miracle. Here also the Biur Halocha mentioned above, says that we are celebrating the drunkenness that brought the miracles through wine at the sudah.
In that case, as a chumrah, one should avoid all other forms of alcohol to ensure that one’s drunkenness is caused by wine.
Excellent point. Many people are makpid on this.
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