<p>It’s not illegal under relevant state law if it falls within this test:</p>
<p>“No person, after purchasing or otherwise obtaining alcoholic liquor, shall sell, give, or deliver such alcoholic liquor to another person under the age of 21 years, except in the performance of a religious ceremony or service. … Nothing in this subsection (a-1) shall be construed to prohibit the giving of alcoholic liquor to a person under the age of 21 years in the performance of a religious ceremony or service in observation of a religious holiday.”</p>
<p>I don’t know the facts of what occurred here, but it seems a stretch to say shots are OK. Wine consumed during a service or a dinner in which drinking wine is traditional - yes. There’s no test that the alcohol be a “required” part of the religious ceremony but I would think it would have to be accepted tradition in some way.</p>
<p>“In the specific case at hand, I wonder if there were previous discussions/warnings about this issue”</p>
<p>That is my completely uninformed suspicion. Severing connection with a rabbi who’s been on campus for 30 years is a severe sanction. The story only makes sense if there’s an untold backstory, like ignoring previous, milder rebukes.</p>
<p>I don’t claim to be an expert, but I don’t believe hard liquor has a place in Jewish doctrine. Eastern European Jewish culture, yes, but commandments, no. My reading of the law would be that drinking wine during dinner on Shabbat is not part of service or ceremony; the ceremony is the kiddush.</p>
<p>" I think we need to decide when people are adults, and call it the same age across the board. Old enough to vote, to go into the armed services, be held responsible as an adult for your own crimes, etc? You should be old enough to rent a car, to buy a beer, take a shot, whatever every adult is allowed to do.</p>
<p>Let’s decide what that age is and go with it."</p>
<p>Pushed that way, I’d say 35. (I’m being serious.) No one should be allowed to serve in the armed forces prior to 35.</p>
<p>Chasidim serving whiskey is no more “traditional” that priests getting drunk in the church off communion wine. It may have been regularly practiced, but it is not “traditional” to the religious practice.</p>
<p>The age 21 drinking age is probably the second most successful public health intervention of the second half of the 20th century (after bans and heavy taxes on tobacco). It works - the evidence is overwhelming - and has saved thousands of lives, and tens of thousands of serious accidents. Make the drinking age 18, and high school seniors are buying alcohol for the freshmen.</p>
<p>Hanna -that is indeed the situation. The story is that these dinners were becoming slush fests and the administration was tired of hearing about it and gave multiple warnings. </p>
<p>Now, of course, the university has been served w a lawsuit alleging discrimination. This is a university with a high Jewish population, a Jewish president (one of several) who invites kids over his house for holidays, and is very supportive of Jewish life.</p>
<p>Jewish tradition does support the use of a shot or two to enhance the joy of the sabbath, but it does not support drinking to drunkenness (except at Purim). But the fact that such drinking is traditional in many Jewish circles (including Chabad) probably isn’t enough to make it fall under an exemption for religious use of alcohol underage. And certainly if they were becoming “slush fests” that goes beyond using a little alcohol as part of a tradition to increase the joy in the holiday and into inappropriate territory. Tricky landscape for a school to navigate though :-/</p>
<p>I don’t think this is an apt comparison. As I understand it, one is a sanctioned and appropriate part of a holiday celebration, and the other is an unsanctioned use of a ritual item.</p>
<p>On the contrary, drinking all the remaining communion wine is a way to deal with the leftover consecrated “host”. It is a sanctioned (and celebrated) use of a ritual item. Whereas the Chasidim simply use whatever occasion they can find for drinking, with no religious significance attached to it at all (or so has been my direct experience.)</p>
<p>I think the reasoning is faulty. I see no reason why all the ages should be the same. Hey, for an adult community, you’re an adolescent until 55.</p>
<p>Perhaps folks will find this useful for understanding Purim drunkenness:</p>
<p>Rava’s statement begs an explanation. R. David Abudraham explained that the Sages required drinking on Purim since all of the miracles in the days of Ahashverosh occurred at drinking parties (Sefer Abudraham, pp. 209-210). On the other hand, Rava was a vintner (Berakhot 56a and Bava Metzia 73a) and clearly liked to drink wine (Pesahim 107b). As for the strange story, Rabbi H. Z. Reines suggests that the entire episode is a Purim joke (Hadoar 5737, p. 266)!</p>
<p>Whatever the simple meaning is, it is clear that the poskim (halakhic authorities) throughout the generations felt very uncomfortable with Rava’s demand to get drunk on Purim, and therefore each posek tried to circumvent the requirement. Here is a sampling of their rulings:</p>
<pre><code>R. Ephraim (North Africa, 11th cent.) claimed that the story comes to cancel out Rava’s statement and therefore one should not get drunk on Purim.
R. Alexander Zusslin Hacohen (Germany, 14th cent.) explained that “cursed be Haman” equals “blessed be Mordechai” in gematria - they both add up to 502! - and it requires less wine to become that intoxicated.
R. Yosef Haviva (Spain, 15th cent.) wrote that one should say funny things so that the beholders will think that one cannot distinguish between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordechai”.
Maimonides (Egypt, 12th cent.) rules that “he drinks wine until he gets drunk and falls asleep…”, and this ruling was adopted by Rabbi Moshe Isserles in the Shulhan Arukh (Poland, 16th cent.).
R. Natanel Weil (Germany, 18th cent.) explained: " ‘until’ - up to and not including, because otherwise he would reach the drunkenness of Lot".
R. Aaron of Lunel (Provence, 14th cent.) commented “that he should drink more than his normal custom in order to rejoice greatly and to make the poor rejoice and he shall comfort them…and that is true joy.” This is the most original interpretation: that the purpose of drinking on Purim is to help us fulfill the mitzvah of mattanot la’evyonim (alms to the poor) and not simply to get drunk.
Finally, R. Menahem Hameiri (Provence, 14th cent.) said: “In any case, we are not commanded to get drunk …for we were not commanded to engage in debauchery and foolishness but to have heartfelt joy which will lead us to the love of God and to gratitude for the miracles which he performed for us”.
</code></pre>
<p>Let’s remember that Purim celebrates the importance of intermarriage for the survival of the Jewish people. (It was likely written as a counter-narrative to the story of Ezra, who required all Israelites in Israel, when he returned with his 3,000, to divorce their non-Jewish wives.)</p>