Pouring wine into water
Hello everyone,
I asked the following question two days ago. Did you intentionally not answer, or did you miss it?
Hello Rabbi. The Sages write that a cup of blessing (Kiddush, Blessing 47, Havdalah, four cups) must be poured with water, and the Rishonim argue that this law was specifically stated at the time of the Sages, “because wine was very strong and not suitable for drinking without water” – Rashi, Berachot 50:2. And according to Rashi, the Rema ruled (Och 143:2).
I didn’t understand how there could be a change in the alcohol percentage in wine. Chemically, as far as I know, the maximum alcohol percentage is about 14%. How did wine in the time of Chazal reach such a high alcohol percentage that, according to Rava, it had to be diluted 3 times with water (Bab 26b)?
For some reason I didn’t see the question.
I’m not well-versed in wines. But in your opinion, how come there are different alcohol percentages in different wines today?
It's not natural, they add alcohol to it.
The maximum alcohol content in the fermentation of sugars (glucose) is 16%, because yeast cannot exist in a liquid that contains more than 16% alcohol. In order to achieve a drink with a higher alcohol content, the drink must be distilled. See here:
https://www.lilalodrinks.co.il/%D7%9E%D7%92%D7%96%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C-1/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9A-%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C
If the question is how to achieve a lower alcohol percentage, it could be for all sorts of reasons, such as the fact that the liquid (grape juice) contained little sugar to begin with, the fact that the fermentation It was stopped in the middle, because of the drink being mixed with another drink, etc. See here:
https://spittoon.co.il/%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%AA%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%AA-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C-%D7%A0%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%94/
In any case, if in reality it is not possible to produce a wine with a higher alcohol content than today, how can we understand the words of the poskim?
Rashi apparently didn't understand wine. There is an excellent article by Professor Zohar Amar on the subject of pouring wine and that there is no difference between our wine and their wine.
French and don't understand wine?
Rashi was a winemaker for a living
There is a post about this by Nadav Shnerb:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=271911897867359&id=100051456511332
Zohar Amar claims that there is no difference between our wine and theirs, but he agrees that there was a difference between their wine and Rashi's wine.
Rashi was not a winemaker. Nowhere has solid evidence been found for this. Haim Soloveitchik, a scholar of halachic law, noted in a 1978 article that the land in Troyes in northeastern France - the area where Rashi lived - is not suitable for growing vines. There is other evidence for this that I do not recall.
It is very clear that Rashi was free, and there are at least 2 pieces of evidence for this, despite Soloveitchik's article:
1) The Book of the Light (Part 2, Kach) “Since they were selling his barrels to a Gentile, he would not drink from them”, meaning that Rashi was strict not to drink from barrels that were supposed to be sold to a Gentile.
2) In the responsa of the Sages of France and Luther (Ped) he says that he was “trod in the wine cellar” meaning that he was very busy harvesting grapes for wine.
What Soloveitchik says about the land in Troyes is simply not true. There are several well-known wineries around the city of Troyes. A quarter of the known Champagne wine is produced in the agricultural area around the city.
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