Were Grapes the Fruit that Adam and Eve Ate?
Although I know you’re probably thinking “What does the fruit that Adam and Eve ate have to do with drinking?” And that’s a great question! Wine/Grapevine? It turns out there is a rabbinic text that associates wine with this fruit (bBerakhot 40a & bSanhedrin 70a-b): תניא רבי מאיר אומר אותו אילן שאכל אדם הראשון ממנו […]
A Jewish Biblical Drinking Game?
The fourth weekly installment of Jewish Drinking: The Show features Rabbi Daniel Epstein, who discusses his Jewish Biblical drinking game. Called Weird Tanakh Facts, Rabbi Epstein’s game which is currently in beta version, seeks to sharpen players’ knowledge of Biblical verses. The podcast version of the discussion is here: The video version of the discussion is […]
Drinking in the Book of Ecclesiastes: A Conversation with Rabbi Daniel Epstein
With the Shabbat of Sukkot coming up this weekend when the book of Ecclesiastes (ספר קהלת) is traditionally read, I invited Rabbi Daniel Epstein for a conversation on drinking in the book of Ecclesiastes for the newest video and podcast episode for JewishDrinking: Podcast Episode: Video:
Video/Podcast Episode 2: Drinking on Sukkot
With the holiday of Sukkot approaching in a matter of days, my second video/podcast episode is now live on the topic of drinking on Sukkot with a sneak preview of next week’s video on drinking in the book of Ecclesiastes:
Introducing Videos & Podcasting
Having imported writings of mine from other blogs on Jewish drinking texts, and with more posts upcoming, I will now also be creating video content as well as my first-ever podcast(!). The introductory video and podcast episode are now available – you can also see them listed on the videos and podcasting page I created. […]
Purim Drinking II: Which Beverage(s) to Drink?
Having begun a discussion of drinking on Purim, (and what got me re-interested in this topic), I wanted to do an initial post on which beverage one should drink in order to intoxicate oneself on Purim. Curiously, in neither Rabbi Jacob, son of Asher‘s Four Divisions1 nor in Rabbi Joseph Karo‘s Set Table2 is any specific beverage mentioned in order to intoxicate, […]
Purim Drinking I: Prolegomenon
With Purim occurring two months from today, my mind turned over shabbat towards one of the most well-known aspects of the festival: drinking. The amusing thing about drinking being a(n in)famous aspect of the holiday is that it was not initially a main part of the festival – it was not a Tannaitic element (the primary ones were reading the megillah, […]
Bentsching Over A Cup
If one were to open the Shulhan Arukh on the topic of saying the ברכת המזון (grace after meals) with a cup (for instance, see Berakhos 51a), one would find that Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote the following (OH 182.1): יש שאומרים שברכת המזון טעונה כוס אפילו ביחיד, וצריך לחזור עליו, ולא יאכל אם אין לו כוס לברך עליו אם הוא מצפה […]