Why Jews, in theory, don’t drink

Give beer to those who are perishing,
wine to those who are in anguish;

let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.

Surprisingly, those lines can be found in the 31st Proverb. Surprising because we all know the misery isn’t gone. Surprising, too, because drunkenness iss not a virtue to the Christian or the Muslim or the Jew.

Of course, sinners sin.

There is an old Yiddish saying—“a shicker is a goy”—that condemns the presumed gentile propensity to drink. The implicit belief among many Jews was that drunkards were uneducated louses, too busy imbibing for self improvement and social advancement. (This is one reason it’s so hard for Jewish addicts to seek help.) But it turns out there may be another reason Yids pass on the fermented punch, outside, let’s not forget, Purim: