“Only Someone Who Is Clear-Headed Can Drink Wine on Purim”

The daily strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — “The moment the 70 years are completed, Babylon will fall and the House will be built”

“So said Hashem to His anointed one, to Koresh” (Isaiah 45:1).

“And Daryavesh the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old” (Daniel 6:1).

“For so said Hashem: When seventy years for Babylon are completed, I will remember you, and I will fulfill My good word to you, to return you to this place” (Daniel 6:1).

Tuesday, 14 Adar 5783 — “My father’s stable-guard would drink a thousand cups and not get drunk.”

These are his holy words:

“So said Hashem to His anointed one, to Koresh” (Isaiah 45:1) — Koresh is called ‘anointed’—“So said Hashem to His anointed one, to Koresh.” They call Koresh ‘Mashiach.’

He says this prophecy 200 years earlier: two hundred years before the destruction, he already says that in another 200 years someone will come named Koresh, and he will build the Beis HaMikdash.

Daniel would tell Koresh every day: You will build the Beis HaMikdash. Daniel and Daryavesh were security guards. Daryavesh received his kingship at age 62 (“And Daryavesh the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old,” Daniel 6:1). The ages are written explicitly—everything is exact, like with a birth certificate: the age, the birth date.

“For so said Hashem: When seventy years for Babylon are completed, I will remember you and I will fulfill My good word to you, to return you to this place” (Daniel 6:1). Seventy years—the moment the 70 years are completed, Babylon will fall and the House will be built.

Belshatzar suddenly sees writing on the wall: a hand with five fingers comes out opposite the chandelier, opposite the lamp, and writes: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, u’Farsin” (a wondrous inscription that appeared on the wall and hinted to the end of the king of Babylon. Daniel explained it as a play on words: Hashem has counted and weighed your kingdom, king of Babylon, and decreed that it will be destroyed and divided between Media and Persia. From Aramaic: Mene—a weight of fifty or sixty shekels; Tekel—a shekel; Farsin—half a shekel).

The writing is saying that Hashem has counted your kingdom: today marks 70 years since the beginning of Babylon’s reign, since the beginning of Nevuchadnetzar’s reign.

Nevuchadnetzar had a security guard named Daryavesh. Now, when Belshatzar is killed, he is 62. And he had another security guard named Koresh, who was his son-in-law—he married Daryavesh’s daughter. The two of them guard Belshatzar. He drinks a thousand cups of wine—one thousand, one thousand, one thousand—but he stays calm; he doesn’t get drunk at all.

Vashti says to Achashverosh: My father’s stable-guard would drink a thousand cups and not get drunk—even a thousand barrels, and you wouldn’t see anything on him at all. He stayed sane; he stayed clear-headed.

A person who drinks wine on Purim—let him drink, but let him remain clear-headed. Only someone who is clear-headed can drink wine on Purim.

He is clear, with a bright mind, and he absorbs everything—he understands the lesson.