Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, today — Purim — has to be the most fun. For children there are costume parties and special treats like Hommentashen, and parades. Last night I saw sparklers and firecrackers too. Not to mention the right to make plenty of noise to drown out the name of Haman, the villain of the Purim story, when the Scroll of Esther is read in the syagogue. For the adults Purim has an added feature. One of the leading sages of the Talmud, Rava, taught that it is obligatory to drink on Purim “Ad d’lo Yada” — until you can’t distinguish — between the words “Boruch Mordechai” (blessed is Mordechai) and “Orur Hommon” (cursed is Haman). In Israel that expression is now the name of the annual Purim parade, the Adloyada. Imagine, Talmudic scholars who otherwise advocated self control and sobriety suddenly for one day in the year saying Go ahead, drink up! L’chaim! Another Talmudic tradition is called Gematria. Sounds like Geometry but it’s really numerology. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value. Aleph is 1, Bet is 2, etc. Yod is 10, Caf is 20, Kuf is 100. Take the numerical value of letters in Boruch Mordechai. Add them up. Then take the value for Orur Hommon and add them up. The totals are exactly equal. What do they add up to? 502. Good old 502, the Drunk Driving violation. How appropriate can we get?