Drunkenness In Law

The Talmud speaks only once of drunkenness in its relation to responsibility for contracts or for crimes; namely, in the following baraita ('Er. 65a):

"A drunken man's purchase is a purchase; his sale is a sale; if he commits a capital offense, they put him to death; if he does an act punishable by stripes, they flog him; in a word, he is deemed of sound mind for all purposes, except that he is free from prayer [elsewhere the recital of the prayer is forbidden to the drunken man]. R. Ḥanina says: 'All this is true only until the man has gone as far in his drunkenness as Lot went; but when he has gone as far as Lot, he is free from everything.'"

These rules are followed by all the codes; e.g., Maimonides, "Yad," Mekirah, xxix.; Shulḥan 'Aruk, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 222, 22.

Speaking broadly, these principles agree with those of the English-American law. Compare, however, Fraud and Mistake, Law of.

L. G. L. N. D.