A curious thing happened with Prohibition: Orthodox Jews in America argued strongly for the use of wine in the course of various ritual uses. While episode #21 of The Jewish Drinking Show featured a discussion on Prohibition, the insufficiency of grape juice was argued strongly by Orthodox rabbis. Having researched and written on this topic in his “Grape Juice: the Solution to Prohibition.” Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought Vol. 48, No. 1 (Spring 2015): 19-32, the 101st episode of The Jewish Drinking Show welcomes Dr. Yaakov Weinstein to discuss this matter.
In addition to having written on this topic in the above mentioned article, he resides in East Brunswick, NJ with his wife and five children. He earned his PhD in nuclear engineering from MIT and currently works in STEM. He often writes about the intersection of Jewish texts and CS Lewis’ writings on his Torah from Narnia website.
Another article we discuss in this episode, which is the primary article written about Orthodox rabbis’ reactions to Prohibition, is Hannah Sprecher’s “‘Let Them Drink and Forget Our Poverty’: Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition.” American Jewish Archives, Vol. 43, No. 2 (1991): 135-179.
In addition to being available below in video format, the episode is also available in podcast format on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you prefer listening to podcasts:
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