Instead of doing the paperwork I’m supposed to be doing this morning, I found myself reading an article on Kashrut, and in particular a section on the history and practice of koshering wines, wherein I learned that:

“In the medieval period, when the Jews of France were deeply involved with their non-Jewish neighbors in the wine industry, many of these laws were reexamined. Moreover, by that time the use of wine for idol worship was very rare….”

And I thought to myself, “it was “very rare“? Meaning what, there was still medieval use of wine in idol worship sometimes? Where was this happening? How did it work?” I’m familiar with Santeria, of course, and similar practices throught South America and Africa. And there have, of course, been accusations that the use of the ritual wine in Mass is functionally an instance of the use of wine in idol worship. But in the context being cited here, it seemslike a strange hedge to make: why doesn’t the authour just say “… the use of wine for idol worship was no longer an issue…?”.

Twenty minutes of forensic googling later, I’ve discovered a wonderful paper on “Disembodied Heads in Medieval and Early Modern Culture”, wherein we learn that despite Islamic prohibitions to the contrary, Christian and Jewish authorities in the middle ages accused Moslems of idol-worshipping practices, many involving disembodied heads (a shoutout to Jacques do Molay and the Templars, of course – what in esoterica isn’t a shout out to that crew??). From there I jumped to vol. 3 of the “Handbook to Life in the Medieval World”, wherein we learn that both Maimonides and Rabbenu Tam specifically acknowledged that Moslems don’t actually worship idols, so that *drinking* non-Jewish wine (which might have passed through Moslem hands) remained forbidden, but it was ok for us to *sell* it.

Following this thread, I arrived at the Babylonian Talmud (Abodah Zarah 32b-33a), where we read the following wonderful passage:

“With idolaters going on a pilgrimage it is forbidden [to transact business] on their journey there, for they will go and offer thanks to the idols; but on their return journey it is permitted, for bygones are bygones. If an Israelite however goes on such a pilgrimage [to idols], it is permitted [to deal with him] on his journey there, for he may change his mind and not go; but on his return it is forbidden, for as he has already become attached to it he will go again and again. But has it not been taught: It is forbidden [to do any business transactions] with an Israelite going on a pilgrimage of idolatry either on his journey there or back? — R. Ashi said: That refers to an apostate Israelite, who is sure to go.”

Such glorious, pragmatic reasoning! First there’s the setup: “Sorry, I can’t sell you wine when I know you’re going to use it to worship your idols – but hey, if you just came from worshipping your idols and *now* you want some wine, who am I to make problems for you? For all I know, you’re just going to enjoy it with a nice steak and there’ll be no idol worshipping at all, no sirree…” 😉

Then there’s the rub: “That’s fine for gentiles, but the rabbis say that any whiff of idolatry attaching to an Israelite means we can’t do business with him at all!” And then, the yiddishe kop shines through: “look, bubbe, if you KNOW that the Israelite is an apostate, then absolutely, we can safely assume there’s gonna be idol-worshipping; but if it’s your run-of-the-mill Reb Yankel, then let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he’s *not* worshipping the idols with the Pinot Noir!” And since the bar for actually being acknowledged and expunged by the community as an apostate (lit. an “Epikoros”, which was a dig at Epicurus) was pretty high, the wonderful material benefit of not eliminating the lion’s share of your customers who might-or-might-not-be-the-most-observant-ancient-Jews is achieved.

Brilliant.

Meanwhile, there’s a second part to this analysis – the whisky portion- but I’ll leave that for my next post. Paperwork beckons.