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Saturday, March 15, 2014

A Zionist interpretation of "ad d'lo yada"

EoZ fan Scott came up with a very interesting interpretation of the concept on Purim of drinking "ad d'lo yada," until one doesn't know the difference between "Blessed is Mordechai" and "Cursed is Haman."

It clearly does not mean to drink until one cannot tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai. That is impossible. People have tried.

So the actual issue is to drink until one doesn't know the difference between "Blessed is Mordechai" and "Cursed is Haman." In other words, one must be able to distinguish between blessing your own side and cursing the other side.

In terms of Israel, it is the difference between building up a nation and wanting to destroy your enemies.

Clearly, Israel-haters are in a constant state of "ad d'lo yada." They have no interest in building a Palestinian Arab state or helping Palestinian Arabs altogether; their entire lives are dedicated to destroying Israel.  Arab leaders and "intellectuals"  in particular look at the situation as a zero-sum game where hurting Israel is somehow deemed equivalent to helping the Arab cause. They have enshrined "ad d'lo yada" as policy.

Israel, in the meanwhile, keeps on building, keeps on creating, keeps on improving and keeps on moving forward. That is the difference between cursing your enemy and blessing your allies.

This is a much trickier distinction to make when one is drinking.

Maybe I'll post some real Purim Torah tomorrow...