web analytics
June 20, 2013 / 12 Tammuz, 5773
At a Glance ▼
Judaism
Sponsored Post
Bicycle in South Pioneers of the Periphery: Olim of the South

Got that pioneering spirit? You’re invited to help build Israel’s periphery by planting roots in southern soil with Nefesh B’Nefesh.



Drinks To Make Kiddush Over

tell a friend
Grunfeld-021513

Just because God has given us a weekly lifetime subscription to paradise, we should not take Shabbat for granted. No gift should go unacknowledged and no giver should go forgotten. “Remember the Shabbat and bless it. We bless the Giver by reciting Kiddush and Havdalah, and we remember the Shabbat by drinking wine, which, in Scripture, is the beverage of fond memories. Like us, the Shabbat guest wants to be welcomed when she arrives and missed when she leaves.

But you are vacationing on Cape Cod and the local liquor store does not carry kosher wine! And the next Shabbat morning, back in town, you hover over the synagogue Kiddush table and are about to recite Kiddush. And you wonder, “The whisky or the wine?”

In determining whether there is any acceptable alternative to wine, the rabbis differentiate between Kiddush on Friday night, Havdalah on Motzaei Shabbat and Kiddush on Shabbat morning. In view of the fact that Friday night Kiddush is a biblical requirement, the only alternative to Kiddush wine on Friday night is to recite Kiddush over bread. The connection between the Shabbat and the Mishkan, the Temple Sanctuary, which defines the 39 prohibited melachot on Shabbat, may also explain why only wine and bread are acceptable.

Both wine and bread were used in the Temple sacrifices. When reciting Kiddush over bread in the absence of wine on Friday night, the following procedure is followed: One washes one’s hands, covers two loaves of bread with a cloth, places one’s hands on the cloth and recites “Vayechulu.” One then removes the cloth, places one’s hands on the challot and recites the blessing for bread instead of the blessing for wine. The blessing for wine, which would otherwise precede the Kiddush blessing, is replaced by the blessing for bread.

Havdalah, according to most opinions, is of rabbinic origin. Accordingly, the rabbis have a more flexible approach. The preferred beverage for Havdalah is still wine. Nevertheless, if one finds oneself, without wine, one may use other beverages which qualify as chamar medinah, which, loosely translated, means the “popular beverage of the location.” The precise meaning of chamar medinah, and which beverages qualify as chamar medinah and under what circumstances they may be used instead of wine, are subject to animated halachic debate.

According to the Shulchan Aruch, all drinks, except water, qualify as chamar medinah. According to Reb Moshe Feinstein, what sets chamar medinah apart from other beverages is that it is principally a social libation rather than a thirst-quenching drink. Accordingly, soda and water, which people do not drink as a rule unless they are thirsty, do not qualify as chamar medinah and cannot be used for Havdalah. Conversely, whisky, beer, tea, coffee and perhaps even milk, do qualify as chamar medinah, inasmuch as people might drink them for social reasons, even when they are not thirsty. These drinks may therefore be used for Havdalah.

Rav Ovadiah Yosef, however, vehemently disagrees. A drink is not considered chamar medinah, he claims, unless it is both bitter in taste and intoxicating. The only reason, he argues, that one is allowed to drink non-alcoholic beverages before Kiddush on Shabbat morning is precisely because they are not considered “drinks” for the purpose of Kiddush. It follows, therefore, that they do not qualify for Kiddush or Havdalah.

And the debate continues regarding the circumstances that justify using chamar medinah for Havdalah. According to most opinions, chamar medinah may only be used if wine is totally unavailable, at any price, in town or a distance of a one-day journey from town. According to the Rambam, however, once a drink qualifies as chamar medinah, it may be used for Havdalah even if wine is available in town.

The situation with Shabbat morning is the most lenient of the three. This is because it is of rabbinic origin and the Kiddush that welcomed Shabbat has already been made on Friday night. Accordingly, the accepted practice is to allow chamar medinah for Shabbat morning Kiddush, where wine, though available, is either not easily accessible, or too expensive. And on Shabbat morning, whisky is in a category all of its own. Unlike other beverages that qualify as chamar medinah, whisky can be chosen over wine, even where the two bottles are standing side by side. According to the Mishneh Berurah, however, one would have to use a wine-size Kiddush cup which holds between three and six ounces and drink most of it in one shot. According to other authorities, a small whisky glass is sufficient.

tell a friend

About the Author: Raphael Grunfeld’s book, “Ner Eyal on Seder Moed” (distributed by Mesorah) is available at OU.org and your local Jewish bookstore. His new book, “Ner Eyal on Seder Nashim & Nezikin,” will be available shortly.


You might also be interested in:


If you don't see your comment after publishing it, refresh the page.
no comments

Comments are closed.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Latest Judaism Stories
Shidduch
Judaism → Rebbetzin's Viewpoint

When in a quandary we must always turn to our holy books and search for answers.

Taste-of-Lomdus-logo
Judaism → Parsha

In this week’s parshah Bilam decides to approach Balak with the intention of cursing the Bnei Yisrael. En route his donkey refused to continue on the path, continuing to veer to the side of the road. At one point the donkey smashed Bilam’s leg into the wall. Bilam hit his donkey three different times. The reason that his donkey would not proceed is because it saw that there was a malach standing in the road with his sword drawn.

Lessons-logo
Judaism → Columns → Lessons In Emunah

The GPS had not been invented when Shelly set off on a Friday afternoon many years ago to join the Bnei Akiva camp in the English countryside. The organizers always managed to find a farmer who welcomed young campers under adult supervision; thus they set up their tents and during the week took the opportunity to learn the halachot of building an eruv. There would be no problems on Shabbat and they would be able to carry within the campsite.

Judaism → Parsha

The Rambam, therefore, adds a second component: by getting angry, Moshe misled the people as to the nature of God. The masses felt that Moshe’s anger was reflective of God’s anger.

Judaism → Parsha

One of the most complex Tanach personalities is the central figure of this week’s Haftorah: Yiftach, the Shofet, Judge.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

“I saw an advertisement for group swimming lessons during the summer,” Mr. Leiner said to his wife. “I think it would be good for our Pinchas.”

Judaism → Rebbetzin's Viewpoint

She is my first child to reach this stage and, frankly, I’m worried.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin
‘Transgressing Bal Tigra’
(Eruvin 100a)

Judaism → Ask the Rabbi

Question: As Shavuot is fast approaching – a holiday on which we dwell on the story of Ruth and the origins of the royal house of David – I was wondering if you could help me resolve something. The Mishnah never makes any mention of the Hasmonean kings, the mitzvah to light a Chanukah menorah, or the miracle of the oil that lasted eight days. Some people say that Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi – the redactor of the six orders of the Mishnah and a scion of King David – omitted these topics because the Hasmoneans improperly crowned themselves, ignoring the rule that all Jewish kings are supposed to come from the tribe of Yehudah. They argue that this is also why the Talmud does not include a separate tractate on Chanukah. Is this true?

Menachem
(Via E-Mail)

Judaism → Parsha

In this week’s parshah the Torah discusses many halachos of tumah. One halacha is that a person who is tamei may not enter the Mikdash. Doing so makes him liable for kareis.

Judaism → Columns → Lessons In Emunah

The highway was packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic, and there I sat with hands gripped tightly on the steering wheel, begging the cars to move. My heart swelled at the thought of seeing my son, who was just coming back from his year of learning in Eretz Yisrael. How I had missed him! Though I was used to him being away (if you can ever really get used to a child being away), a special space in my heart was empty – as I waited for him.

Judaism → Torah

No one lives in a vacuum. No, that doesn’t mean we didn’t get sucked up through a vacuum cleaner hose in the pre-Pesach cleaning frenzy, it means that whether we like it or not, our environment—the people and things around us—makes a big impact on who we are.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

According to biblical law, once an area has been converted in to a reshut hayachid by enclosing it with a halachically acceptable eruv, one may carry inside the enclosed area. But according to rabbinical law, it is simply not enough to enclose an area in which one wants to carry with an eruv. This alone will not permit carrying from the home into the street or vice versa. Neither will it alone permit carrying from a condominium apartment into the lobby or other common areas.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

Yidsville had a small but dedicated Jewish community. There was one Orthodox synagogue, led by Rabbi Well, a day school, women’s mikveh, kosher butcher shop, pizza store and restaurants.

More Articles from Raphael Grunfeld
Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

According to biblical law, once an area has been converted in to a reshut hayachid by enclosing it with a halachically acceptable eruv, one may carry inside the enclosed area. But according to rabbinical law, it is simply not enough to enclose an area in which one wants to carry with an eruv. This alone will not permit carrying from the home into the street or vice versa. Neither will it alone permit carrying from a condominium apartment into the lobby or other common areas.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

One of the thirty-nine prohibited melachot on Shabbat is carrying an object from a private domain, reshut hayachid, to a public domain, reshut harabim, or carrying an object a distance of four amot, six to eight feet, in a reshut harabim. The Torah does permit, however, carrying within the reshut hayachid itself. The definition of a reshut hayachid and a reshut harabim is crucial, therefore, to the laws of carrying on Shabbat.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

In order to carry from one’s home into the street (even when the area is enclosed by a properly constructed eruv), the eruvin ceremony must be performed. This ceremony involves the placing of food in one designated home on behalf of all Sabbath observers in the enclosed area. In order for the eruvin ceremony to be valid, however, it must be performed on behalf of all owners of streets and homes in the enclosed area.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

The purpose of the eruv is to enclose on all sides the area in which one wants to carry, so that it becomes a private domain, a reshut hayachid. If the area in question is a karmelit, a space that qualifies neither as a public domain nor as a private domain, gaps in the eruv structure may be bridged by means of a constructive or symbolic doorway called tzurat hapetach. A tzurat hapetach is made up of two posts, each called a lechi, and a crossbeam or overhead wire called a korah.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

“On Shabbat, every person must remain in his residence,” said Moshe to the people, forbidding them to walk more than a certain distance beyond their desert encampment. This distance, which measures two thousand amot – about two thirds of a mile – is known as techum Shabbat. It is the same distance that stretched from the perimeters of the Levite cities to their outlying suburbs.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

In the movie “The Paper Chase,” a Harvard student rips out a page of the law report so that his fellow student will be unable to read it and will come to the lecture unprepared. About 2,000 years earlier a student lay feverishly ill in the academy of Rabbi Akiva in Bnei Brak. So caught up were the other students in the competitiveness of their learning that they found no time to visit him or take care of him. As the student lay dying, Rabbi Akiva himself entered the sick room, fed him, made him comfortable and swept the dust from the floor. The sick student survived. His peers did not.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

Football’s 49ers rarely drop the ball. But how many of us make it through 49 nights from the second night of Pesach all the way to Shavuot without losing count? Sometimes we never even make it to the first yard line. We are so busy preparing for second night Seder that we miss evening prayers in shul and forget to count Day One.

Judaism → Halacha & Hashkafa

What is chametz? What are the various categories of chametz? Does the prohibition of chametz on Pesach apply also to non‑food products? Can medication containing chametz be taken on Pesach? Can vitamins produced with no Pesach supervision be used? What about liquid medicine such as cough mixture? Can non- supervised body soap or liquid detergent be used? What about toothpaste? May one use rubbing alcohol? May one eat egg matzah?

    Latest Poll

    Female, Orthodox, Halachic Deciders and Spiritual Leaders (Maharat)









    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/judaism/halacha-hashkafa/drinks-to-make-kiddush-over/2013/02/14/

Scan this QR code to visit this page online:

No related posts.

Close