Ripple in Still Water
By: Judah Ari Gross
Issue date: 3/10/10 Section: Opinion
With the Purim holiday our thoughts turn to one thing: wine.
As Jews, we have the halakhic responsibility of drinking enough wine at our Purim Seudah to no longer know the difference between Mordechai and Haman. Sounds good, no?
The problem with this religious necessity is the logistics of the whole situation. As many of you know (and those of you that do not can find out on page 7) our campus now has "Kosher on Demand" whereby we no longer must trek into the surrounding community for kosher food, but rather can have it delivered to Hillel or even your apartment for a low cost. If only the same could be said of kosher wine.
Kosher wine is a tricky matter. Given the possibility of wine being used for idolatry-because so many people practice idolatry today-for wine to be considered kosher it must not be handled by non-Jews unless it is mevushal, or cooked, in which case idolaters would not use it. While these laws and extra-stringency may seem silly, getting kosher wine is a priority for many Jews at the University of Maryland.
The only option available to kosher-wine-drinkers is to drive out to a local liquor store and peruse their meager kosher wine section for the least heinous bottle available. Unfortunately, given the small number of Jews living in Prince George's County and the lack of any stores dedicated to wine, this "least heinous bottle" is normally expensive and only a fraction of a step above the grape juice and grain alcohol that is Manishevitz.
If only there was a way to get good, cheap kosher wine delivered as our good, cheap kosher meat is. Wait, didn't they make something a few years ago that lets people order specialty goods to their homes for less money? Oh yeah, the Internet, which is home to www.kosherwine.com where decent bottles of kosher wine are as cheap as $5.00. What a simple solution to buying wine.
Unfortunately, in Maryland, unlike in 37 other states and Washington, D.C., it is illegal to ship wine. As a side note, in Maryland it is legal to ship ammunition, fireworks, and narcotics to your home, according to Adam Borden, executive director of Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws. While this may be a minor inconvenience to gentile residents of the state of Maryland to Jewish ones it is a major hurtle to enjoying palatable kosher wine.
To combat this relatively silly and outdated law Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws traveled en masse to Annapolis and introduced two new bills in the Maryland State Senate and House on Friday, March 5. This is a topic all wine enthusiasts, as well as even "Shabbat only" drinkers, should take an interest in, follow, and advocate for.
Judah Gross is a junior Journalism major and can be reached at jagross@umd.edu.
As Jews, we have the halakhic responsibility of drinking enough wine at our Purim Seudah to no longer know the difference between Mordechai and Haman. Sounds good, no?
The problem with this religious necessity is the logistics of the whole situation. As many of you know (and those of you that do not can find out on page 7) our campus now has "Kosher on Demand" whereby we no longer must trek into the surrounding community for kosher food, but rather can have it delivered to Hillel or even your apartment for a low cost. If only the same could be said of kosher wine.
Kosher wine is a tricky matter. Given the possibility of wine being used for idolatry-because so many people practice idolatry today-for wine to be considered kosher it must not be handled by non-Jews unless it is mevushal, or cooked, in which case idolaters would not use it. While these laws and extra-stringency may seem silly, getting kosher wine is a priority for many Jews at the University of Maryland.
The only option available to kosher-wine-drinkers is to drive out to a local liquor store and peruse their meager kosher wine section for the least heinous bottle available. Unfortunately, given the small number of Jews living in Prince George's County and the lack of any stores dedicated to wine, this "least heinous bottle" is normally expensive and only a fraction of a step above the grape juice and grain alcohol that is Manishevitz.
If only there was a way to get good, cheap kosher wine delivered as our good, cheap kosher meat is. Wait, didn't they make something a few years ago that lets people order specialty goods to their homes for less money? Oh yeah, the Internet, which is home to www.kosherwine.com where decent bottles of kosher wine are as cheap as $5.00. What a simple solution to buying wine.
Unfortunately, in Maryland, unlike in 37 other states and Washington, D.C., it is illegal to ship wine. As a side note, in Maryland it is legal to ship ammunition, fireworks, and narcotics to your home, according to Adam Borden, executive director of Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws. While this may be a minor inconvenience to gentile residents of the state of Maryland to Jewish ones it is a major hurtle to enjoying palatable kosher wine.
To combat this relatively silly and outdated law Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws traveled en masse to Annapolis and introduced two new bills in the Maryland State Senate and House on Friday, March 5. This is a topic all wine enthusiasts, as well as even "Shabbat only" drinkers, should take an interest in, follow, and advocate for.
Judah Gross is a junior Journalism major and can be reached at jagross@umd.edu.
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purchase essay
posted 3/17/10 @ 8:39 AM EST
Oh, it's so tough in your culture with stuff like that, we treat it much more easier
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