Tuesday, December 17, 2019

passover - Drinking until you are ill on seder night


The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (119:10) writes:




מי שאינו שותה יין כל השנה מפני שמזיק לו, אע"פ כן צריך לדחק את עצמו לשתות ארבע כוסות, כמו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, על ר' יהודה ב"ר אילעי, שהיה שותה ארבע כוסות של פסח, והיה צריך לחגור צדעיו עד שבועות. ומכל מקום יכול למזגו במים, או לשתות יין צמוקים - עין לעיל סימן ו או שישתה מעד [מי דבש] אם הם חמר מדינה



This seemingly implies that although one may get a headache from drinking he should nevertheless drink wine. Does the Kitzur speak about 'Shavuot' figuratively for emphasis? Otherwise, I would imagine that if a person had a migraine for 7 weeks as a result of wine on Pesach he may be exempt?


The Shulchan Aruch (272:10) states that "A person who doesn't drink wine because it damages himself, or he dislikes it, needs to push himself to drink, to fulfil the obligation of the mitzvah of four cups". The Mishna Berura on this says that 'mitztaer' explicitly means a headache and not a bed-ridden ailment.


This seems to be speaking about a person with a predisposition to headaches from red wine. Why is the Torah obligation to drink four cups of wine so strong, in this instance, that you must deliberately place yourself into a situation of tza'ar?




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