Purim and the Subversion of Law

"And all the people responded together, saying: All that God has spoken we will do! Moses brought their words before God. And God said to Moses: I am coming to you in the midst of a cloud, that the people shall hear Me speak to you... And Moses spoke the words of the people before God." (Exodus 19:8-9)

This is a odd and wonderful thing here, because what are these second words of the people, of which the verse ends "Moses spoke the words of the people before God"? It is not written anywhere in the Torah that they spoke or replied anything else after their first response, "All that God has spoken we will do." What then did Moses speak in their name the second time?

However, know this: Israel complained about Moses instructing them to accept the Torah. They responded: "All that God has spoken we will do?!", meaning, "Shall we be forced to do everything that God tells us? There is no free choice in this! We would be compelled to act in a certain way!" This is the meaning of "we will do," since there is no choice not to do these things, once they are explicitly commanded by God. This is what it means in the verse, "Moses brought their words before God" - he relayed to God the complaints of Israel. Immediately, the Holy One replied: "I am coming to you" - to you, specifically - "that the people shall hear Me speak to you." Again, to you, I will only speak the Ten Commandments to you, saying "I am your God", "You shall have no other gods", and so on [in the second-person singular]. Not directly to the people of Israel, but they only listen to Me speaking to you, and through this they will retain their free will to do as they wish.

It is permitted to get married on Purim.

RAMA: This refers to both the fourteenth and the fifteenth of the month... As to the custom of wearing 'faces' on Purim, and men who wear women's dresses and women wearing men's attire - this is not forbidden, for they have no intention other than pure pleasure. So too the practice of wearing kilayim, rabinically forbidden mixtures of clothes. And although some say it is forbidden, we follow the first opinion. So too, the custom of stealing from each other in a happy way - this does not fall under the prohibition of 'Do not steal', and this is what is done, as long as one does not transgress what is considered acceptable by the elders of the town.

One is obligated to be intoxicated on Purim to the point where he or she does not know the difference between "accursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai".

RAMA: Some say it is not necessary to become drunk so much, but rather to drink a bit more than they are used to, and to fall asleep, and while asleep one does not know the difference between "accursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai" (Maharil). There is no difference on Purim between one who has more to drink and one who has less, as long as their heart is directed to heaven....

When Purim falls out on Friday, they should have the meal in the morning because of honor for the Sabbath...

And some say that if one causes damage to his fellow through his happiness on Purim, he is exempt from restitution.

I, Moshe son of the great Israel, known as Moshe Isserlis of Krakow, while we were in exile from our city in the year 5316 (=1557) because of the rottenness in the air - God protect us! - and we were living in a land not of our own, in the town of Szydłów, a place of nothingness, no figs and no vines and hardly any water than can be attained without trickery, a town where bread was eaten in poverty, and hardly and trees. We were not able to celebrate Purim there with its commanded feasts and joy and to banish anguish and sadness. I said to myself - I will rise up and find joy in meeting a challenge, and my wisdom was faithful to me, for the instructions of God are righteous and gladden the heart. I took the milk and honey [of the Torah] under my tongue, and let my heart explore the intention of the Purim Scroll...

... Do not accuse me of writing suspicious books, for if I write the truth: accept the truth from whoever says it. And if I have made some errors... well, as I said, I wrote this in the spirit of Purim. So let it be like the poems of the youth, who make light and mockery, and shake off all the words of Torah. If so, let my words simply be like these.

"And they stood at the lowermost part of the mount” (Exodus 19:17). Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: the Jewish people actually stood beneath the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, overturned the mountain above the Jews like a tub, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial.

Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: From here there is a substantial caveat to the obligation to fulfill the Torah. The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding.

Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them” (Esther 9:27), and he taught: The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai.

My teacher Rabbi Luria thinks that this custom of eating chicken with almond milk on Purim is dangerous, unless whole almonds are scattered on the table so that nobody is deceived. Otherwise, people might think that chicken cooked in milk is kosher, as we find in the Talmud. This is also my humble opinion, and that of all later rabbis.

Mordechai passed. [I.e., he transgressed] the law by fasting on the first festive day of Pesach, for he fasted on the fourteenth, the fifteenth and the sixteenth, for the letters were written on the thirteenth day.