- Halacha
- General Questions
67
Question
1) How can life die? It does not make any sense to me, please help to understand.
2) Why does a person who is drunk fall down does not feel pain but a person who is is not drunk falls down feels pain?
3) why do we say "lehaim" when we toast. what’s the deeper meaning of that from Kabalah point of view?
Answer
1. You are totally correct that high-level life, as that of human beings, does not cease and in fact continues after death in this world, in the world-to-come.
2. That is a physiological question you should direct to a doctor or health website, who can easily explain why the nerves and senses get numbed after drinking alcohol.
3. The custom (it's not a mitzvah, based upon the Talmud, Shabbat 67b)) to say "l'chaim" [=to life], stems from the law that in the rare case that the Sanhedrin would put someone to death, they would first give him wine, so as to dull his senses and ease his punishment. Accordingly, we bless that the wine we drink should be "for life", and not the opposite. The Zohar explains that according to the opinion that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was grapes/wine, we wish to connect to the life-giving aspect of nutrition and happiness, and not to the death-giving aspect, as by Adam and Eve, which brought death to the world.

Being like God
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Tevet 2, 5785

Afraid of death
Rabbi David Sperling | Nisan 27, 5783

regarding the day beginning at nightfall
Rabbi David Sperling | Cheshvan 13, 5785
Sfardim Ashkenazim
Rabbi Daniel Kirsch | Cheshvan 24, 5784

The Latest Time to do Birkat HaLevana
Various Rabbis | 8 Tevet 5764

Yichud in Blended Families
Rabbi Baruch Finkelstein | 11 Elul 5767

Mezzuzah for Non Jew
Rabbi David Sperling | Iyyar 18, 5773

cutting nails during omer
Rabbi David Sperling | Nisan 29, 5773

Is the Shulchan Hatahor (Komarno) acceptable for halacha?
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Adar 25, 5785
Separate beds while niddah
Rabbi Gideon Weitzman | Nisan 13, 5785

Which Prophets did Israel kill?
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Adar 25, 5785
