Is This Bottle Corked__ The Secret Life of Wine - Kathleen Burk [12]
No. It’s too complex to summarize. Enough to say that Esther persuaded the King, the King sacked Haman and put Mordecai in his place, Mordecai couldn’t rescind the ordered massacre but armed the Jews so that they could defend themselves, and the Jews won. Long story short. The Book of Esther contains the whole story, but the relevant point is that not only does the wine flow freely at the feast, but it is also a mitzvah—a commandment—for a good Jew to be so drunk on Purim that he or she cannot tell the difference between the words “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai.”
This, particularly among the more abstemious Hassidim, or ultra-Orthodox, is more rapidly achieved than more regular drinkers might realize, and Purim in Hassidic areas is more often than not a majestically raucous affair with flailing dancing, fireworks, toy trumpets, tuneless bellowing, singing, and some very quiet and chastened people the following day.
Times being what they are, there have recently been calls—in New York, of course—for zero tolerance of teenage drinking on Purim (remember that a Jew officially becomes an adult at thirteen) and total abstinence (according to the Safe Homes, Safe Shuls, Safe Schools campaign) for those who cannot drink in moderation. Rather splendidly, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union and a clinical psychologist, declares that although the Talmud “clearly states that it is an obligation on Purim” to be too drunk to distinguish between the two phrases, “it is not clear that [it] means to become intoxicated.”
One wonders, then, what it does mean, and what Esther would have made of it all.
Did Benjamin Franklin really produce a “sprightly claret”?
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, one of the greatest of the American Founding Fathers, enjoyed drinking wine. He was not the only American colonist who did so, but they all had difficulties getting hold of French wine, generally accounted the best. Great Britain was often at war with France, and during these periods the British government banned the importation of French wine throughout the empire. This meant that it had to be smuggled into the colonies. If the merchant ships carrying the wine managed to evade the Royal Navy, there was still the danger that, after the long voyage, it would be undrinkable. What to do?
Franklin was a realist, and, believing that you had to work with what you had, decided to encourage the making of wine using native American grapes. (Colonists had tried repeatedly to make such wine for the previous century and a half, and, considering the frequently undrinkable result using this raw material, it was advice that betrayed some desperation.) To this end, he printed the necessary instructions in the 1743 edition of his Poor Richard’s Almanack, repository inter alia of nuggets of folk wisdom such as “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” “God helps those who help themselves,” “Haste makes waste,” “The sleeping fox catches no poultry,” “Eat to live, and not live to eat,” et cetera, et cetera. His recipe:
Because I would have every Man make Advantage of the Blessings of Providence, and few are acquainted with the Method of making Wine of the Grapes which grow wild in our Woods, I do here present them with a few easy Directions, drawn from some Years Experience, which, if they will follow, they may furnish themselves with a wholesome sprightly Claret, which will keep for several Years, and is not inferior to that which passeth for French Claret [red Bordeaux].
Begin to gather Grapes from the 10th of September (the ripest first) to the last of October, and having clear’d them of Spider