5784/2024

Counterintuitive, Ultra-Sensitive, and Easily avoided

It is a counterintuitive, ultra-sensitive, yet easily avoided issue. The widely accepted practice is to forbid non-Mevushal wine touched by Jews who publicly desecrate Shabbat (Mechalel Shabbat B’Farhesya). Let us explain this Minhag’s source and why only Yayin Mevushal should be served when Shabbat violators are present. 

Talmudic Background 

The Gemara, Rambam, and Shulchan Aruch do not explicitly forbid wine touched by a Mechalel Shabbat B’Farhesya. In fact, the reasons to prohibit wine touched by non-Jews do not seem to apply to a Shabbat violator. 

The Rambam (Hilchot Ma’achalot Asurot 11: 1, 3, and 4) summarizes the principles that emerge from the Gemara (modified translation from Chabad. org) regarding wine and Nochrim: 

When wine has been poured as a libation to Avodah Zarah, it is forbidden to benefit from it. A person who drinks even the smallest quantity of [such wine] is liable for lashes according to Torah Law.

When we do not know whether wine belonging to a Nochri was used for a libation or not, it is called "ordinary [gentile] wine (Stam Yeinam)." It is forbidden to benefit from it, as it is forbidden to benefit from wine used as a libation. [This matter] is a rabbinic decree.

It is forbidden [to benefit from] any wine that a Nochri touches; for perhaps he poured it as a libation. For the thought of a Nochri is focused on the worship of false deities. From this, we learn that it is forbidden to benefit [even from] wine belonging to a Jew which was touched by a Nochri (Maga Akum). 

The Gemara (Shabbat 17b) presents another reason for the rabbinic decree concerning Stam Yeinam and Maga Akum – creating social barriers to avoid assimilation and intermarriage.  

Accordingly, the reasons to forbid non-Jewish wine seem irrelevant regarding a Jewish Shabbat transgressor. Concerns for Avodah Zarah and intermarriage do not apply to Jews. Most non-observant Jews do not serve idolatry, and we may marry their observant children.     

However, the Gemara (Chullin 5a) equates Shabbat violators with those who offer wine to Avodah Zarah. 

The Sages stated: One accepts offerings from Jewish transgressors so that they will consequently repent, except for the deliberate and widespread transgressor, one who pours wine as a libation to idolatry, and one who desecrates Shabbat in public [B’Farhesya].

Rashi (ad. loc. s.v. Alma Mumar) explains that a Jew disrespecting Shabbat denies Creation and Hashem’s resting on its seventh day. Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik explains that a Jew’s holiness stems from two sources. One is inherently invested in a Jew by dint of a Jewish mother. The second level accrues by adherence to the Torah. 

Rav Soloveithcik points to Rashi to Shemot 15:2 s.v. Elokei Avi as his source. Rashi says that Hashem is Elokai Avi, my parents’ God, meaning that our Kedushah stems from our parents. However, Hashem is also Keili, my God, because he develops the inherited Kedushah.

The Shabbat desecrating Jew is Jewish under Elokei Avi but lacks the Zeh Keili dimension. In other words, the Mechalel Shabbat B’Farhesya is invested with a Shem Yisrael but lacks Kedushat Yisrael. Thus, he is undoubtedly a Jew (e.g., a woman he marries requires a Get to marry another man), but there are halachic ramifications of his diminished Kedushat Yisrael.        

Geonim, Rishonim, and Shulchan Aruch 

The Rambam equates a non-observant Jew with a non-Jew in several places (e.g., Hilchot Shabbat 30:15, Hilchot Eruvin 2:16, and Hilchot Shechita 4:14) but not in the context of forbidden wine in Hilchot Ma’achalot Asurot. Nonetheless, other early sources prohibit wine touched by non-Jews. 

The Behag (Sefer Halachot Gedolot number 60) is the earliest and most authoritative source to articulate this restriction. He states:  “One who violates Shabbat renders wine forbidden by his touching it.” The Sefer HaEshkol (Auerbach edition, 3:151) agrees. The Beit Yosef (Y.D. 119) cites the Rashba and Rabbeinu Yonah, who also subscribe to this stringent view.  

The Shulchan Aruch is unclear about this matter. He states (Y.D. 124:8) that a Mumar (apostate Jew) prohibits wine he touches. However, it is unclear if he refers only to a Jew who identifies with another religion. Nonetheless, elsewhere, the Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 385:3) defines a Mumar as one who regularly worships idols or publicly violates Shabbat. 

The Shach (Nekudot HaKesef to Taz Y.D. 124:2), though, explicitly rules that a Shabbat desecrator renders wine non-kosher with his touch.   

Twentieth Century Poskim

The mainstream view is articulated by Rav Zvi Pesach Frank (Teshuvot Har Zvi Y.D. 105), Rav Moshe Feinstein (Teshuvot Igrot Moshe Y.D. 2:132), Rav Ovadia Yosef (Teshuvot Yabia Omer 1 Y.D. 11), and Rav Eliezer Waldenberg (Teshuvot Tzitz Eliezer 8:17 and 12:56). They note the customary approach regarding wine touched by a non-Shomer Shabbat Jew as not kosher. Rav Hershel Schachter states that this is the mainstream view.  

Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin (Peirushei Ibra 5:4) makes an exception when the Jew is a Tinok SheNishba, raised in an environment distanced from Torah. Rav Yosef Adler reports that Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik agrees. Rav Ovadia Yosef writes that there is room to limit this rule, saying it does not apply to a traditional Jew who at least recites Kiddush. Since Kiddush proclaims belief in Creation, one who recites it is not compared to a non-Jew. Recall that Rashi explained the core issue with the Mechalel Shabbat B’Farhesya is his denial of Creation, a problem irrelevant to one who says Kiddush. 

However, there is typically little reason to rely on these minority views in light of the ease of restricting the wine to Yayin Mevushal when hosting a Shabbat violator.   

One may wonder why we are strict regarding wine touched by a non-Shomer Shabbat Jew if we are lenient regarding food baked or cooked by such a Jew (regarding Pat and Bishul Akum, see Rav Ovadia Yosef, Halichot Olam 7: p. 91 and Teshuvot Yabia Omer 5 Y.D. 10) and utensils manufactured by them (not to require Tevilat Keilim, see Teshuvot Yabia Omer 2 Y.D. 9). The answer is that we are stricter regarding Stam Yeinam than by other Halachic matters (Chochmat Adam 75:1).  

Nitzok Chibbur 

Rav Ovadia Yosef is lenient about one significant aspect of wine touched by a non-Shomer Shabbat Jew. While he believes that the wine he pours may not be consumed. He rules that the wine remaining in the bottle remains kosher. Although the stream connects the wine he pours and what remains in the bottle (Nitzok Chibbur), Rav Yosef follows the lenient opinions regarding this matter (see Shulchan Aruch and Rama Y.D. 124:14 and 125:1) regarding Shabbat desecrators.

Conclusion – Respect Goes Two Ways 

Undoubtedly, prohibiting non-Mevushal wine touched by non-Shomer Shabbat Jews occasionally leads to awkward situations. However, we can pro-actively avoid such situations by using only Yayin mevushal when non-Shomer Shabbat Jews are present.