Back in Talmudic times water was so polluted that wine was a drink of choice. Wine could become problematic since pagans would use wine libations in their idolatrous observances. From daf 33 onward for several dappim the rabbis discuss nonkosher wines.
For fear of
using wine dedicated for a pagan practice, the rabbis described three different
categories of wine not made by Jews.
“Rabbi Asi says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira: There are three kinds of prohibited wines: It is prohibited to derive benefit from wine used for a libation (yayin nesekh- יֵין נֶסֶךְ), and the wine imparts severe ritual impurity when it has the volume of an olive-bulk. It is prohibited to derive benefit from nondescript wine (stam yanam- סְתָם יֵינָם) of a gentile, and the wine imparts the ritual impurity of liquids when it has the volume of one-quarter of a log. With regard to the wine of one who deposits his wine with a gentile, one is prohibited from drinking it, but one is permitted to derive benefit from it.” (dappim 29b-31a, Sefaria.org translation)
To insure
that kosher wine deposited with a gentile was not switched out for yayin nesekh or stam yanam it needed to be double sealed. “The Gemara asks: What
is a seal within a seal like? Rava says: A basin placed over the mouth
of a barrel that is smeared with clay and stamped with a
seal is considered a seal within a seal. And if not, it is not
considered a seal within a seal. If a basket is placed over a barrel and
is fastened to it, this is a seal within a seal; if it is not
fastened to the barrel, it is not a seal within a seal. With regard
to a wineskin that is placed in a sack [disakaya], if the
wineskin’s stopper is facing downward, this is a seal within a
seal; if its stopper is facing upward, this is not a seal
within a seal. And if he bends the wineskin’s bottleneck inward and ties
the sack and seals it, this is also considered a seal within a
seal.” (daf 31a, Sefaria.org translation)
To what
extent do these laws apply to us today? Rabbi Isaac Klein writes in his book A
Guide to Jewish Religious Practice:
“Yein Nesekh was originally prohibited because it
was used for libations in idol worship, and anything used in idol worship is
forbidden to Jews….
“In our day, however, there is no yein nesekh since there is no longer any idol worship (B A.Z. 57b in Tos, s.v. לאפוקי מדרב; Y.D. 123:1 in Rama). Rather, we are concerned nowadays with stam yanam-ordinary wines made or handled by gentiles. The Talmud forbids such wines as a precautionary measure to prevent socializing with gentiles since it might lead to intermarriage (B A. Z. 31b) or because those who use such wines might be exposed to religious influence of Gentiles and thus be persuaded to apostatize. A hekhsher on wine, therefore, indicates that no Gentiles were directly involved in any stage of the winemaking process (i.e., from the pressing of the grapes through the bottling and ceiling of the wine).
“At the request of the Committee on Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Israel Silverman made a study of the question and reported his findings in a responsum. Rabbi Silverman found that winemaking in the United States is fully automated (his study did not cover imported wines, many of which are not produced by automatic processes), and no human hand comes in contact with the wine from the moment the grapes are put into containers and brought to the winery into the wine appears in sealed bottles. Wines manufactured by this automatic process may not be classified as wine manufactured by Gentiles and thus do not come under the interdict against the use of סְתָם יֵינָם).
“Rabbi Silverman called attention to several additional considerations, however. Since it is a mitswah to support Israel, he suggested, we should give priority to wines imported from Israel, all of which are kosher according to the traditional standard, as indicated by the hekhsher they bear. Moreover, he deemed it advisable, for psychological reasons, that only wines with a hekhsher be used in religious ceremonies “scratch that (e.g. Qiddush or Havdalah). Similarly, on Pesakh, only wines marked Kosher Lepesakh should be used.
“The committee accepted Rabbi
Silverman’s findings (see, however, the responsum of Rabbi Jacob Radin for an
opposing opinion).” (Pages 306-7)
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