Q&A: The Prohibition of Libation Wine for Oneself
The Prohibition of Libation Wine for Oneself
Question
Should one answer Amen after the blessing “Who creates the fruit of the vine” recited by a Jew who, by touching the wine, renders it libation wine (that same Jew is drinking the wine himself)? And in addition, should one answer Amen after a traditional Jew who recites a blessing over eating foods prepared from kosher ingredients, but apparently the utensils are not kosher (there is no separation between meat and milk)?
Answer
The matter depends on whether that Jew himself is forbidden to drink his own wine (I once debated this point). Formally, it would seem that he is forbidden, but practically speaking it is clear that there is no prohibition. In the second case, there is no prohibition in the food itself unless it is hot and absorbs from the utensils (by the way, if not, then there is no prohibition at all in eating such food).
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Questioner:
What do you mean by the expressions “formal prohibition” and “practical prohibition”?
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Rabbi:
Formally, we do not find that the person himself was excluded from the rule. But practically, it is not reasonable that he would be included in it (would it really be forbidden for him to eat his own food lest he draw close to himself?). You find something like this argument in Tosafot on Shabbat 4a, where they wrote that it cannot be that a person would be forbidden to remove bread from the oven in such a way that he would incur the death penalty (even though formalism would require that). Common sense says that the formal rule must be qualified.
Discussion on Answer
Did the Rabbi see what I wrote?
I saw it. Many thanks.
Does an apostate render his own wine forbidden, so that he himself would be forbidden to drink it?
In the book Tzitz Eliezer (vol. 8, sec. 17–18), and in the book Yabia Omer (vol. 2, Yoreh De’ah sec. 10, par. 1), they discussed the matter, brought many sources on the subject, and raised various considerations for leniency (in different circumstances).
The questioner in Tzitz Eliezer (Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch) apparently means the Rabbi’s reasoning written here (“that he is like a gentile for us, but not for himself”), right?
Both of them added another line of reasoning: it is impossible to forbid him libation wine, because either way, if we judge him as a gentile (who disqualifies wine by touching it), then he is not bound by the prohibition of libation wine.