Wine

Q: What kinds of wine are permissible to use for Kiddush?

A: Halachically, we drink only good wine for kiddush. There are essentially two reasons for this ruling. 1) What do we call wine that has gone bad? Vinegar. If we recite the blessing over wine on Friday evening and discover -after the fact- that the liquid had soured and become vinegar, we will have been guilty of taking God’s name in vain. As you are aware, the blessing over wine is boray pree ha-gafen, while vinegar is sh’hakol n’hiyeh bidvaro.   In using the Holy One's name for the wrong blessing we sin. Therefore, in order to reduce the chance of reciting a beracha l’vatayla, purposeless blessing, we use only good wine.  2) Applying the principle of hiddur mitzvah, we use only the finest wines for the chanting of kiddush. Less costly ones are appropriate for other times. On Shabbat and festivals only the best will do.

A wide variety of wines exist for kosher consumption: apricot, almond, peach, raisin... It is the correct procedure to using exclusively wine made from grapes for Kiddush, though. The words of the blushing are boray pree ha-gafen, which means literally “fruit of the vine.”  There are many kosher wines available, not all of them made from grapes.  Raisin wine is an acceptable alternative as raisins are dried grapes.

Here are several colors of wine, each dependent upon the type of grape used; red, white, purple, etc. And of course there are blends of different groups to please a variety of tastes. The most favorable color, according to our sages, is red. It has the richest color and is the most aesthetically appealing.  In fact, one revered rabbi of the medieval period, Nachmanides, was so convinced of the superiority of red wine that he banned use of white for Kiddush. Nachmanides, however, it was overruled by his colleagues and prevailing view is that any kosher wine made from grapes is acceptable. But red is still the favorite.

Shattered Glass

Q: I recently attended a wedding where the Rabbi concluded the ceremony with the breaking of the glass.  Under the Huppah the Rabbi said that there are many interpretations for this tradition.  What are they and which is correct?

A: I once heard a congregant report that he had heard a person tell him, “It’s the last time he’ll put his foot down!”  Needless to say, that is not one of the traditional responses.

A wedding is the time with unrestrained joy.  According to our tradition, when a couple is betrothed the Holy One, Blessed be He, rejoices.  Weddings plans move along usually accompanied by great anxiety: elaborate preparations are the order of the day.  In the old country,  the entire Jewish community was invited to the wedding!  Entertainers were hired and musicians engaged.  All the stops were pulled out for the bride and groom.

Yet no event can be completely happy or sad.  When we return from a burial the first thing we consume is an egg, symbolizing that life goes on despite the pain.  At our marriages, we break a glass as an austere reminder that our lives are fragile and we can be easily shattered.  The glass adds the historical reminder of the destruction of the Temple many centuries ago.

We must be acutely aware that pain is a part of every life.  And for the person who can only see sorrow we reintroduce the thought that there is joy in the world and in his future.

Life is a delicate balance.  It is this balance that keeps us healthy to face each new day.

Ivy Leagues

Q: I recently covered my school children’s books with a book cover that had the emblem from Yale University. I was surprised to see that Yale’s crest is written in Hebrew.  What does it mean?

A: Hebrew was an important language to the founding fathers of this nation. Ezra Stiles, the first president of Yale University, studied Hebrew from his Jewish acquaintances. Under Stiles’ leadership the seal of Yale bore the words “Urim v’Tumim” as it does to this day.

“Urim v’Tumim” were the names of the stones on the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol in Jerusalem during Temple days. The stones were an oracle of sorts, which deciphered the word of God for the people. The “Urim v’Tumim” therefore signifies the predominance of God’s power and the ability of humanity to grasp a fragment of the Eternal One. 

Dartmouth College has a seal which bears in the words El Shaddai, God Almighty. Columbia University prints the Tetragrammaton or full Hebrew name of God on its crests.

All these institutions recognized the critical importance of the Hebrew language when they were founded. No scholar of the 17th century could be ignorant of the holy tongue in which the Bible was written. Even the plain folk were admonished to attempt to read the engine text in the original. Roger Williams, Cotton Mather and the rest were all fluent in Hebrew.

Washing Hands

Q: Why do we wash our hands when leaving the cemetery?

A: the cemetery, as a house of the dead, is filled with impurity. As the Torah and Rabbinic literature spell out, tumah is contracted through contact with the dead. As an act of ritual purification we wash your hands after having visited such a place.

Water results of the symbol of life and birth, as it is the first thing that comes out when a baby is born.  Also it is the stuff of the primordial universe.  Remember in Genesis it says, “God’s Spirit hovered over the deep?”

We wash our hands as a gesture of the fullness of life. Death is not the end. We believe that those who passed from this world are eventually reborn in Paradise.