The drinking on Purim that renders bochurim both a danger to themselves and to those around them has too many enablers
My wife and I will once again flee our Jerusalem neighborhood this Purim for the calmer haven of Ramat Beit Shemesh. At some point, I realized that I have no wish to spend Purim where one cannot drive without fear of drunken young men jumping on the hood of one’s car.
But I would not mention my holiday itinerary were it not for something that happened last year. We returned to Jerusalem late afternoon of Shushan Purim to join my son for his seudah. On Motzaei Purim, as I was driving my mother home, I heard no fewer than four ambulances leaving the neighborhood.
While I don’t know the circumstances, the wailing sirens indicated that there were at least four cases of alcohol poisoning or of people injuring themselves so severely that they required transport to the emergency room.
At that moment I knew what my column topic would be a year hence.
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