I saw this story in a footnote in the Chassidic sefer (book) “Divrei Yechezkel” by the Shinover Rav. In the newer version of this book there are many additions and footnotes with tons of beautiful information. In one of the sections in his teachings about Purim, he finishes off one paragraph by saying that Hashem should shine the original light of Purim on us (in his days and nowadays of course) and that all of our prayers should be answered. On this last part there is a footnote which says:
See in the sefer Sifsei Tzaddik: I heard from my grandfather who used to tell this story..that in a certain place there was a prostitute who would take 500 golden coins for her service. One time a Jew started to travel to her to sin and took this amount of money with him. On the way, he heard the painful cries of Jewish men, women and children who were being tortured in jail because they did not have enough money to pay their dues to their master/landlord. This man saw this and inquired about how much they owe and he paid off their debt with the money he was going to use to sin and rescued these Jews. Now in heaven there was a great uproar about what this Jew did and they made a ruling that whatever this Jew would pray for, it would be answered. However, they didn’t want him to pray for certain things like reviving dead people and stuff so they also decreed that he would start drinking a lot and be drunk most of the time so he wouldn’t be able to daven.
Some time passed and it happened that the world was in great danger and the Baal Shem Tov sent his students to this man to ask him to pray and save the world since they knew about his special power. However, every time they came to him, he was drunk. One time they finally got to him before he started drinking and he prayed and saved everyone.
My grandfather would finish off by saying: That on Purim too, there is a great “Eis Ratzon” auspicious time to pray and be answered for anything – therefore it was established that we should drink wine and get drunk by Chazal (the sages in the Talmud). And one should not think that he is losing out by following this ruling from Chazal (since he will drink he will not pray as much as he could). My grandfather continued and said – seemingly it is a greater pleasure in front of Hashem when someone listens to the sages in the Gemara instead of davening for things that he needs.
My personal take on this story is that Purim is a very great day to pray about many things and one can definitely pray before starting to drink and that one should pray for the right things.
Happy Purim!
