Knowing How to Not Know

(4) At the Purim festive meal, one is supposed to "drink wine until he does not know the difference between ‘Cursed is Haman’ and ‘Blessed is Mordechai.’ The mystical explanation, as written by the holy Arizal of Safed, is that it is necessary to say ’Bless Haman’ to draw the light of the divine spark that is within the kelipot [‘shells’: i.e. forces of evil] to illuminate it and to give it renewed life. And one is required to say this after one is intoxicated at the time his conscious awareness is gone so that one will not illuminate the kelipot themselves, G‑d forbid!, and the proper way to do this is through drinking much wine and getting truly drunk. However, be careful to be able to recite the after-blessing for bread and the Afternoon and Evening prayers of Mincha and Maariv with a proper mindset. If one is under duress or unable to get drunk, one still should drink more than is one’s habit.

(5) It is a commandment to make a big festive meal on Purim day. Through eating one draws the mentality of Chochma/Wisdom, and through drinking the mentality of Bina/Understanding. One should intend to make the mentality of Bina supreme, and therefore it is necessary to drink more than one eats. This is the reverse of the meal of Ahashverosh where there was more eating than drinking, as it says "And the drinking was according to law, without compulsion." (Esther 1:8)

(From Sefer Yemei HaPurim)

The secret of ‘Blessing’ Haman

The sustenance one draws to the evil forces should be only enough to ensure their existence and no more—we have to draw life-force to the holiness concealed within the evil forces, but that must be a very-constricted life-force; this being the deeper meaning behind the drunkeness of Purim. It is well known that in every kelipah, there is a spark of holiness that sustains it. Should that spark disappear, the kelipah would cease to exist. On Purim, when a very great line shines from Above, it is desirable that the kelipah also draw sustenance from that light. Still, we must take that the kelipah receive only the barest amount of holiness as sustenance, lest it gain too much strength from this light. A person must therefore drink on Purim "until he cannot tell the difference...."

Then, if in his drunken state he says ‘Blessed is Haman,’ the kelipah receives its sustenance. But since the person said this while drunk and without clear intent, the "blessing" given to Haman is greatly diminished, with only the barest of sustenance for the kelipah. Keep it alive and no more.

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