Reply To: Any heter to not get drunk on Purim?

PAA: Many seforim and sh”ut and writings of Geonim, Rishonim and Achronim have been long lost to the ages. (Sefer burnings, church confiscations, stam lost, censors, etc.) So starting to count beans and trying to figure out a “majority” is meaningless and pointless. (Not to mention you can even miss some of what is known.) Additionally, certain poskim/Rishonim/Achronim carry more weight than others and/or have been accepted by Klal Yisroel or portions thereof over others.

The fact of the matter is that a chiyuv to get drunk on Purim (even putting aside the question of how drunk) has long long been accepted as the normative l’chatchila default widely accepted psak halacha in Klal Yisroel. In the new age of the last decade and a bit longer there’s been a strong push against getting drunk but even looking at current, recent and not long ago history you will find contemporary and historic examples of both laymen and gedolei yisroel getting plastered on Purim as the norm.