This is an intensely unfair and wrongheaded statement. In fact, anyone with Jewish training that reads the Blue Book or has contact with AA knows that this program rises right out of Jewish practice. Acceptance of God, Acknowledging our own weakness and the sins that we have committed against others for which God cannot provide forgiveness but we must repent and ask for forgiveness directly. Learning to lean on God and fight to live a life of meaning and worth while rejecting crutches and rationalizations.
My daughter's boyfriend's family is intensely alcoholic and he is someone traumatized by growing up in this situation and he very much hates all things alcohol too and we just do what we can to help. This included attending Al-Anon meetings with him so he could find comfort in a community who understood his challenges in dealing with his mother who suffers from this and is barely functional.
I shake my head and sometimes ask God why must I carry these folks and have to deal with this family, but the boy is a wonderful person with a bright mind who is honest, religious in an unpretentious way, and loving in a way that almost makes me weep. Why my daughter would pick this boy? I can only say, it seems like God is willing to tie my hands any time I have tried to separate them, so I just have learned to accept and try to make the best of things.
Drinking alcohol is not a sin, it is behaviors of seeking drunkenness as an escape that leads us into sin or is the result of sins that we cannot forgive ourselves.
Its easy to find fighting words, especially when it comes to Christians and Jews. Exercise extra special care about making generalizations about anyone, and understand that Reform Jews are most likely to agree with you where as the Orthodox are most likely to keep the obligation to become intoxicated for Purim because it is a mitzvot regardless of any concerns it might create.
I didn’t say drinking alcohol was a sin. I said getting DRUNK was.
Anyone who believes in getting intoxicated (toxic being the root there) for religion is an idiot. period.
Do we learn not to do anything else by doing it? murder? rape?
of course not