The Purim Seudah

That is why village Jews, who live in unwalled towns, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and make it a day of merrymaking and feasting, and as a holiday and an occasion for sending gifts to one another.

The Gemara relates that Abaye bar Avin and Rabbi Ḥanina bar Avin would exchange their meals with each other to fulfill their obligation of sending portions on Purim. Rava said: A person is obligated to become intoxicated with wine on Purim until he is so intoxicated that he does not know how to distinguish between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordecai. The Gemara relates that Rabba and Rabbi Zeira prepared a Purim feast with each other, and they became intoxicated to the point that Rabba arose and slaughtered Rabbi Zeira. The next day, when he became sober and realized what he had done, Rabba asked God for mercy, and revived him. The next year, Rabba said to Rabbi Zeira: Let the Master come and let us prepare the Purim feast with each other. He said to him: Miracles do not happen each and every hour, and I do not want to undergo that experience again. Rava said: A Purim feast that one ate at night did not fulfill his obligation. What is the reason? “Days of feasting and gladness” (Esther 9:22) is written, i.e., days and not nights. The Gemara relates: Rav Ashi was sitting before Rav Kahana his teacher on Purim, and it grew dark and the Sages who usually came to study with him did not come. Rav Ashi said to him: What is the reason that the Sages did not come today? Rav Kahana answered: Perhaps they are preoccupied with the Purim feast. Rav Ashi said to him: Wasn’t it possible for them to eat the feast at night on Purim, instead of being derelict in their Torah study on Purim day? Rav Kahana said to him: Didn’t the master learn that which Rava said: A Purim feast that one ate at night did not fulfill his obligation? Rav Ashi said to him: Did Rava say that? Rav Kahana said to him: Yes. Rav Ashi then learned it from him forty times until he remembered it so well that it seemed to him as if it were placed in his purse.

The students of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai asked him: For what reason were the enemies of Jewish people, a euphemism for the Jewish people themselves when exhibiting behavior that is not in their best interests, in that generation deserving of annihilation? He, Rabbi Shimon, said to them: Say the answer to your question yourselves. They said to him: It is because they partook of the feast of that wicked one, Ahasuerus, and they partook there of forbidden foods. Rabbi Shimon responded: If so, those in Shushan should have been killed as punishment, but those in the rest of the world, who did not participate in the feast, should not have been killed. They said to him: Then you say your response to our question. He said to them: It is because they prostrated before the idol that Nebuchadnezzar had made, as is recorded that the entire world bowed down before it, except for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They said to him: But if it is true that they worshipped idols and therefore deserved to be destroyed, why was a miracle performed on their behalf? Is there favoritism expressed by God here? He said to them: They did not really worship the idol, but pretended to do so only for appearance, acting as if they were carrying out the king’s command to bow before the idol. So too, the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not destroy them but did act angry with them only for appearance. He too merely pretended to desire to destroy them, as all He did was issue a threat, but in the end the decree was annulled. And this is as it is written: “For He does not afflict from His heart willingly” (Lamentations 3:33), but only for appearances’ sake.

The Gemara cites additional homiletic interpretations on the topic of the revelation at Sinai. The Torah says, “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lowermost part of the mount” (Exodus 19:17). Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: the Jewish people actually stood beneath the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, overturned the mountain above the Jews like a tub, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: From here there is a substantial caveat to the obligation to fulfill the Torah. The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding. Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them” (Esther 9:27), and he taught: The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai.

Not only does one fast on the Ninth of Av, but from when the month of Av begins, one decreases acts of rejoicing. During the week in which the Ninth of Av occurs, it is prohibited to cut one’s hair and to launder clothes, but if the Ninth of Av occurs on a Friday, on Thursday these actions are permitted in deference to Shabbat. On the eve of the Ninth of Av a person may not eat two cooked dishes in one meal. Furthermore, one may neither eat meat nor drink wine. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: One must adjust and decrease the amount he eats. Rabbi Yehuda obligates one to overturn the bed and sleep on the floor like one in a state of mourning, but the Rabbis did not agree with him.

(14) Residents of villages and open towns are bidden to make the fourteenth day of Adar, and residents of walled cities the fifteenth, a day for rejoicing and feasting and sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor. Work is permitted; nevertheless it is improper to work on Purim. The sages have declared that anyone who works on Purim will never see a sign of success in that work.— —

(15) What is the nature of our obligation for this feast? A person should eat meat and prepare as attractive a feast as his means permit. He should drink wine until he becomes intoxicated and falls asleep in his intoxication. And similarly a a person is obligated to send two portions of meat or two types of cooked food or two types of food to his friend, as it says (Esther 9:22) "and send portions one man to another" two portions to one man. And all that increase to send to others is praiseworthy. And if he has no [money] he should exchange with his friend: this one sends to this his meal and this one sends to this his meal in order to fulfill (Esther 9:22) "and send portions one man to another".

§ The mishna teaches that from when the month of Av begins, one decreases acts of rejoicing. Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat, said in the name of Rav: Just as when Av begins one decreases rejoicing, so too when the month of Adar begins, one increases rejoicing.

(1) One who does the Purim meal at night does not fulfill his obligation. Rama: Nevertheless, one should be happy and add more during his meal even at night (Teshuvat Mahariv).

(2) One is obligated to be intoxicated on Purim to the point where he does not know [the difference] between "accursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai". Rama: Some say it is not necessary to become drunk so much, but rather to drink more than he is used to (Kol Bo), and to fall asleep, and while he sleeps he does not know [the difference] between "accursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai" (Maharil). [There is no difference] between one who has more and one who has less, as long as his heart is directed to heaven. One should not fast on Purim, except for a fast for a [bad] dream, and see earlier Siman 568 and Siman 570. There are those who have the custom to dress in Shabbat/Yom Tov clothes on Purim, and that is correct (Maharil). We have the custom to make the Purim meal after the afternoon prayer, and pray the evening prayer at night. We pray the afternoon prayer while most of the day remains, and most of the meal needs to be during the day (Minhagim). And it should not be like those who have the custom to start close to evening, and most of the meal happens during the night of the 15th. When Purim falls out on Friday, they should have the meal in the morning because of honor for the Sabbath (Minhagim). And one who wants to [have his meal] every [Purim] in the morning is allowed to (T"H). Some say that there is [significance] to eating seeds on Purim as a remembrence for the seeds that Daniel and his friends ate in Babylonia (Kol Bo). It is good to delve a bit in Torah before one begins the meal, and a support for that is (Esther 8:16) "The Jews had light and happiness...", which we learn out "radiance" - that's Torah (Mahariv). One is obligated to drink a little and be a little happy on two days, the 14th and the 15th (Minhagim), and so is the custom. And some say that if one causes damage to his fellow through his happiness on Purim, he is exempt from restitution (Terumat HaDeshen, Part I 110). And see Terumat HaDeshen Laws of Damage.

(3) One says "Al hanisim" in the Grace After Meals during the blessing of the land ["Nodeh"]. And if one started his meal during the day, and extended it into the night, he [still] says "al hanisim", for we follow the [status of] the beginning of the meal. And some say one should not say it. Rama: And we have the custom like the first opinion.

(4) One must send to his fellow two portions of meat, or foodstuffs, as it says (Esther 9:19) "And send portions, man to his fellow." Two portions to one man [is the obligation]. And anyone who send more to his fellows is praiseworthy. If he has none, he can trade with his fellow, this one sending to that one his meal, and this one sending to that one his meal, so that they can fulfill "And send portions, man to his fellow." Rama: And some send the portions during the day and not at night (from the Rosh, first chapter of [Bavli] Megilla). And if one sends portions to his fellow, but he doesn't want to accept them, or he forgives him [his obligation], he fulfills [his obligation nonetheless]. And a woman is obligated in [sending] portions to the destitute and sending portions [to one's fellows] like a man is. A woman sends to a woman, a man to a man. But not the other way, so that a man does not come to send it to a widow, and it will come to a possibility of kiddushin [having been enacted]. But portions to the destitute one should not worry [about this possibility].

(20) When one eats and drinks on a festival, he should not unduly indulge in wine, merriment and frivolity, thinking that the more anyone partakes of this the more he observes a religious celebration. Drunkenness, jesting and levity are not rejoicing but madness and folly, and we are not charged to indulge in madness and folly but in the kind of rejoicing that finds expression in the worship of the Creator of all things, as it is written: "Because you have not served the Lord your God with joy and with a glad heart for all your abundance…" (Deuteronomy 28:47). This proves that one should worship with joy, while it is impossible to serve God by jesting, frivolity, or drunkenness.