Q&A: Wine Touched by a Secular Jew
Wine Touched by a Secular Jew
Question
Hello and blessings.
What is the Rabbi's opinion about wine (not cooked) that was touched by someone who publicly desecrates the Sabbath?
Thank you very much.
Answer
What do you mean, what is my opinion? Jewish law forbids it. True, some have written that public Sabbath desecrators today have a different status, but I do not think one can rely on that and permit it. Still, in pressing circumstances it seems one may be lenient. See briefly here:
http://www.yeshiva.org.il/ask/10930
Discussion on Answer
I understood that there are halakhic decisors who permit it, such as the Hazon Ish:
http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/toshba/halacha/din-2.htm
Daniel,
Yes, those are indeed the views I had in mind.
Ronen,
Since the substance of the prohibition does not exist here (see the article Daniel linked to here), and this is only a formal prohibition, one should be lenient with it when possible. Therefore, even in a situation of offense one may be lenient. If there were real substance here, then the offense would be part of the issue, because perhaps if he sees that people do not drink his wine he will repent. But nowadays it seems that does not apply.
Hello, honorable Rabbi.
Seemingly, according to the Talmud there, it appears that there is a difference between one who desecrates the Sabbath and one who makes the wine into libation wine, since they are not the same person; therefore one who desecrates the Sabbath does not render the wine libation wine.
I did not understand the question.
The ruling of the Shulchan Arukh is seemingly puzzling. He holds that one who desecrates the Sabbath renders the wine libation wine, but it seems from the Talmud there that one who desecrates the Sabbath is not the one who renders the wine libation wine.
"…except for an apostate with regard to making wine into libation wine and desecrating the Sabbath publicly." According to how I read the Talmud, there are two people here. I would be glad for an answer from the Rabbi.
First, see the version in the parallel passage in Eruvin 69b, which is closer to the wording of the Shulchan Arukh. Beyond that, the Talmud there deals with an apostate to idol worship (an apostate with regard to making wine into libation wine), not with the law of wine becoming libation wine through an apostate. But the Talmud there implies (and the Vilna Gaon noted this as well, and I was already asked about this once on the site—maybe by you?) that an apostate with regard to desecrating the Sabbath is like a regular apostate, and therefore they conclude that one who desecrates the Sabbath renders the wine libation wine.
In a case of insult or offense (the army and the like), is that considered a pressing circumstance? What would the Rabbi do in such a situation?