Wine and Alcoholism: A Qoton Qlassic

A new suped up version of this essay has replaced the old version of this Qlassic Qoton post (it was one of the first posts in the history of this blog). Here's a small excerpt:

The Talmud says that one who uses wine to ease one’s mind and comfort one’s self has the wisdom of seventy elders. Similarly, the Talmud says that one who drinks wine, even if his heart is as blocked as a virgin, will becomes wiser. However, these intelligence-producing properties of wine are only present if the wine is used in controlled moderation, as Rabbi Meir HaLevi Abulafia (1170-1244) pointed out in the context of the latter Talmudic quotation, drinking a lot of wine makes one become stupid. Indeed the Midrash elaborates on the imagery of one in a drunken stupor; the Midrash says that before one drinks wine, he is as innocent as a lamb that knows nothing and is as still as a sheep before the shearers who does not know of its own fate. If he drinks a certain amount of wine, he becomes strong like a lion and will declare that no one is like itself in the world. If he drinks excessively, he becomes like a pig that dirties itself in its own urine and defecations. If he becomes drunk, he becomes like a monkey who drunkenly dances in front of all, laughs uncontrollably, emits profanities from its mouth, and is no longer aware of what it is doing.

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