Avodah Zarah, Daf Nun Heh, Part 6

 

Introduction

According to R. Huna, once the grape juice from the press begins to flow into the vat, even the juice in the press can become yayin nesekh. This clearly contradicts the mishnah, as we saw in yesterday s section. Today s section opens with another difficulty on R. Huna, but this time he resolves it in an entirely different manner.

 

ת"ש ירד לבור מה שבבור אסור והשאר מותר

 

Come and hear: When it has descended into the vat, what is in the vat is prohibited but the remainder is permitted!

 

Again, according to the mishnah, only the wine in the vat is yayin nesekh, not the juice in the press, even once it has begun to flow. This contradicts R. Huna.

 

אמר רב הונא לא קשיא כאן במשנה ראשונה כאן במשנה אחרונה דתניא בראשונה היו אומרים בד"ד אין בוצרין עם העובד כוכבים בגת שאסור לגרום טומאה לחולין שבא"י ואין דורכין עם ישראל שעושה פירותיו בטומאה שאסור לסייע ידי עוברי עבירה

 

R. Huna said: There is no contradiction; one teaching is from the older Mishnah and the other from the later Mishnah; for it has been taught: At first [the sages] used to say (B.D.D.): [Israelites] may not glean grapes together with a non-Jew [and bring them] into a winepress, for it is forbidden to cause defilement to the non-sacred fruit of the Land of Israel,

Nor may they tread grapes together with an Israelite who works with his fruits while he is in a state of impurity for it is forbidden to assist transgressors;

 

Here R. Huna admits that his ruling does indeed contradict the mishnah, but defends the contradiction by claiming that he follows the later halakhah. The Talmud quotes a baraita only part of which deals with treading a winepress with a non-Jew. (The baraita includes a mnemonic here and above to facilitate remembering the order of the clauses). The first topic is causing impurity to ordinary produce (non-terumah). If a non-Jew touches grapes after they have been harvested, he causes them to become impure. Note that this has nothing to do with yayin nesekh. A Jew may eat impure food. But there was originally a custom to try to avoid causing produce in the land of Israel to become impure. This seems to have been an extra measure of holiness. Therefore, one should not glean grapes with a non-Jew, nor work with produce with an impure Israelite, for this would be assisting a transgressor.

 

אבל דורכים עם העובד כוכבים בגת ולא חיישינן לדרב הונא

 

But they may tread grapes together with a non-Jew in a winepress. And they were not concerned about the view of R. Huna.

 

But originally, there was no problem with treading grapes with a non-Jew in the winepress. Once the non-Jew had picked the grapes, they were already impure. By treading them, the Jew was not aiding in defiling them. Moreover, this halakhah follows the mishnah, according to which the grapes in the press cannot become yayin nesekh. This early halakhah does not follow R. Huna.

 

וחזרו לומר דב"ד אין דורכין עם העובד כוכבים בגת משום דרב הונא

 

Later [the Rabbis] said (D.B.B.): [Israelites] may not tread grapes together with a non-Jew in a winepress, for the reason given by R. Huna.

 

Later, the halakhah changed to follow R. Huna. Jews may not tread grapes with non-Jews for this would cause the juice in the vat to become yayin nesekh.

 

ואין בוצרין עם ישראל שעושה פירותיו בטומאה וכ"ש שאין דורכין

 

Nor may they glean grapes together with an Israelite who works with his fruits while he is impure, and all the more so they may not tread grapes.

 

This is stricter than above. According to the earlier halakhah, it was forbidden to tread grapes with Jews who did not observe the rules of purity. According to the later halakhah, it was even forbidden to harvest grapes with them, for doing so was considered aiding a Jew in causing the defilement of the portion of terumah that would have to be separated from the grapes.

 

אבל בוצרין עם העובד כוכבים בגת שמותר לגרום טומאה לחולין שבא"י:

But they may glean together with a non-Jew, since it is permitted to defile to the ordinary produce in the land of Israel.

 

But in this matter the law became more lenient. No longer was it forbidden to cause ordinary, non-terumah, produce to become defiled. Therefore, one could glean grapes with non-Jews.