In a special shailos and teshuvos ahead of Purim, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein issued guidelines on the obligation to be careful about drinking too much wine on Purim, especially this year when Purim falls out on Erev Shabbos. At the end of his lengthy remarks about the pitfalls of drinking more wine than Chazal recommended, HaRav Zilberstein issued a surprising p’sak, saying that it’s a special mitzvah this year to refrain from getting drunk. The Rav wrote: “And especially this year when Purim falls out on Erev Shabbos and one who gets drunk may, chalilah, be mechallel Shabbos, rachmana litzlan – anyone who refrains from drinking and does what the Rema wrote that he should drink more than his learning and sleep – fulfills a great mitzvah and prevents himself from severe aveiros, that he won’t be mechallel Shabbos from drunkenness or carry muktzah items and the like. This year it’s a mitzvah to refrain from drunkenness because of Kavod Shabbos!” Read the full shailos and teshuvos below: Shaila: What is the fine line between drinking wine b’simcha and deteriorating to a state that is not fitting for a Ben Torah? HaRav Zilberstein: “Wine has many benefits. It brings simcha and it says in Masechtas Brachos that Shira is only said over wine. Kiddush and Havdalah are also made on wine. But on the other hand, wine poses great danger, and therefore it is only considered a mitzvah if you drink wine in the amount that Chazal determines. If if you start to overdo it, it is a very great danger.” “And it is possible to say that all the the tzaros in this world began as a result of drinking more wine than Halacha requires, as it says in Masechtas Sanhedrin, that the sin of the Eitz HaDaas that brought death to the world was that Hakadosh Baruch Hu forbade Adam HaRishon to eat from the vine and drink wine. And it is written in the Zohar HaKadosh that the decree was until Shabbos, for then he would make Kiddush over wine. But he was tempted and drank the wine beforehand. Also Noach, after he emerged from the Mabul and began to build the world could have based the world on the foundations of mussar and Derech Eretz, and our whole world would have looked different. But he failed to learn from Adam HaRishon and drank wine and got drunk, and this caused a lot of tzaros in the world.” “It also says in the Gemara there that if someone drinks wine and gets drunk, he has a red face and looks good in this world, but in the next world his face will be white from tza’ar. And drinking more than necessary brings poverty, woes, sorrow, strife, physical injuries, and all types of tzaros to a person. After the Gemara brings more tzaros that wine can cause, it concludes ‘There is nothing that brings lamentation to a person but wine.'” “Wine also stimulates the Yetzer Hara in a person and causes him to sin, as Chazal said in Masechtos Berachos: ‘Don’t get drunk on wine and don’t sin because drunkenness leads to sin.’ And so wrote the Rambam: ‘Anyone who gets drunk is a sinner and is disgraceful and loses his wisdom.’ And the Beit Yosef brought in […]