DEUT569 This is how wine should be used: One should use it as a cure for his sorrow, in order to strengthen himself in Torah by learning it with joy, and when one is steeped in sorrow he cannot learn. And even a beis din which is in sorrow cannot adjudicate correctly. Sorrow also impairs one's concentration in prayer. Also, when one is steeped in sorrow, if someone speaks to him or asks him for a favor, he is unable to fulfill his request. And it is written (Yeshayahu 49:8): "In a time of will I have answered you." It is to these ends, then, that the wise man should drink wine, taking care not to drink so much as to be compelled to cancel his work and his affairs, and, above all, not to drink so much as to be incapacitated for Torah study or for prayer or to be brought to excessive laughter and lightheadedness. And he should not drink to the point of losing his possessions or quarreling with his friend or breaking vessels or revealing his secrets or those of others. If you drink in this fashion, wine will not be an anathema to you. On holidays and festivals, too, concerning which it is written [this verse]: "And you shall rejoice before Hashem your God,' and (ibid. 16:14) "And you shall rejoice in your festival,' one should not indulge himself in drinking wine, frivolity, and lightheadedness, as it is written (ibid.28: 47): "Because you did not serve Hashem your God in joy and gladness of heart," the implication being that we have been commanded to attain only that joy which is conducive to the service of the Creator of All, and it is impossible to serve the Blessed One out of lightheadedness, laughter, or drunkenness. (Continued at [[DEUT346]] Deuteronomy 7:10 pays TZADIK 177).