Torah Study Blog

When it comes to other gods, our God is not messing around! From this week’s Torah portion we are advised that, “Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord alone shall be proscribed.” (Exodus 22:19) In other words, killed! Additionally, we are instructed to, “Make no mention of the name of other gods; they shall not be heard on your lips.” (Exodus 23:13) And Israelites in newly conquered territory, which may have artifacts to other gods, are told, “you shall not bow down to their gods in worship or follow their practices, but shall tear them down and smash their pillars to bits.” (Exodus 23:24) Regarding the people living in those newly conquered territories, “you shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them and their gods They shall not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me; for you will serve their gods – and it will prove a snare to you.” (Exodus 23:31-33)

There are three things worth noting from these verses:

1. Many of these verses are extreme, and we can understand how extremists can find Bible verses to support their extreme beliefs.
2. The Israelites must have been fickle! At every turn there is concern that they will turn away from God and find a different god to worship.
3. There were many other gods. These passages were not written at a time of monotheism. And, honestly, if you are a polytheist what’s one more god?

The main purpose of the Torah was to build a national identity. Although we can detect many different voices in the Torah and there are conflicting stories, the only real consensus is that Yahweh is the god that is owed our #1 allegiance.

One of those conflicts shows up in next week’s Torah portion. In Exodus 24, Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s two sons, and, “seventy elders of Israel ascended; and they saw the God of Israel … they beheld God, and they ate and drank.” (Exodus 24:9-11)

The contradiction lies within the books of Leviticus and Judges where there are stories about people who see a divine being directly and fear for their lives, because it has been made clear that no one who sees God themselves will live. The exception to that rule is Moses, who only gets to glimpse the backside of God.

But the group of 74 people in Exodus had a meal with God. To have a meal with someone speaks of a deeper connection. Feeding God, which is done by the Temple priests who sacrifice to God, suggests a level of holiness. The priests had to be born into the occupation and, according to the Torah, the priests were a people set apart.

However, our religion is not the religion of the Torah. The religion in the Torah describes animal sacrifice in the Temple, which is something that ended with the 2^nd destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The Jewish religion we practice today is based upon the teachings of The Rabbis.

To be a rabbi, a person had to dedicate their lives to study of texts. This still speaks of an elite group of people because they were men (yes, all men) who had the means not to labor, but to study and debate with their peers at length. As we noted last week, these debates were collected and written in the Mishnah around 200 CE. And then more were collected and written in the Gemara around 370 CE. The Mishnah and the Gemara together are called the Talmud.

Sacrifices to God also included libations, or tributes of wine. Other ancient cultures also offered libations to their gods. But our Rabbis wanted to be sure that our worship to our God was very different from what other cultures did for their gods. Therefore, The Rabbis came up with a set of rules for libations, which included the prohibition of using wine made by a non-Jew.

But wine was not just used for libations. Even the wine that people would drink was not allowed if made by a non-Jew. The concern is that a non-Jew might use that wine to worship his god, so it should not be used by Jews in any way. The Rabbis even said that “wine of an Israelite that had been deposited with an idolater” cannot be drunk. The Rabbis were concerned that the non-Jew might be conniving and lie about what they did to the wine, so it is better to be safe than sorry. Just avoid that wine.

If there was wine carried by a non-Jew who was guarded, it would be okay to drink that wine. But if the non-Jew were ever not guarded that wine becomes forbidden to the Jews. The Rabbis thought it might be possible that the non-Jew would contaminate the wine in some way if there was not a sharp eye kept on the non-Jew!

However, if the wine were boiled it could be drunk by a Jew, even if it had been carried by a non-Jew. Boiled wine would not be used for ritual purposes, so the Rabbis said it could not contaminate the Jews.

By the 16^th century, when the Shulchan Arukh was written, there were no longer idol worshippers living among the scholarly Jews, but The Rabbis there suggest not enlightening the unlearned. The Jews had a habit of staying away from wine that had been in contact with non-Jews. Again, better be safe than sorry and just keep the habit intact.

This all might seem ancient and irrelevant today. However, kosher restaurants and caterers today serve wine today that is labeled as “mevushal” which means that it was boiled and it is okay for Jews to drink. The act of boiling the wine greatly alters the tannins and flavors of the wine – and not in a good way. Rabbi Jaech is not a proponent of this belief, nor is she a proponent of not enlightening the unlearned. She would prefer that we all be educated and be able to make informed decisions for ourselves.

You can find our podcast on iTunes under “TINW Torah Study” or “Jennifer Jaech.” 

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter