Sevenling (I drank)
A d’Verse quadrille
I drank an expensive bottle of red wine from Moldova. It was subtle; smooth; unkosher. Kosher wines must be produced exclusively by Sabbath-observant Jews; open bottles are rendered unkosher if even touched by gentiles; this feels to me like racism. Such delicious wine.
d’Verse
The above sevenling is my take on d’Verse’s Quadrille challenge #125.
The quadrille is simply a poem of 44 words (excluding the title), and it can take any form. This week’s challenge was to use the word “wine” in a quadrille.
An elucidation
An enactment was put in place in Talmudic times to prevent Jews from consuming wine that had been used for idolatrous purposes. The religious prohibition was extended, such that even if a Jew knows that a particular gentile is not going to engage in idolatry, it is still prohibited to drink wine that was touched by them.
The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
Moldovan wines are pretty good, not always expensive!
Yup! Darn tootin’ 🙂
-David
Racism, then drink it Racism
There are a LOT of ancient Jewish religious laws that deliberately limit Jewish people’s potential interactions with gentiles… the ancient sages, broadly speaking, approached non-Jews with distrust.
Two for the price of one … a great poem and a bit of education!
I’m so glad that you think so, Helen 🤗
Yours,
David
I’ve been contemplating switching over to drinking kosher wine exclusively, but I also struggle with the reasoning, in addition to the practicalities (not to mention that, not being fully shomer Shabbat currently, by Talmudic reasoning I’m still firmly in the class of people kosher wine needs to be protected from…).
Yeah, it’s… a troubling standard that we hold. I don’t much like it.
❤
David
I always learn something new at dVerse. I had no idea that Kosher wine existed. And then, reading your comments, when you stop to think about it, how could it be made differently to make it Kosher…I mean how could the process be similar to what goes into other Kosher foods/meat/etc? Good writing and informative too!
In Judaism there are lots of dietary laws, Lillian. Ingredients matter, combinations of ingredients matter, the implements and machines that we use matter, etc., etc. I don’t inherently have a problem with any of the above. The thing about kosher wine, in particular, is that the only thing that distinguishes it from unkosher wine is who made it and who came in contact with it. It has nothing to do with anything else – the ingredients and the processes are exactly the same otherwise.
That bothers me.
❤
David
Thought-provoking piece for 44 words. From reading the informative comments, in my opinion, it feels like a custom that needs to be re-evaluated for our times. As we evolve to become a more unified humankind, then it might mean bending or ending some of these customs that tend to divide. Just my 2 cents.
Amen, Mish.
❤
David