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033 - Kiddush (The Blessing Over Wine) - Origins and History
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033 - Kiddush (The Blessing Over Wine) - Origins and History
This is THE central blessing of almost every Jewish celebration - but WHY?
Join Rabbi LeighAnn for a little anthropology and a lot of chit chat surrounding this ubiquitous ritual.
Don't forget - you can reach me (Rabbi LeighAnn) any time at www.yourohiorabbi.com or everyonesfavoriterabbi.com or rabbileighann.com !
Fill out the contact form there if you'd like to work with me on your wedding. There are SO many options, from Ketubah consulting to ceremony planning. If there's something you have in mind, don't hesitate to ask - I'm here to help!
IG: @yourohiorabbi
Podcast IG: @yourjewishweddingpodcast
Send questions for me to answer on this podcast to:
yourjewishweddingpodcast@gmail.com
Hope to see you next time! Remember - there is ALWAYS more learning to do!
<3 Rabbi LeighAnn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiddush#:~:text=Kiddush%20
https://www.learnreligions.com/kiddush-101-2076790
https://theconversation.com/let-us-adore-and-drink-a-brief-history-of-wine-and-religion-35308
https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/judaism/world-of-the-sages-lhaim-75020
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Transcript
The Concept of Time and Rituals
00:00:01
Speaker
Imagine that time is this intangible thing. We can't touch it. We know we're moving through it in some sense of the word.
00:00:12
Speaker
And humanity had the idea that we can grab on to a moment of time, a thing that you can't see, taste, touch, feel.
00:00:25
Speaker
And weak can we can set it apart as time that's different from other time. What a crazy idea.
Significance of Wine in Jewish Ceremonies
00:00:36
Speaker
How do we do that?
00:00:38
Speaker
In Jewish practice, in ancient Jewish practice even, we do that by holding up a cup of wine and giving thanks for it.
00:00:49
Speaker
What an insane idea. What a beautiful idea. I love that this is something that I get to use as part of wedding ceremonies, you know, dozens of times.
00:01:05
Speaker
What joy. Are you planning a Jewish or interfaith wedding?
Introduction to the Podcast and Audience Engagement
00:01:11
Speaker
Are you lost on where to even begin planning the ceremony, let alone finding a rabbi to help you?
00:01:19
Speaker
Well, it doesn't matter whether one of you is Jewish or you're both Jewish. You deserve a guide. So take a deep breath. I promise it will all be okay.
00:01:31
Speaker
Welcome to your Jewish wedding with Rabbi Leanne. Here, i can be everyone's rabbi. Yours too. My guests and I will share everything we know to help make your Jewish or interfaith wedding full of tradition and perfectly
00:02:02
Speaker
Well, hello everyone. It is so good to be here with you today. I have
Listener Interaction and Podcast Impact
00:02:06
Speaker
to tell you something. I am just in the best mood about this podcast. Not because a ton of people are listening to it, because they're not, but because I have been having the most lovely interaction with one of our listeners. Her name is Bridget.
00:02:26
Speaker
Bridget and her husband got married late last year, I believe. And i have to admit, i am not very good at checking the email for the podcast. I tend to just check it when I am like recording, preparing and uploading an episode.
00:02:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:47
Speaker
So I got her email a little late, but she was just such an angel about telling me all the things about the podcast that had been helpful to her when she was planning her wedding ceremony.
00:03:00
Speaker
So not to keep you in suspense, of course. We are working on booking her for an interview and she will tell us all about her Jewish wedding. Today, i just opened up my email. She last replied to me before Passover. Okay, currently it's May 13th.
00:03:16
Speaker
And she sent me pictures of her wedding ceremony. She only sent me two. That's my only complaint. She only sent me two pictures of her wedding ceremony. So i i rep replied to her, we're trying to book a an interview so that she can tell us all about her Jewish wedding.
00:03:35
Speaker
I think it was an interfaith wedding. I honestly can't even remember. i don't know if she was the Jewish. Anyway, we'll save that for her interview. But it just put me in the best mood because I uploaded an episode a couple weeks ago and i just looked at how many people have listened to it.
00:03:57
Speaker
And it is more than a dozen. And that's what I'll say about that.
Podcast Growth and Personal Reflections
00:04:05
Speaker
Anyway, my friend DJ Sneed told me to think about my podcast downloads in this way.
00:04:16
Speaker
If the number of downloads slash listens to a podcast episode were
00:04:24
Speaker
represented by real live people all sitting in a room and chatting with me? Would I be pleased with the turnout? And the answer is absolutely yes. So I think about that when it seems like the downloads are a little less than I might expect and it makes me feel happy. and know Now, by way of introduction of this episode, I have to tell you that this episode is a milestone.
Personal Growth and Technical Challenges
00:04:52
Speaker
It finally happened. I lost a recording. Okay, here's the thing. I'm trying to be a more pulled together person in life, as you guys know.
00:05:05
Speaker
Okay, I've been saying this. I'm just trying to constantly trying to level up. Do you know sometimes you may be an adult, but you you don't feel like an adult because you're like forgetting things or you're behind on chores or something.
00:05:22
Speaker
you you haven't changed the oil in your car for way too long, whatever it is. Okay.
00:05:29
Speaker
So I am trying to be the person who is responsible about shutting down her computer at the end of every day.
00:05:41
Speaker
I'm also trying to be responsible about stopping the workday when I need to transition into like mom duties, okay? Sometimes the boundaries between those two things, they're not like as clear cut as all that.
00:05:58
Speaker
Like the kids might come home, but then they each go to their corners, they're doing homework or they're chatting with friends or whatever. And so I have a little more time to sit and work.
00:06:09
Speaker
Regardless, at the end of some long day,
00:06:15
Speaker
It was a day that I had recorded the episode that I will now be recording again.
00:06:23
Speaker
I shut down the computer and you know how the computer always says like, oh, hey, loser. Don't you know if you shut down the computer in this state, you will lose files, but or or not that you will lose files, but that you may lose saved information, important work.
00:06:42
Speaker
But it's never it's never real. Like it's never a thing. You're like, but I say, I know I saved that. It's fine. It's fine. And so you just tell it, just shut down anyway. Do you know this? you're your prop Can you visualize right now the little button on your computer where that you can click and it says shut down anyway?
00:06:59
Speaker
I know better than you, computer.
00:07:03
Speaker
On the day that I originally recorded the following episode of this podcast, I clicked shut down anyway. What do you know? The original recording of this podcast episode did not save.
00:07:16
Speaker
So here we are. You know what? It is for the best. And I will tell you why in a second.
Personal Anecdotes and Marriage Insights
00:07:21
Speaker
But before I do that, I know that you all have come to expect and dare I say, look forward to the weather report and even the report on the state of my household. So I will give you that.
00:07:32
Speaker
It is May 13th. To me, today is the perfect spring day. It's like 65, 70 degrees. It was threatening rain, but I don't think it really rained that much.
00:07:47
Speaker
Just enough so that the plants are happy. Just enough so that the blazing sun is not heating up my old 1939 windows and making my house hot.
00:07:58
Speaker
It's a great day. It's an even greater day because I have a candle burning. Now, I told you, I think in the last episode, maybe I did. My husband has been increasingly bothered by scents.
00:08:18
Speaker
Now, I love candles, guys. I love candles so much. I love candles so much that when the HVAC guy comes, he knows that I love candles because the air filter thing that you change every month in your HVAC system is a certain color.
00:08:37
Speaker
Okay. i buy them on clearance. I have my favorite scents. I don't spend too much. I love to, I actually use them. I don't hoard them, but I love my candles.
00:08:51
Speaker
Well, I increasingly, they're just too much for my husband. I can't burn them unless he is away from home.
00:09:02
Speaker
Now, I don't like it when he's away from home. I miss him very much. I told him before he left last night, he just went on a quick trip to Chicago. But I told him before he left, I will miss you so much. And he sort of was like, oh, yeah, ah because I help with the kids. No, we're at an age where the kids help with themselves. I just miss him. You know, he's good company.
00:09:26
Speaker
And i feel that I can speak freely when he's around. And that is priceless. Those of you wondering what my advice for marriage after being married for 20 years, that's it.
00:09:38
Speaker
You feel like you can say pretty much anything and just be yourself around a person. And you feel kind of bummed when they're away. Not like devastated. Okay. I'm not like, oh, crying every moment.
00:09:51
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Anything like that. Just a little bit like, oh, this would be a little better if he was here. Or like, oh, i'll I'll rest a little easier when he's back.
00:10:02
Speaker
Now, the one thing that that doesn't apply to is, you guys know. I am recording this podcast. No stress. Okay. I'm not worried that somebody is going to come into my kitchen and start slicing an apple.
00:10:18
Speaker
Okay. I'm not worried that. I'm going to sound funny recording. when You know, I do still feel a little bit of self-consciousness recording when other people are home. Now it's just me and the dogs and i am able to keep the door to my office a little bit open and it's so nice.
00:10:37
Speaker
So while David's out of town, I'm hoping to get ah a couple of episodes recorded here. We'll see how it goes. It would have been more episodes, but I had negative one episode that got deleted.
00:10:53
Speaker
from my computer when my computer very astutely told me, hey, if you shut down now, this episode will be deleted. And I clicked shut down anyway, for whatever reason. I don't know. I was trying to shut down the computer quickly. um Yeah, that's it. So here we are.
Exploration of Kiddush and Wine in Tradition
00:11:09
Speaker
It is for the best, though, because today's episode is going to be on the kiddish blessing. That's the blessing over wine that we do under the Chubba.
00:11:21
Speaker
It is one of the core blessings of every single Jewish wedding ceremony. And i think I may have mentioned it in at least one episode. Did I do one on like heirlooms ritual?
00:11:35
Speaker
I don't know. Okay, let's see. Come with me. I'm going to go to my and go to my podcast platform. Let's look. I don't even remember what all episodes I've done. It hasn't been very many. I think this is 33. This right here.
00:11:49
Speaker
this one right here
00:11:52
Speaker
Okay, let's see, Interfaith, DJ Sneed, Chuppah, Paducket, no, no, no. Ketubah. I may have mentioned the Kiddush blessing in um the episodes on creating an interfaith ceremony because the prayer over wine is something that's common to many, many cultures, and that's great. And I will do more, I think I'm going to do more episodes actually about specific cultures cultural combinations with Jewish weddings. So like Jewish Indian, Jewish Mexican.
00:12:29
Speaker
I touched on a few of the Jewish Greek, whatever it is. I touched on a few of those in creating a truly interfaith ceremony, Jewish Catholic. But I think that there are, there's enough material there and and they might be quick episodes. They might be like 20, 30 minute episodes, but there's enough there there to do Episodes on how, okay, you're like, Rabbi Leon, I'm planning an interfaith ceremony, but my ceremony is specific and kind of interfaith, right?
00:12:55
Speaker
Like it's Jewish Catholic, Jewish Indian, Jewish Greek, Jewish Methodist, whatever it is. And I could really use your insight on some specific things we can hone in on to ah pull from both the specific cultures and make it a more a sort of seamless interfaith ceremony. I got you.
00:13:15
Speaker
We're going to do that. So I may have touched on the blessing over wine in one of those previous episodes. And yes, we will be talking about it again. But loosely, the plan for this podcast for content creation purposes was to just go through the Jewish wedding ceremony, start to finish and explain each thing in really deep detail.
00:13:39
Speaker
And we have arrived at the Kiddush blessing. So I was like, great, I'm going to do an episode talking about the prayer of rewind under the Chuppah. It is simple and we will talk about it quickly.
00:13:50
Speaker
But you know me. You know how I am. This is probably why I became a rabbi. This is definitely why I love being Jewish is because at the end of every answer,
00:14:04
Speaker
in Jewish culture, Jewish learning practice is another question. And a lot of times for me, that question is, but why?
00:14:15
Speaker
i am grateful for that question. That question has led me to really examine a lot of things about myself as a rabbi Most especially, and the one I'm most proud of, is my opinion, my complete 180 on officiating at interfaith weddings.
00:14:36
Speaker
I think i I talked about that. I don't know how personally I talked about that in my episodes on interfaith weddings. Maybe I'll go back and and listen again. But the question, but why?
00:14:49
Speaker
But why is that a thing? It has been really helpful to me in life. I'm grateful that it is part of my personal inclinations. I'm i'm grateful that it makes me such an enthusiastic member of Jewish learning culture.
00:15:06
Speaker
However, sometimes it will lead us down some rabbit holes that are interesting to me. They're even interesting enough for me to write a whole podcast outline and spend days and days digging into historical and anthropological research about a certain topic.
00:15:27
Speaker
The downside is that most people might not be very interested. Do you all know why we say a prayer using wine?
00:15:46
Speaker
on every celebration and holy occasion. And we will talk about what a holy occasion means. Okay, but we do know that one of the times that in our tradition, we say the Kiddush blessing, Kiddush, Kiddush, the prayer over wine, is at a Jewish wedding.
00:16:10
Speaker
But why? Why and why is it over wine specifically However, the rabbis have specified that it may be said over grape juice. Don't worry, we'll go into that more in um the second, dare I say, perhaps third episode on the Kiddush blessing, but probably there will only be two.
00:16:30
Speaker
Okay, this is number one. Why is it over wine?
00:16:37
Speaker
Why do so many cultures use wine in in religious practice? This is even like a joke with my kids. Like, oh, can we can we drink? You know, they're under 21. Can we drink for religious purposes? The answer is yes, of course you can.
00:16:53
Speaker
And God bless my, one of my children, ah one of my sons is always good for doing a L'chaim with his mom. He's 16 and at Purim, he'll do a couple shots with me.
00:17:07
Speaker
And ah usually on Shabbos, he'll do a couple shots with me unless he has friends over who are kind of sensitive to that. The other ones don't want anything to do with it. But it's kind of a joke for religious purposes. Yeah, because it's very important in the the religious prayer culture of Judaism to say this prayer over wine.
00:17:30
Speaker
But why? So that's what today's episode ah hopefully will address for all of us. Now I recorded it once. I think I'm better prepared today to record it again. So maybe it's a blessing for all of us.
00:17:42
Speaker
I have extensive notes. They are probably not extensive enough. As always, you and i will both leave this podcast episode with more questions, which is exactly the way it's supposed to be. Because what do I say?
00:17:54
Speaker
There is always more learning to do, but of course we can't ask follow-up questions without asking first questions. So today's episode, the origins of Kiddush, Kiddush, the prayer over wine, in general, and a little bit for Jewish weddings.
00:18:13
Speaker
We'll take a short break and then we'll get right into it.
00:18:18
Speaker
All right. Welcome back. Now, look, I just said it it hasn't really rained. I just heard the biggest crack of thunder. I do love a thunderstorm. Sometimes I fall asleep with a thunderstorm noise.
00:18:30
Speaker
Like, I love that rain sound. the Honestly. The only reason that I will sometimes not use it to sleep is because it makes me sleep too well. So I do love a thunderstorm. Maybe maybe you guys will be lucky enough to hear a big crack of it through this microphone too.
00:18:48
Speaker
Okay. just pulling up my notes here. um just looking again. Oh, there's Bridget's email. Here's my notes. I made this, man, the last time I recorded, it was weeks ago.
00:18:59
Speaker
All right. I don't know, man. Why do we do
00:19:06
Speaker
the blessing over wine? Like, what is it? What does it do? Right? Like, What even is it? It's so hard to articulate this question, right? But I want to know why Like, and if you Google online, why do we do a blessing over wine?
00:19:26
Speaker
The blessing over wine, the name of the blessing is Kiddush, Kiddush. All right. Now that word Kiddush or Kiddush, as you might hear it with a Yiddish pronunciation, it does not mean wine.
00:19:38
Speaker
Okay. Like if the, if the Kiddush blessing was a blessing for wine, like for the wine itself, I hope you're following me here. i'm I'm really trying to articulate like what's in my head. Okay.
00:19:50
Speaker
So the blessing over wine is not a blessing for wine. Okay. It's not us saying, thank you for wine.
00:20:04
Speaker
um It's not,
00:20:08
Speaker
it's, to so to me, that's very interesting, right? Because a lot of our blessings are very specific and we are saying, thank you, God, for this one thing. Okay. So we have examples of this in the wedding ceremony, right? We have the chuppah blessing, which we haven't done an episode on, um, ah ah otherwise known as Birkat Erosin, which is a blessing for, um creating
00:20:38
Speaker
specific relationships within marriage that are reserved for marriage. Um, it's It's a whole other episode and it's a whole other episode. Okay. But we say, thank you for this specific type of relationship.
00:20:54
Speaker
When we eat an apple, we say, borey perri heights Thank you, God, for creating the fruit of trees.
00:21:05
Speaker
We say a blessing when we see a rainbow. Did you know this about Judaism? We have blessings for almost everything. Actually, isn't that a quote in Fiddler on the Roof?
00:21:17
Speaker
I need to make a note. If it is, I think it is. We have a blessing for everything. I actually can't stand Fiddler on the Roof.
00:21:25
Speaker
I'm making a note, though, to try and find it.
00:21:29
Speaker
If I can find it, maybe I'll insert it here. Anyway, we have blessings for a lot of stuff. Okay, if you see a rainbow in the sky, you're supposed to see a blessing.
00:21:40
Speaker
And it's not a blessing for the rainbow, but it's a blessing for what the rainbow represents. Ooh, that's a good point. It might get us a little closer to the idea here. Okay, them ah the rainbow blessing might actually be unique.
00:21:53
Speaker
um When we see a rainbow, we give thanks um for God remembering the covenant that the rainbow represents. If you remember your Bible stories, there was Noah and the ark.
00:22:07
Speaker
Animals came in two by two. There was a big flood that destroyed the earth. And at the end of the flood, God put a rainbow in the sky because God felt really bad about all the death and destruction and said, okay, this is my sign that that is never going to happen again.
00:22:28
Speaker
So when we see the rainbow, we give thanks for that blessing. It actually gets me a little choked up because um the blessing is, zohera habrit thank you, ah God, who remembers the promises you've made to us.
00:22:45
Speaker
And I think that that's so, um it's just a little connection point. So, okay, that actually does. Wow. The way my brain works, you know, the way the brains work in general, we will get there eventually. We will get to our point because...
00:23:01
Speaker
ah Why did I think of that rainbow blessing? Because it relates so closely to the Kiddush blessing. Now, I will say, though, typical blessings are like we even see um we have a blessing for seeing the first buds of springtime, which we've already said that blessing this year.
00:23:16
Speaker
Thank God. um
00:23:20
Speaker
We say thank you for the buds of trees. Okay, we're saying thank you for the thing that we're saying the blessing for. Are you following me? For the most part. But we do have blessings like the rainbow blessing that give thanks for what the rainbow represents.
00:23:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:42
Speaker
Judaism is a religion of metaphor.
00:23:48
Speaker
especially post-destruction of the temple, and especially in the Galut, which means that, you know, we are we all live outside the, not all, half of us these days live outside the land of Israel.
00:24:04
Speaker
We are a people who is spread all over the world, all over the world. And being so far flung away from what had been the center of our religion and our communication with with God, which is the temple in Jerusalem, Judaism has evolved into a religion of metaphor.
00:24:26
Speaker
Okay? However, this kiddush blessing, we believe, originated around 500 BCE.
00:24:38
Speaker
five hundred b c e So in the next episode about the kiddish blessing as part of your wedding, I will talk about the Jesus connection. What you should know if you are listening to this podcast as a Christian member of an interfaith couple is that ah the kiddish blessing, the blessing over wine was definitely a thing for Jesus.
00:24:59
Speaker
If you are um a devoted Christian or a knowledgeable Christian, you may recognizing, excuse me, you may recognize this blessing over wine as a central player in um the story of the passion of Jesus, the last supper, um where Jesus took the wine and made an entirely new metaphor about it.
00:25:28
Speaker
I don't need to talk anymore about that. If you want to know, if you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up. Or if you really want me to talk about it, I am going to, I'll get like a priest or a pastor to come on the podcast and we will talk about how to represent that particular aspect of the blessing over wine in your wedding. If that's something you want, send me an email at your Jewishweddingpodcast at gmail.com.
00:25:50
Speaker
Now ask Bridget, you might need to be patient. to get my reply. it can take a little while. Okay. I've got a lot of stuff going on. Um, that's just how my life is right now.
00:26:01
Speaker
But, um, let me know and we will, we will get to it. I promise. Or if you, if you really just want to brainstorm and you've got your wedding coming up soon, we'll do that. Okay. Email me your Jewish wedding podcast at gmail.com.
00:26:17
Speaker
I believe.
00:26:20
Speaker
Yeah, your jewishweddingpodcast at gmail.com. That's the address. So this blessing over wine is old. Okay. Older than the Jewish blessing over wine. Now this is going to knock your socks off. I think if you are super dorky like I am.
00:26:38
Speaker
The idea of blessing wine, the idea of wine as a holy substance.
00:26:48
Speaker
He's much, much older than that. In fact, it is older than the Jewish people. This is something that I didn't know. I have learned when I was digging into some, trying to find some more information about the why questions of the kiddish prayer, the prayer over wine.
00:27:07
Speaker
So we need to go back even way before Bible times, Now I should say the blessing over wine on its face.
00:27:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:22
Speaker
Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech haolam borei peri hagafe.
00:27:31
Speaker
Blessed are you Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. Now you may say, Rabbi Leanne, that the wine.
00:27:44
Speaker
blessing that's saying thank you for this wine. You said that's not what we're doing. Okay. The difference is that this prayer has become
00:27:59
Speaker
an indicator that we are entering into something holy. And we know that because the prayer has come to be called Kiddush, Kiddush.
00:28:17
Speaker
That word kiddush means sanctification. What does sanctification mean? It means we are making something holy.
00:28:29
Speaker
Or more accurately, we are we are calling out something as holy. We are creating a metaphysical container for something that's about to happen that we consider holy.
00:28:45
Speaker
Now, this word holiness shows up a lot in the Bible. Obviously, the Jewish people were the people who accepted the Torah and Mount Sinai are designated as a holy people.
Holiness and Human Relationships
00:29:01
Speaker
And Hebrew is a language that works around um a root letter system. So um almost every single word in Hebrew has like a verb form, a noun form, an adjectival form, and of course all the verb forms. And they all sort of revolve around different um manifestations of three core letters or three root letters. Okay.
00:29:24
Speaker
So this root, the root of Kiddush is Kuf Dalet Shin. And we're trying to figure out what does it mean? Okay. So holy is a word.
00:29:39
Speaker
What does the word holy mean? So we can tell what it means by the way in which it's used. we see it being used in later on in the wedding ceremony as part of the wedding vows.
00:29:57
Speaker
And it's used as an adjective from one partner to the other. So we say with this ring, I'm making you holy to me.
00:30:10
Speaker
So what does holy mean? It gives us some clue, okay, for holiness in the rest of life. Holy means something that is
00:30:21
Speaker
on a different level or plane of existence from the everyday. So like if a person can be holy to another person, it means that that person's relationship is not the same as it is with anybody else in the whole world, okay?
00:30:39
Speaker
We also see in the prayer Havdalah, which is a prayer that we use to end Shabbat. It's a really fun prayer for kids because there's ah a really like big, like a large physically large candle um with with many different wicks. And um kids like fire.
00:30:55
Speaker
think I've talked about this before, but it's fun um because it's short and it's sing-songy. And anyway, at one of the blessings in that ceremony of Havdalah is...
00:31:08
Speaker
Thanking God for making a a separation or a distinction between holiness and everything else, between holy days or special days or like spiritually elevated days and all the rest of the days of the week, right?
00:31:25
Speaker
It's such an interesting concept. So the opposite of holy is regular, base, normal, mundane, right? That's um mundane is like the preferred translation in most of these prayers. But it means like the everyday ho-hum life versus um holy, which is like in technicolor, right? Like everything's um elevated, elevated.
00:31:49
Speaker
um But not just technicolor, right, but also that it needs to be treated with a little bit more um consideration and respect and care, maybe.
00:32:02
Speaker
So the fact that we are saying a blessing for wine, but we call it kiddush, meaning sanctification,
00:32:15
Speaker
makes me ask, but why? Why? Why does blessing wine make something holy? Now, there's a little bit of embellishment on the Kiddush prayer um on Shabbos, on Shabbat.
00:32:33
Speaker
We say it Friday and night. Okay, do we also say it?
00:32:39
Speaker
I think I need to, I need to fact, this is so embarrassing. I think that we say the blessing make haddesh has shabbat only on Friday night. Okay, please hold. I'm going to check that.
00:32:55
Speaker
a da Shabbat Shabbos.
00:33:06
Speaker
You say it in the Amida prayer. Okay. I know you say it on Friday night, right? Because that's what we do at a home. say
00:33:17
Speaker
Oh,
00:33:22
Speaker
um here's Panine. Okay. So you say it as part of the Amida. Do you say it as part of the Kiddush prayer? Okay. I know on Friday night we say, but kadeha shabbat i think and I think on Saturday afternoon we do not.
00:33:35
Speaker
We say Vesh Amrach. Okay. Anyway, we say at the end of the kiddish prayer on Friday night, the kiddish prayer on Friday night is, is quite long. There's sort of like a cushion around the central kiddish prayer, um, of Bible verses and, um, a little bit of theology. And then we say, blessed are you and and I are God ruler the universe who makes Shabbat holy.
00:34:00
Speaker
And there is a similar, um, parallel blessing to that for all the holidays as well. So you would say, um, it but thank you God for making this um this Passover day holy or thank you for make had issues around making the Jewish people holy and making um our celebrations holy, right? So this um so that actually lays it out a little bit more. It spells it out a little bit more clearly that when we say this blessing over wine, what it represents
00:34:35
Speaker
is that God can designate days or times or experiences as holy, as separate, as apart.
00:34:46
Speaker
And we're grateful for that, right? So why, 30 minutes into the episode, why does wine do that? Like, why is wine a thing? Why is a blessing over wine a thing?
00:34:59
Speaker
And why is it such an important thing? no I am not an anthropologist, okay? But I wanted to know why
00:35:11
Speaker
It seems like wine is a thing that goes back over 5,000 years.
00:35:24
Speaker
Not just like accidental wine, but people making wine on purpose. So I dug deep down, way far as back as I i could,
00:35:38
Speaker
And I think I found, I i found an actually an article on medium.com, which I don't always love. But this woman named Becky Garrison wrote an article tracing the sacred origins of wine. Of course, this will be included in the show notes. I'm going open it up again here so that we can look at it together. Maybe if you want to follow along, look in the show notes. This is tracing the sacred origins of wine.com.
00:36:07
Speaker
Who is Becky Garrison? Who are you, Becky?
00:36:13
Speaker
and don't know. What does she do?
00:36:18
Speaker
you Okay. She has a couple articles of food and drink. I don't know what her expertise is. Anyway, she did some digging into this and I benefited from that. So, Becky... As far as I can tell, she's not Dr. Garrison um or Rabbi Garrison or anything like that.
00:36:34
Speaker
Becky Garrison wrote this article, Tracing the Sacred Origins of Wine. And she says, listen, there is a super old Persian folktale about a courtesan.
Wine's Historical and Cultural Roles
00:36:49
Speaker
So, you know, a mature lady who would have been in the king's court, king's or queen's court.
00:36:58
Speaker
Eating spoiled grapes. Okay. So the grapes, whatever, for whatever reason they sat around, it's, you know, it's hot in Persia, ancient Iran, right? The grapes were spoiled.
00:37:09
Speaker
Um, but for some reason, not moldy and she ate them. um and she felt, I guess she must've eaten a lot of them because she started feeling woozy. Okay. Now we all know why that is.
00:37:26
Speaker
you hear
00:37:30
Speaker
Can you guys hear the thunder rumble? Maybe a little bit. I'll have to listen back on this recording. i there's By the way, there is a Jewish blessing for thunder. Also, look it up.
00:37:42
Speaker
I think it's... Okay, wait. Let me see if I can think of it on the fly. shajo uurrato maleo um Blessed are Yonanayi, our God, ruler of the universe, whose power and might fills... Is that what it is?
00:37:54
Speaker
Oh, okay. Let's check. Jewish blessing... i I genuinely didn't look it up, but I think that's my memory. Jewish Blessing Thunder.
00:38:08
Speaker
Hebrew Blessing in here. I got it. mut sha cohogue verratoma le um i got it. Amazing. I should get a prize for that.
00:38:20
Speaker
My prize is that you keep listening, even though I keep going off on tangents. Okay. So we have thunder. You guys may have heard it. And we also have bright sunlight, which if the sun was lower, we would have a beautiful rainbow over my house. Now that just happens. I love that.
00:38:33
Speaker
I would show you guys a picture, don't want to show you a picture of my house for obvious reasons. Anyway. Okay. We do have a Jewish blessing for thunder. So she dug down and she's like, listen, in Persia, wine was a thing.
00:38:51
Speaker
that made people knew if they ate old grapes, they would feel a certain kind of way. Okay, now that feeling, everyone's like, okay, duh, Leanne, duh.
00:39:03
Speaker
Everybody knows, yes, you get drunk from expired grapes, who cares? Well, then I found another article, which I will link. It is by Dr. Patrick McGovern. Now listen to this guy's title.
00:39:16
Speaker
Dr. McGovern is the scientific director... of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine Fermented Beverages and Health at the UPenn Museum.
00:39:30
Speaker
This is a job. not No shade. He is a biomolecular archaeologist and he studies old a food,
00:39:41
Speaker
And old fermented beverages. Okay. So he, wow. Are you guys jealous of that job? That sounds like a pretty awesome job to have. Do you think he probably drinks a lot? I don't know.
00:39:53
Speaker
I've seen some, um, some like archeological endeavors that involve using like super old ancient yeast to bake bread. Have you guys seen this?
00:40:06
Speaker
They found yeast in like super old synagogues or something. And they baked bread like by reviving it because yeast can like do that. It can go dormant, I guess. Anyway, um, archeology project for cuisine and fermented beverages. That's his job.
00:40:22
Speaker
So he wrote an article, which I will obviously also link in the show notes that tells us that they have found old wine jugs in ancient Persia, modern day Iran from 5,400 five thousand four hundred b c And we can tell from analyzing those old wine jugs that wine was not only being made by people on purpose, but also stored on purpose as far back as 5,400 BC. So this guy has a whole book that he is apparently well known for about quote unquote viniculture,
00:41:02
Speaker
okay which is obviously vine vine culture wine culture. And if you too are obsessed with wine, like Dr. McGovern seems to be, you may enjoy that book. So I will also link that one in the show notes. So I'm going quote him now.
00:41:16
Speaker
He says that, quote, as medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance, and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults,
00:41:32
Speaker
Pharmacopias, Cuisines, Economies, and Society. I guess that's the thesis of his book, okay? And, you know, he says, basically, wine,
00:41:44
Speaker
Wine can do a lot of stuff that people found very valuable. Okay. They found it medicinal, I guess, you know, anesthetic, right? um Social lubricant, it makes parties more fun, right?
00:41:57
Speaker
A mind altering substance, which is really what I think this whole kiddish thing, this blessing wine and wine making things holy centers around And, you know, because of all those things, it was a highly valued commodity.
00:42:08
Speaker
Basically, culture became obsessed with wine on a certain level enough that even religious practice used it as a hinge point. Right. what Wine is the hinge point in Jewish history, tradition and culture.
00:42:24
Speaker
to switch us. It's like ah the lever, right? Like you you pull it and it switches on the light. It switches something from not holy to holy. Of course, that's not what actually does it because Shabbat will still be Shabbat if we don't say Kiddush, but it's sort of the signal.
00:42:39
Speaker
And actually, oh maybe I should talk about this um ah a little bit later on. But the rabbi said that even if It wasn't Shabbat yet, but you did say Kiddush. You should act as though it is Shabbat.
00:42:53
Speaker
So it did sort of have that, I need to double check that. That must be in like the Mission Tower or something. That's something that I learned um decades ago. I don't, I'll have to look into it. um Anyway, so it's it's a powerful thing, right? this This idea that wine and when we say a blessing over it, it switches something from not holy to holy. Why?
00:43:13
Speaker
Well, Dr. McGovern seems to think that it is because...
00:43:21
Speaker
of the effects of wine of being just very sort of slightly magical, right? And um even if we fast forward a little bit, like to to dig more into Jewish culture, in the Talmud, it says that wine is is an expensive thing, right? So it's, you know, it has to be made with care and it has to be stored with care.
00:43:43
Speaker
And in the Talmud, we also see that reflected Talmud. they And they recognize that ah family might have to choose between buying wine and wineing buying buying wine and buying oil for their Shabbos
Zoroastrianism's Influence on Jewish Thought
00:43:56
Speaker
lamp.
00:43:56
Speaker
um And it there's a discussion of what to do about that. By the way, the answer to that question of what should you buy if you can only afford one is oil for your Shabbos lamp because... We want to see each other on Shabbos more than we want to be drunk on Shabbos, I think. Okay.
00:44:10
Speaker
um That's Tractate Shabbat around Dof 23, I think, if you if you want to check into it. Okay. Page 23 on the Shabbat section of the Talmud. Okay. The reason, so going back to ancient Persia, the reason this all was such a big deal in Persian culture was that there was this deep belief in Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism is a super old religion.
00:44:34
Speaker
And as my kids have gone through um history classes in high school, they've been telling me like, did you know that Zoroastrianism was monotheist and like older than Judaism? So what's this deal with us saying that we're the OG monotheistic religion.
00:44:49
Speaker
That's kind of true and kind of not. Okay. It didn't have multiple gods necessarily. It did have like one driving power of the universe. As far as I can tell, if you know things about Zoroastrianism that I am not covering accurately here, please send me an email at your Jewish wedding podcast at gmail.com and correct me, or Hey, maybe come on the podcast and talk about Zoroastrianism. I would love that.
00:45:10
Speaker
Okay. So, Zoroaster was the guy who came up with the the thought basis of this ah this belief of Zoroastrianism, this belief system.
00:45:22
Speaker
that and And he thought that everything in the world, like everything in the world that we live in, is this dance between the forces of goodness and creation. So creation and goodness on one side, and things flourishing and things growing versus darkness, evil, destruction.
00:45:40
Speaker
This to me, have you seen Moana?
00:45:45
Speaker
I think this is like Moana. Like when that you could see the blackness. What was the what was the monster in Moana? Taka?
00:45:56
Speaker
was that? Moana monster, okay. just know that at the end there when she looks, what's her name? What was the monster? Tefiti. Okay, Tefiti.
00:46:08
Speaker
The lava monster. Can you guys picture her? If you can't, maybe I'll link ah link a ah a picture. That's what I look like in the morning before my coffee. That's what I always tell my kids when we watch it. Te Fiti.
00:46:19
Speaker
Okay. So that is what I picture as the the dark, violent, like destructive force that was opposed to the Zoroastrian concept of...
00:46:33
Speaker
um goodness, creation, um life, basically, okay, things flourishing, things growing, which life is, as you know, a very important thing in in Jewish culture as well, we put a lot of value on it, um you know, for obvious reasons, this is humanity, guys, it's not it's not just a Jewish thing that we value life, it's ah it's a humanity thing, right, we can see old, old religions based in this, you know,
00:46:59
Speaker
um privileging or preference for goodness and creation. Okay. And, but moreover in Zoroastrianism, everything, everything, everything in the whole world requires not just, you know, life to win or goodness to win, but the correct balance between those two. Okay.
00:47:21
Speaker
This idea, interestingly, is reflected in, um, in the Bible where we,
00:47:31
Speaker
Call God. O say shalom. it's It's in the same phrase. I think it's in Psalms. Where is this? I'm going to make a note. Where is, we we call God, Osei Shalom, the maker of peace, uvorei et hara, and the creator of evil, which is such an interesting turn of phrase. And I can't help but think it is a reflection of this ancient sort of knowing or sensibility that our world is a matter of balance, right? If you are a Star Wars fan, George Lucas knew this, right? It's not just about, um it's not about the force.
00:48:11
Speaker
The force is a balance. Am I getting this right? The force is a balance between darkness and light. Oh my God. I have to ask my daughter. One of my daughters is a big Star Wars fan.
00:48:22
Speaker
Okay. I will link that.
00:48:29
Speaker
i will link that
00:48:34
Speaker
And I'm, i listen, I'm typing, what is the Star Wars connection? All right. You guys are part of my stream of consciousness today, for sure. If you don't enjoy it, I'm sorry. All right. You know, I'm not for everyone, right? Who is?
00:48:50
Speaker
My cat wants to jump up here. Mary, you're the worst. Wow. Okay. I promise we're getting to it. And can you see why Kiddush needs like several episodes? So we have this Zoroastrian idea that was carried forward um through many, many different religions and cultures, including Judaism,
00:49:08
Speaker
um because it just seemed like something that was kind of obvious to people, I guess, and that that the world requires a balance between, you know, destruction and and creation.
00:49:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:24
Speaker
Adding another tier to Zoroastrianism. And again, I don't know much about this. This is what I found on the internet. So if you know more about it and you want it you want to explain it to me and therefore um all of our listeners, please come on the podcast.
00:49:37
Speaker
Anyway, I guess in Zoroastrianism, there's this hierarchy of spirits. Okay. So stay with me. The first tier, like the top, top spirit is the universal spirit.
00:49:49
Speaker
Okay. And that is the spirit that's been simmering on earth since the beginning, at the very beginning. Do you recognize this phrase in the beginning?
00:50:01
Speaker
God created heaven and earth. Where does that come from? It's the very first line of both the Hebrew or the Hebrew Bible, which is also the first line of the Christian Bible, the first line of the book of Genesis, right?
00:50:15
Speaker
This idea that there was always before anything else existed, there was a universal spirit that was sort of simmering around, like sort of roiling and waiting to create something.
00:50:26
Speaker
That concept is actually embodied in the Hebrew Bible, in in the creation story as Ruach Elohim, which means the spirit or the essence or like breath of God, right?
00:50:41
Speaker
The godness of God. it's It's such an interesting concept. um We've spent many hundreds of years trying to to dig deeper into it. So the second spirit, the second tier spirit is plant spirits, okay, which rely on the earth forces, which are like dirt, sun, rain, and the all those things work in a balance to flourish or die, as the case may be, according to that universal spirit's will, I guess.
00:51:08
Speaker
Okay. And then there are also animal spirits, which balance with the earth and universal spirits as well. Even though um the unique thing about animal spirits in Zoroastrianism is, what do you think it is?
00:51:22
Speaker
Same thing as in Judaism. They can make decisions on their own, aka free will. Okay. And then there are human spirits, which rely on the other spirits, obviously, but can also, they have free will,
00:51:39
Speaker
Plus cognition, right? Plus and independent thought and being able to puzzle things out. And so the human spirit is unique because it can affect change by manipulating all those other spirits. This is Zoroastrianism, and I'm just sort of calling out the echoes of it or um the pull through of it into Judaism.
00:51:59
Speaker
Um, So humans, because they have free will, because they have enough cognition and, and, you know, in, in the Hebrew creation story, in the Hebrew Bible creation story, we see that humans are created in the tzelem demut of Elohim, which means like, sort of like the It's like ah a copy of a copy of a copy of something about God. So we have like this echo of godliness, this like semblance or this um vibe of of godliness in inside of us.
00:52:36
Speaker
And the idea is that that is... Being able to think and predict and manipulate in the same way that God does. There's a lot of rabbinic discussion on this, but um I think we can all see how learning that this was a concept in Zoroastrianism, we can see how it may have carried forward into...
00:52:58
Speaker
ancient Israelite culture and Hebrew culture. Okay. In that area of the world, these, all these thoughts were churning about how are humans different from animals and how are animals different from dirt? And Zoroastrianism had these particular answers to those questions. Okay. Judaism has other answers, but they are not entirely different from Zoroastrianisms.
00:53:16
Speaker
So interesting. Okay.
00:53:20
Speaker
Now, back to wine. Okay. How does wine relate to all of this? There is a belief in Persian culture that wine makes itself from the earth forces. Okay.
00:53:32
Speaker
So the earth grows the grapes and the sun shines to ferment the grapes or to make the grapes ferment, obviously, to to ferment the grapes, heat them up, ferment them, whatever.
00:53:46
Speaker
And that makes wine. So earth force plus sun force equals wine. And that makes sense, right?
00:53:55
Speaker
To me, that also makes sense about why it would, it might be, i think we're getting closer to why wine is considered a holy slash
Wine as a Divine Connector
00:54:03
Speaker
divine substance. Okay. Not only does it have these two forces that sort of team up to make it, but it's a force from below, right?
00:54:14
Speaker
the The earth force, the sun, or I'm sorry, the force from below, which is like dirt, soil, you know, plants and the force from above, which is the sun. So it's like this surround sound combo of of forces that create this magical substance of wine.
00:54:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:36
Speaker
So Jews who have studied other prayers for food, specifically the Hamotzi prayer. Hamotzi is the prayer for? That's right, bread.
00:54:51
Speaker
Okay. This philosophy may have been pulled forward into the Hamotzi prayer. The Hamotzi prayer says, Hamotzi lacham min haaretz. We thank God for being, the translation is, the one who brings who like pulls bread out of the earth what ah du like it's this image of like this giant hand of god like reaching into the ground and pulling out bread like fully formed bread and uh usually we say this blessing it's it's most recognizable to people you'd see it with challah on shabbos so it's beautiful bread also it's not just any old bread it's it's beautiful bread out of the earth okay
00:55:35
Speaker
Even though humans have to plant the wheat, harvest the wheat, grind it into flour, bake it into bread, right?
00:55:47
Speaker
the The Hebrew blessing just says, thanks God for bringing this bread out of the earth. There's this idea that um those forces are teaming up from below and above to make this thing that is so important to us.
00:56:03
Speaker
Okay, so why am I talking about all the Zoroastrianism stuff? Why am I going this far back? Because everything I searched for about the history of wine being holy or religious, it just, all the things I found were so interesting.
00:56:20
Speaker
Judeo-Christian centered. They were like, and and they were contemporary explanations. Okay. The kind of things that, by the way, if you plan a wedding ceremony with me, we will discuss as ah quote unquote explainers in your ceremony. Do you want me to explain why we say a blessing over wine?
00:56:41
Speaker
in In that case, I obviously am not going to use your wedding ceremony as a two hour long podcast episode, I, you and i will figure out together what explanation of the blessing over wine you like.
00:56:54
Speaker
Okay. So it might be, um wine is like a relationship. The older it gets, the better it gets. That's one that we use a lot often. Um, another one is wine makes us feel like celebrating.
00:57:09
Speaker
And so we use it to kick off the wedding ceremony. okay Or wine has been important to every celebration and occasion in this family since this bride and groom or bride and bride or groom and groom were born.
00:57:25
Speaker
And it's no different today. okay But these are all, I don't want to call them apologetics because there's nothing wrong with, I don't find the blessing over wine problematic necessarily, but um They are explanations or, you know, they're honestly just like little sermons, like little droshes, like little ah Jewish explanations that make us feel good and that feel kind of spiritual or warm and fuzzy to us about why we use wine.
00:57:51
Speaker
But you know me, guys, um that's not actually why we use wine. Okay. I don't care about those things right now. but We will talk about those things in the, those were kind of spoilers for the next podcast episode, because we will go through all the different ways that you can incorporate an explanation for wine into your ceremony if you want. to But I want to know why we got here, like why we got to those explanations or why we got to it being Such a commonplace thing, such an important thing, such a hinge point that ah that we it's almost indispensable. Like we almost can't if you picture a Jewish celebration.
00:58:24
Speaker
You almost can't picture it without some kind of like wine cup and and ceremonial blessing. Okay. So anyway, as I dug, I found a lot more stuff saying that wine being a holy substance was not just a thing in Zoroastrianism, but also for Egyptians and Greeks and Romans all around the same time as it was forming this status in Zoroastrianism. Now, I am not an ancient historian.
00:58:52
Speaker
I do not know what the interplay of Greeks, Romans, ah ancient Persia was around 5000 BC.
00:59:03
Speaker
I know a little bit more about it around the time of the ah the Temple in Jerusalem, but and not not this far back. um But just to orient yourself in ancient history, we are looking at wine being a holy substance around like the millennium or two, maybe two BCE.
00:59:24
Speaker
Okay. ah Just to sort of center yourself into where we are in the Jewish narrative, the holiday we just celebrated, Passover, celebrates the exodus from Egypt. And we think that that also happened around this time, around Jerusalem.
00:59:38
Speaker
1200 BCE. So that would be in um the 13th century BCE. the second second millennium bce millennium bce so this wine being a holy substance thing is one of those things kind of like the hebrew alphabet is that the israelites who would become the jews took on from the surrounding culture okay it's like the ancient hebrew alphabet kind of derived from oh my gosh my teachers are going to kill me dr kammankowski i'm so sorry akkadian
01:00:11
Speaker
Akkadian and Phoenician ancient alphabets, I think we can see um part as partial bases for the ancient Hebrew alphabet. Oh my God. Even my across the street neighbor knows more about this than I do because she studies like ancient Bible. Okay.
01:00:26
Speaker
um She's Episcopalian. Hi, Christine. um Anyway, around this time in history, um it was just sort of like... A commonplace idea that wine marks a connection between people and God.
01:00:42
Speaker
Okay, now that's important because that's what, if you look at the development of any religion, like any faith, right? What is the reason for that faith or faith practice developing?
01:00:58
Speaker
It comes from the desire of humans to feel connected to God. Okay, so we see people doing that through, you know, ancient humans.
01:01:10
Speaker
We have perhaps Stonehenge. I don't know if that's what that was. We have ancient idols, right? The statues that people would pray to or leave sacrifices on altars in front of them. We have um art, ancient art and contemporary art, right?
01:01:26
Speaker
We have um later expressions of sacrifices, right? We have even, man, Do you know that the ancient Israelites made a tent where they put the tablets of the Ten Commandments and they said that the Spirit of God lived there and it was a super fancy tent and they carried it around with them wherever they went? Yeah, it's true. It was called the Mishkan.
01:01:48
Speaker
And you can read all about its adventures if you read the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah. Enjoy. Actually, Mishkan didn't show up till the middle of the book of Exodus, as you might imagine. Anyway.
01:02:00
Speaker
It's all about trying to find this connection. Where's the point where God comes down to earth and touches our lives?
01:02:11
Speaker
What connects us to God around this time, the, you know, the first and second millennium, millennia BCE. So one to 2000 years BCE.
01:02:25
Speaker
The answer, the common answer, you know, between Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Persian culture was, obviously, it's it's wine.
01:02:36
Speaker
And of course, the ancient Israelites, you know, who who spent years and years traversing through those cultures, like sort of um banging up against those cultures, like ah through their travels and through their interactions, would have absorbed that idea as well, okay?
01:02:56
Speaker
So around 500 BCE, We start to see evidence in ancient Jewish texts that we have developed a prayer that you say when you drink wine in celebration of something or in commemoration of something or in marking a certain date, event or occasion.
01:03:19
Speaker
as more elevated, right? Closer to God, closer to the one, as as the Jews had developed this idea of, you know, there's there is one God at this time, 500 BCE.
01:03:35
Speaker
How do we know there's one God? Because wherever we go, our God goes with us, right? Whether we're carrying that God around in a tent or whatever, we can access God wherever we are And part of that idea is, look, here's how we do it.
01:03:54
Speaker
We say a blessing over this wine. And that marks a transformation from something that's normal, something that's everyday, to something that is holy, something that's separate, something that is unlike anything else.
01:04:12
Speaker
OK, can you see why i love the, you know, ah aside from practical reasons, which we will get into in the next episode with um saying the the prayer over wine is part of your ceremony.
01:04:23
Speaker
Can you see why i think this is so cool and it makes so much sense? You know, I love being able to reach back into the origins of things and think about people who lived thousands of years ago and understand that.
Wine's Magical Perception and Religious Practices
01:04:37
Speaker
A little bit of of what must have been going through their minds, the connection of the world, aside from being Jewish.
01:04:47
Speaker
Like, I can see how that makes sense. Wine is like this magical substance that kind of makes itself and we can figure out how to make more. And and it makes us feel a certain way.
01:04:59
Speaker
And it's kind of magical because if you have a cut or infection and you put alcohol on it, you get better ah lot of times. And ah it I think it's just cool.
01:05:11
Speaker
You know, a little bit of rambling, but um you know, you guys who know a little bit more about Greek and Roman and Egyptian, like the ancient gods, which my daughter, i have one daughter.
01:05:25
Speaker
Actually, okay. I have four kids. All right. I tried so hard to make them into readers. I was a reader growing up. I loved reading. And at that time that they were coming up through elementary school, reading was everything. Like we did everything through reading and it was very emphasized that it was like so important.
01:05:45
Speaker
So I would do like forced summer reading. Okay. Like we're all going to read together. Anyway, long story short, um you know, your children, if you have them or if you're planning on having them, are actually independently thinking and behaving human beings no matter what you try to do.
Family Dynamics and Personal Sharing
01:06:06
Speaker
So you can try to influence them, but ah no matter how hard you try, you still may get a rate. a success rate of only 50%. Two out of four of my kids have grown up to be readers.
01:06:20
Speaker
um One of them, I think not so much. The other one just sort of reads um as like a default setting. So if she has any downtime, she's she's reading, she's whatever. she and she like And she likes to reread also.
01:06:35
Speaker
She likes to read books over and over and over again. It's sort of like a comfort, it's like a comfort object, like a blankie, but it's like a book. Do any of you have that? i I definitely do. If I need to like relax or just feel comforted, um I've got a couple of go-to books that I can go to to like feel warm and fuzzy. It's something about knowing what's going to happen and knowing that I love the story anyway.
01:06:59
Speaker
But my daughter loves the Percy Jackson books and all of the spinoffs also. So Rick Riordan, is that how you say his name? ultra successful author of young adult books, most notably the Percy Jackson series.
01:07:18
Speaker
The Percy Jackson is based on Greek mythology. And a kid who's like a demigod. it's It's so cool. It's like kind of a private school vibe, but it's like camp.
01:07:30
Speaker
Anyway, great stuff. The kids love it. There's a musical we just went to see a bunch of kids doing. um Really good stuff. And like then I guess the spinoffs also touched on um or focused on Roman mythology in in some of them and Egyptian mythology and others.
01:07:48
Speaker
And um so... Between ah all of this ancient mythology, there was also parallels, right? And I know for sure that at least the Greeks had a god of wine.
01:08:01
Speaker
Dionysus, okay, the god of winemaking and partying. OK. and And he Dionysus, I guess, was literally in the highest tier of the the pantheon, which is like there's, you know, different levels of gods. And he was one of the the the big guys, I guess.
01:08:20
Speaker
Dionysus. He ah in the Percy Jackson movies, the guy who plays him. also played Caesar Flickerman, who like is the over the top host of the Hunger Games, like um TV coverage.
01:08:35
Speaker
So you can, you can imagine. Okay. a link an article also about wine in ancient Egypt. um The, for the Egyptians, it was a little more complex. It's worth noting the, the ancient Egyptians um were super worried about blood. Like they had a big, like ah cultural aversion to blood, which we think actually is why um the first plague in the account of the exodus from Egypt, which would have been the Nile River turning to blood, would have been so shocking and horrifying for the ancient Egyptians. i mean, aside from the obvious, like that would be for anybody, but for them it was like extra because ah blood was like the this terrifying, horrible thing. Okay.
01:09:15
Speaker
And um ah for all that we loved wine and for all that we knew that it made things holy, we also knew, of course, that wine was a substance that needed to be treated with um caution and respect.
01:09:29
Speaker
Because in the Hebrew Bible, there are plenty of anecdotes, like Bible stories, where wine does not turn out to be such a good thing. And I will link an article all about that.
01:09:41
Speaker
um But you can tell from all the stories in the Torah where where wine, the Torah in the Hebrew Bible, where wine is like a hinge point, um like a plot point. Wine is a plot point or it's like a device to ah that the hero or the heroine of the story uses to achieve ah something, ah to achieve their goal.
01:10:04
Speaker
So um both Esther, Queen Esther and Yael in the Hebrew Bible used wine to subdue men. Okay.
01:10:15
Speaker
So like, and, and they did it for a particular reason in order to save their people. Right. um But we also have stories about um Noah getting drunk and some terrible things happening.
01:10:27
Speaker
um The Sodom and Gomorrah happened. um We're pretty sure. ah due to like a bunch of interpretations we've settled on. ah These guys were like super drunk and behaving
The Role of Wine in Biblical Stories
01:10:37
Speaker
badly. It didn't turn out well, if you recall the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Okay.
01:10:41
Speaker
So all these stories where wine is like a hinge point or like a big factor in the way the story turns out shows us that the Jewish people understood the power of this substance and that it didn't need to be treated with caution, which is why, um and we will go over in the next episode about Kiddush, the prayer over wine in your ceremony, about dry weddings.
01:11:04
Speaker
And I want you all to know, i have the deepest recognition and respect for the importance of a dry wedding to people who choose to have it or a dry celebration. Okay. Okay.
01:11:21
Speaker
So don't worry. um Like I said at the beginning, there was a rabbinic exemption um or allowance that wine didn't have to be alcoholic wine.
01:11:32
Speaker
um There was never a ah specific um like alcoholic percentage, obviously, because they couldn't determine that. But it and and it probably was also watered down wine.
01:11:44
Speaker
at that time. ah But it could also be grape juice. And like, where's the line between grape juice and wine? I don't know. If you know things about making wine, and you can enlighten me on this, ah please email me at your Jewish wedding podcast at gmail.com and tell me and please come on the podcast.
01:11:59
Speaker
Okay, and let's talk about wine and celebrations. Okay. So back to our history of wine as a ah holy object. I found an article about why did Jesus use alcohol for communion?
01:12:11
Speaker
I don't know, man. it Who knows if it how alcoholic this wine was? Jesus was celebrating Passover on the eve of his death. And part of the practice of Passover is, as you may have guessed, saying the blessing over wine.
01:12:25
Speaker
um In contemporary times, ah for about the past, oh seven, six, seven hundred years, the Jewish people have had the practice of drinking four cups of wine at a Passover celebration. But that was likely, very likely not the case um in Jesus's time. So.
01:12:43
Speaker
Could have been just one. Anyway, with all of these collected cultural associations, right? So now we've brought, okay, Zoroastrianism, Greek, Roman, Egyptian ah mythology, and um obviously Jewish culture, religious practice, um sacrificial practice, right? Wine was also used as part of the sacrifices in the temple, which...
01:13:04
Speaker
sacrifices in the temple were the number one mode of formally connecting, formally publicly connecting with God. Right. um And then of course, you know, Jesus being the, the origin story of Christianity, he he, he was one of our guys. He was a Jew. He picked that up as well. Okay. Wine becomes important, you know, for all these reasons it, so with all these collected cultural associations, it it just became sort of obvious that wine would be a connection point between God and people or the gods and people.
01:13:38
Speaker
Okay. It was a substance that people did not quite understand. Okay. They just understood it made them feel good.
01:13:50
Speaker
Made him feel a little bit out of body, a little bit disconnected from reality. Okay. So now you can see that when The Jewish people, like when the ancient Israelites became the Jewish people, finally got to Eretz Yisrael, finally got to the land of Israel, finally built the temple, finally got to settle down somewhere and do their sacrifices in one central location.
01:14:16
Speaker
Having a blessing over something to designate something as holy, it wouldn't have been anything besides wine. I mean, I guess it could have made sense that it would be water because like water is water is life. Water is important.
01:14:31
Speaker
But obviously it was wine. OK, and that's I think that was as far as I could find, I guess, um as to how we got here. Like why is we say thank you, God, for wine?
01:14:45
Speaker
But there's an understanding in, I guess, Jewish theology.
Continuous Learning and Curiosity in Judaism
01:14:50
Speaker
Jews don't really have theology. I guess Jewish ah belief or like um expressed belief through practice that this wine is what we use to declare something as holy. Okay.
01:15:05
Speaker
This is about as far as I could get. If you know more, please, please let me know because I want to know more. There's always more learning to do. You know, this is what I've been saying to people.
01:15:16
Speaker
Whenever I learn something new, I used to feel, okay, I'm 43 years old. i used to feel, and even into my 30s, I used to feel embarrassed when I didn't know the answer to something.
01:15:26
Speaker
Do you know this feeling? Especially if it's your area of expertise and someone asks you a question and you're like, I you do not know.
01:15:40
Speaker
I used to feel so embarrassed about that. And these days, it was right around, was probably when I was like 38, 39, right around turning 40.
01:15:51
Speaker
A lot of women say it's a magical age where you stop caring what other people think about you. And thank God that seems to have happened to me. And not completely. Of course, you know, do you know what you call somebody who doesn't care at all about what people think about her?
01:16:08
Speaker
ah psychopath. Okay. I'm not... I do care what people think about me. Like I want to show up for people. I want to do what I need to do in the world, obviously. But um if people are talking to me and they ask me a question and I don't know the answer, and obviously I say, I don't know the answer.
01:16:29
Speaker
I no longer feel embarrassed. I feel excited. and And what I've been saying is, God willing, I will be learning until the day I die.
01:16:42
Speaker
Please, God, especially because in my family, Alzheimer's runs in my family. You know, I may not be learning until the day I die, to be perfectly honest. So God willing, you know, it's exciting when I have something, and an excuse to learn something new, right?
01:16:55
Speaker
Okay. Now, like I said, will go deeper into this in the next episode about using the blessing over wine as part of your wedding ceremony. Okay. So incorporating this most central of Jewish blessings into your wedding ceremony um But there are a lot of Jewish explanations, like, you know, just lovely um vignettes, I guess, lovely explanations, but it's not an explanation. It's an embellishment.
01:17:27
Speaker
It's a drosh. A drosh is like a little story about something that makes connections between two things that are confusing to us. So it's it's a little story about something that answers a question in a way that resonates with our religion. Gosh, I'm going back to rabbinical school. How do you define a drosh?
01:17:46
Speaker
It's crazy. Okay. So um ah just like any other religious interpretation, some of them may, you you may find that they resonate with you. Some of them you will not.
01:17:58
Speaker
So in the next episode, we will go over different ways you can explain the blessing over wine as part of your wedding ceremony.
01:18:10
Speaker
But there's lots I have. My notes for episodes one and two are sort of smushed together. And I am going to save this for the next episode. ah'll What I'll try to do, guys, is I'll try to post them at one time so you can go right from part one into part two if you want to.
01:18:26
Speaker
OK, because I think it's important. i I want you to understand everything that you're doing at your wedding ceremony. OK, there are so many aspects to the Kiddush blessing, even it's it's so short and it's so basic that you can grow up in a Jewish household.
01:18:51
Speaker
Or not even grow up, but you can, even if you become Jewish later in life, or if you start learning about Judaism later in life, like your household wasn't so Jewish, you'll go to like a Shabbat dinner, okay?
01:19:03
Speaker
And they'll say, yeah, we'll see the blessing over wine. and And that's for Shabbat because Shabbat's holy. and And if you are like me, There might be a hundred but whys between those two things, right?
01:19:17
Speaker
But why? But why is that? Okay. i want, I wanted to know for myself. And maybe you wanted to know as well. And that's why we had this episode ah with the full acknowledgement that this is probably not even close to all the history and all the reasons why wine came to be seen as a connection between people and God, between people and holiness, and how we can bring holiness into the world, how we can acknowledge holiness, how we can separate
01:19:50
Speaker
one moment sort of metaphysically from another moment, right? Human beings wanted that. You know, following from the Zoroastrian concept of human beings are special.
01:20:04
Speaker
Why?
01:20:08
Speaker
Because we can create not only things, but also ideas of things. We can want things. We can want things that don't even exist.
01:20:19
Speaker
Right? Or we can want to connect with things that we perceive as existing but we don't have a connection with yet
01:20:29
Speaker
we have the Ruach Elohim. We have the spirit of the creator in us, right? the God made the earth, but we make human beings make little things every day, right?
01:20:45
Speaker
It's like God made the sunset and we try to make things too. We make a painting of the sunset and it's, it's adorable, but it is meaningful to us.
01:20:58
Speaker
For me, If I had delved into this whole explanation for wine as a vehicle and a blessing over wine as the vehicle for bringing holiness to the forefront of something, of a moment.
01:21:16
Speaker
Imagine that time is this intangible thing. We can't touch it. we We know we're moving through it in some sense of the word.
01:21:29
Speaker
And humanity
01:21:33
Speaker
had the idea that we can grab on to a moment of time, a thing that you can't see, taste, touch, feel.
01:21:44
Speaker
And weak can we can set it apart as time that's different from other time.
01:21:53
Speaker
What a crazy idea. How do we do that?
01:21:59
Speaker
In Jewish practice, in ancient Jewish practice even, we do that by holding up a cup of wine
01:22:11
Speaker
and giving thanks for it. What an insane idea. What a beautiful idea. I love that this is something that I get to use as part of wedding ceremonies.
01:22:29
Speaker
you know, dozens of times a year. What joy, what joy for me knowing this now and how grateful I am to all of you listeners of this podcast who have made me think that that is something that any person would have wanted to hear an explanation for.
01:22:47
Speaker
Whether or not it's the right explanation, whether it's definitely not the only explanation, right? But I hope that It has made a connection point with you as well, and that you, like me, have felt just a little bit of extra wonder at the workings of the human mind.
01:23:11
Speaker
Just a little bit of gratitude. for the efforts of generations and generations before us that have worked so hard, that have stretched so hard mentally to make a connection between us and the divine force of creation of the universe.
01:23:32
Speaker
What a gift. So as I say, every single episode, remember There is always more learning to do. We thrive on questions.
01:23:43
Speaker
Questions make our brains stretch, you know, figuratively and literally, I think. um We're creating more. synapses all the time.
01:23:55
Speaker
And this is really good for us, right? Asking questions, answering questions, please never stop asking and answering questions, things that bring you joy, things that confuse you, things that you just have a deep wanting to know more about, because that is what it means to be human.
01:24:12
Speaker
And the more human you are when you're planning your wedding ceremony, the richer it's going to be. I really believe that. So, um, as always, If you would like to work with me on your wedding ceremony,
01:24:25
Speaker
okay If you want to have these deep discussions about just even one element of your wedding ceremony, maybe you want to talk about smashing the glass and all the different like little connection lines that we can find um ah reasons, explanations for smashing the glass. If you want to do a little text study on that one part, that one super drama dramatic story in the Talmud about um a wedding reception that got way out of hand because everybody was too drunk,
01:24:51
Speaker
um you know send me a message. we, I do consultations on literally any aspect of your wedding ceremony. You might want to, okay.
01:25:04
Speaker
If you are just, you know, you want to have certain Jewish things at your wedding, but you you have to give some language for them to whoever's officiating your wedding, set up an appointment with me. We'll sit down together. Um,
01:25:19
Speaker
You know, probably I will end up sending you like some typed out wording for your ceremony. It'll be good and it'll be you.
01:25:29
Speaker
I want that for you. I want everybody to have ah a really deep connection. I want them to be standing at their wedding ceremony and feel like it means something to them. Personally, okay.
01:25:42
Speaker
So if you want to do that, you can go to our favorite rabbi.com or your Ohio rabbi.com or I even think rabbi lean.com. I think um I don't usually say that one because my name is you can spell Leanne in a lot of different ways. So um it's rabbi leigh.com um Click the contact form. Send me a message.
01:26:08
Speaker
Okay. No obligation, no stress. We'll figure out how I can help you. I want to help you. um Send me an email at, if it's about the podcast, at yourjewishweddingpodcast at gmail.com or at rabbikopans, that's rabbikopans at gmail.com if you just want to talk with me directly about your wedding ceremony.
01:26:29
Speaker
If you are not only a bride or a groom, but if you are um a wedding planner or somebody who works in the industry, you have a question, email me, okay? I'm here for you. i I said it at the beginning in the intro, the same every single episode, you know, while we're here together, i can be your rabbi too. i i I want you to consider me your rabbi for these specific questions about weddings.
01:26:53
Speaker
Please, you know, the the more connection we have with each other, um the better. i can only think that. And there's always more learning to do. So thank you for being here with me.
01:27:05
Speaker
Thank you for going on this little adventure into ancient history and alcoholic beverages with me. I hope if if you learn more about it based on any resources I shared, let me know what you learned and what you found interesting. I would love nothing more.
01:27:20
Speaker
And until next time. Well, everyone, i have had the best time being your rabbi for this episode. I'm so glad you joined me for another little bit of insight into planning your perfect Jewish or interfaith wedding.
01:27:34
Speaker
Until you can smash that glass on your big day, you'd might as well smash that subscribe button for this podcast. I don't want you to miss a single thing.
01:27:45
Speaker
Remember, you can always find me, Rabbi all one word, for even more tips, tricks, recommendations, and wisdom on Jewish weddings.
01:28:02
Speaker
If you want to work with me on your wedding, you'll find all the info you need at yourohiorabbi.com. Until next time, remember, you deserve the perfect wedding for you.
01:28:14
Speaker
Don't settle for anything less.