Points To Ponder... G-d put into food a power of sustenance, which strengthens the body and the mind. However, He invested wine with the ability to strengthen the power of the imagination. When people learn together, they connect with their minds. When they pray together, they connect with their hearts. When they eat together, they connect on the physical level. But when they drink together, they connect via their imagination. Sitting and drinking at the Purim feast means "Let us fantasize together". Fantasizing together is a completely unique category, for fantasy is itself is a connector, it is the power of the imagination. By means of the imagination, one's mind affects one's senses, and one's senses reflect one's mind. It is only in our imagination that we can become one with our brother. Now, while every person has their own power of imagination that connects their mind and their emotions, today (on Purim), we connect together and become one. Gevalt, our drinking brings us higher! R. Yitzchok Hutner, Pachad Yitzchok, Kuntress Reshimos p. 103 There are two negative repercussions of wine. The first is the disgrace that drunkenness brings upon a person. As it says, "and [Noah] was exposed within his tent." He was disgraced. The second repercussion is that a person loses his intelligence and power of discretion. It is this intelligence that attaches a person to G-d. Through drunkenness, one loses this attachment. When a person is not attached to G-d, he will experience dispersion and exile. Worthless fantasies are a barrier that prevents the knowledge and awareness of G-d from entering the heart. I heard that Egypt [symbolizes] the power of fantasy. The First Commandment begins, "I am the L-rd your G-d, who took you out of the land of Egypt"-- from the forces of illusion--and I raised your consciousness that it should cling to Me. All mitzvoth are said to be "a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt," for their entire purpose is to take us out of illusion, from Egypt, which is the exact opposite of Torah and mitzvoth. A person's main battle against his evil inclination is [to overcome] the fantasies and illusions of his heart and mind. R. Tzadok HaKohein, Tzidkas Hatzadik 205,207,208 R. Chanin said, whoever is comforted by wine, is of one mind with his Creator . . . R. Papa said, whoever settles his mind with wine, has the mind of the seventy elders. Talmud Eiruvin 65aThis world wants to run away from the light; it does not want to see that there is a Creator and Ruler of the world. Thus the choicest pleasure of this world is wine, for it intoxicates the mind so as not to behold this light. This is true of all the pleasures of this world--they distract a person's mind so that he should not recognize his Creator. But on Shabbos, a person must bring light into all of his actions of the week, purifying them that they should be only for the honor of heaven, and to reveal the Creator… Therefore, we must make Kiddush on wine, to take this wine--the root of all pleasure of this world, which intoxicates the mind of man--and sanctify the Shabbos over it. For Shabbos is a great light in which we can recognize the Creator, and by making Kiddush over the wine, we bring this recognition into all the pleasures and all the actions of the week. R. Yaakov Leiner of Ishbitz Passover Haggadah, p. 15 Light is sown for the righteous, and for the upright in heart joy (Psalms 97:11). A G-dly light is found in the righteous, like a seed planted in their souls, ready to expand and multiply when it is watered, tended to and cared for. For those who guard their souls, and perform their service of G-d, the light increases sevenfold, until the great light of prophecy breaks upon them. Thus, "for the upright in heart, joy." They will delight in a spiritual joy, by means of which G-d's light shines in their souls. Malbim Psalms 97
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