Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

128 THE ROYAL TABLE
trefah dishes, because the flavor of meat spoils rather than
improves the taste of these products. 23
The most severe of all the prohibitions with regard to
gentile beverages is that with respect to their wines. The
original Scriptural prohibition includes only wines used for
an idolatrous purpose, but the sages, in order to avoid con-
fusion by permitting some wines and forbidding others,
extended the prohibition to cover all their wines. An auxil-
iary reason is of course to discourage keeping company with
their daughters, for a party with drinks is much more con-
vivial than a party without them. Wine of true idolaters
may not be enjoyed in any fashion, and no profit whatsoever
may be derived therefrom. Even the mere touch of
an idolator will cause wine to become forbidden,
for the
idolaters always think of wine in terms of libations to their
gods. Since modern non-Jews in the countries where we
live are not idolaters, their touch will cause wine to become
forbidden for drinking purposes only; but it may
still be
used in other fashions for laving, for example. In order
to disqualify wine by the touch of a non-Jew, three con-
ditions must prevail: intent to touch; knowledge that the
vessel contains wine; non-occupation with any other act to
which the touching of the wine was merely incidental. A
closed bottle of wine is disqualified by touch, but a sealed
bottle is not. It is customary to have wine doubly sealed before
entrusting it to a non-Jew in matters of transport. A
modern non-idolatrous gentile may be left alone for a short
period of time say, a half hour in a house where wine is
available. But if one intends to leave him there alone for
a much greater length of time the wine should be properly
hidden or sealed. A Jew who wilfully disregards the laws
of Sabbath observance is considered an idolator for all
39 Ibid. 7.