Introduction
Having previously published an episode on the origin of dropping out wine during the Passover Seder a few years ago, the newest episode of The Jewish Drinking Show explores a relatively recent explanation of this practice which sharply departs from its medieval explanations. Based off of his article “Spilling Wine While Reciting the Plagues to Diminish Our Joy?”, TheTorah.com (6 April 2020), which is a briefer version of “Our Own Joy is Lessened and Incomplete: The History of an Interpretation of Sixteen Drops of Wine at the Seder,” Ḥakirah 19 (2015): 237–256, Rabbi Dr. Zvi Ron joins the show to discuss this history of this new explanation.
Bio of Guest
Rabbi Dr. Zvi Ron received semikha from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and a PhD in Jewish Theology from Spertus University. He served as rabbi of Keneseth Beth Israel Synagogue for ten years in Richmond, Virginia. Along with his wife, Sharon, they moved back to Israel in 2004 with their four children and live in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion. He teaches at a number of yeshivot and seminaries in Jerusalem. He is the author of two books on Tanakh in Hebrew: ספר קטן וגדול (Rossi Publications, 2006) and ספר העיקר חסר (Mossad HaRav Kook, 2017) about the variable spellings of words in Tanakh. Rabbi Ron also has authored dozens of articles in numerous publications. He is editor of the Jewish Bible Quarterly and was a contestant on The Weakest Link (you can see parts two and three of his appearance (part one was removed for copyright reasons)).
Episode
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:
