Drinking After the Apocalypse

Late at night in the kitchen, while I'm packing up leftover lasagna, the tall, dark, handsome bottle of Godiva chocolate liqueur winks at me from the back of the fridge. It never used to try this move in the past. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Now is the perfect global moment for escape. We all yearn to disconnect. During this prolonged pandemic, it makes perfect sense that we crave comfort food, cozy sweatpants, Netflix binges, and doorstep deliveries while cradling our cellphones at night. We've also increased our indulgence in a few cocktails. How else to adapt to an altered reality? Thankfully, the Torah offers concrete advice about how not to navigate a fallen world -- advice that resonates today as we contemplate emerging from our pandemic cocoons.