Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

To not eat and drink a gift to idol worship: To not eat and drink a gift to idolatry, as it is stated (Exodus 34:12-15), “Guard yourself lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, etc. and he will call to you and you will eat from his offering.”

It is from the roots of the commandment to distance and remove all matter of idolatry and any matter that is related to it from [in front] of our eyes and from our thoughts. And we have written above (Sefer HaChinukh 26, 86) what we have known about the foundation of distancing idolatry.

From the laws of the commandment is that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Avodah Zarah 51b) that every thing from which they made a gift to idol worship is forbidden, even water and salt — meaning to say that even though water and salt are lesser things and it is possible to say about them that they are not for a gift and that they did not place them in front of idols for the sake of [its] glory at all — nonetheless, it is forbidden. And for great distancing, they, may their memory be blessed, also forbade (Avodah Zarah 29b) all wine of a gentile, even though we do not know that he used it as an idolatrous libation. And this is called their undifferentiated wine (stam yeinam). However, they, may their memory be blessed, distinguished (Avodah Zarah 74a) between known libations and their undifferentiated wine — as the prohibition of the known is [prohibited] by Torah writ for the smallest amount. And we administer lashes for it, as it is written (Deuteronomy 13:18), “Nothing is to cling to your hand from the anathema.” But with the prohibition of their undifferentiated wines, which is only rabbinic, the [punishment] for its drinking is only lashes of rebellion for one who drinks a revi’it of it. But it does not [carry] lashes of rebellion for less than a revi’it. And nonetheless even the smallest amount is rabbinically forbidden to benefit from. And regarding other things in the world besides wine, they, may their memory be blessed, were not stringent to forbid everything found in their hand undifferentiated — out of the concern for sacrifices to idol worship or the concern [that it is] itself idolatry, besides with things that are [specifically] made for it; for example, that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Avodah Zarah 41a) regarding idols, that undifferentiated idols are made for idol worship. And therefore, they forbade them. And even one who finds them discarded is not allowed to take them without well-known conditions, as they, may their memory be blessed, explained (Avodah Zarah 41a). And so [too,] is it certainly with anything that an Israelite thinks was made as a sacrifice — that it is forbidden to take of them.

And they also made many distancings about the matter of wine, as it was the main [source] for the joy of the offering; and also since the Torah mentioned its prohibition explicitly, as it is written in Parashat Haazinu (Deuteronomy 32:38), “drank the wine of their libations.” And hence they, may their memory be blessed, were stringent and said (Avodah Zarah 58a) — in order to distance the matter — that even the wine of a Jew when it is touched by a gentile is immediately prohibited, even to benefit from it. And do not let it be difficult to you, how is it that a gentile can forbid the wine of an Israelite, since we have it established that a person cannot bring a prohibition to something that is not his (Chullin 40b). As this is not said except in a case such as if he bows down to his friend’s animal, where he did not do an act to the body of the thing. But anytime he does an act to the body of the thing — and even a minor act, like this of touching — he has the power to forbid a thing that is not his, rabbinically. However it is not [forbidden] by Torah writ until he does a major act, such as slaughtering his animal, which is a major act; and so [too,] if he poured wine in front of the actual idol, that is also a major act. But regarding touching the wine not in front of the idol, it is a minor act. And since it is minor and the prohibition is only rabbinic, they, may their memory be blessed, permitted (Avodah Zarah 59b) one to take repayment from the one who made it forbidden for that which he made forbidden. And even though they were stringent about the body of the thing to forbid its benefit, they were not stringent about its payment; as payment [here] is only a type of repayment for damage. And [so] he does not benefit from the forbidden thing, but rather takes payment for his damage from the one who made it forbidden.

And so [too,] were they, may their memory be blessed, very strict in the distancing of wine that has been libated in front of an actual idol or about any thing of idolatry more than with any other prohibitions in the Torah. As you don’t have anything [else] in all of the Torah the benefit of which is forbidden, that when it is mixed with something permissible and it is not recognizable, does not have a remedy, [so] as to benefit [from what was permissible] — even something wet in something wet — with that which Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said in the Gemara (Avodah Zarah 74a): that he should sell it all to gentiles except for the value of the prohibited matter in it. And that is when it is from the things that are not purchased [by Jews] from a gentile, so that no Israelite man will stumble through them and purchase it from the gentile. But with true wine libations and with all idolatrous things, they do not have the remedy of selling it all to the gentile, etc. And all the more so, do they not have the remedy of taking [its] benefit to the Dead Sea. However, [it is] only when true wine libations were mixed — and even one drop of it — that there is no remedy for its benefit ever. But if a barrel of it got mixed with other barrels of kosher wine — since the actual body of the prohibition did not mix, but rather each [barrel] stands on its own — it has a remedy with the remedy of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, that he sell all of it to the gentiles, etc. And so [too,] with their undifferentiated wine, do they have a remedy with the remedy of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel — even when they actually got mixed — like the law of other prohibitions; as it is not fully wine libations.

And you must also know that [in] all of the prohibitions of the Torah, the mixture of which is forbidden to benefit from, it is only forbidden if there is enough of the forbidden food mixed into the permissible food to give off taste into the permissible food — unless that forbidden food is an important thing. As any important thing, such as a portion [with which it] is fit to honor [others] and similar to it, is forbidden in the smallest amount. But anything that is not an important thing does not forbid a mixture unless there is enough in it to give off taste. [This is] except for wine libations and all matters of idolatry which forbid in the smallest amount, to benefit from everything that is mixed with them (Avodah Zarah 73a), as we said. And there is nothing else in the world at all that is an exception to this principle except for forbidden mixtures of the vineyard (and orlah, the fruit of trees for the first three years), and chamets on Pesach, according to the opinion of some commentators who forbid their mixture of one in two hundred — whether in its own type [of food] or whether not in its type — and (tithes) (and orlah) [and a burnt-offering] with [a mixture] of one in a hundred. And regarding the matter of the remedy that they have, we have already said that there is the remedy of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel for all of the prohibitions, except for all of the prohibitions of idolatry wherein the prohibited object was itself actually added. As there is no remedy for it ever, and this is from the stringency of idolatry. “And turn and turn in” the Gemara, as you will find all of this elucidated with the good commentaries. And hold on to [these] things, as you will need them in many places in the Talmud. Hence, I wrote at length about them, which is not like my custom in these annals.

And they, may their memory be blessed, further distanced us from the prohibition of wine libations, saying that even the payment for wine libations is prohibited to benefit from (Avodah Zarah 62a). They also stressed its distancing by saying that [perhaps] the payment of one who is paid to break barrels of wine libations should be prohibited, because he desires its existence for a short time; meaning to say that he wants that the wine should be preserved in the barrels until he breaks them, so that he will gain his payment for breaking them. As they, may their memory be blessed, wanted to uproot [it] from our thoughts that we should not want its preservation for even one moment, due to our great disgust with all types of idolatry. And the answer [to their query] was, let him break it and a blessing will come to him, as he diminished the idiocy.

And the rest of its many details — for example, who is it that makes [wine into] wine libations to render it prohibited even to benefit from, and who is it that renders it prohibited only for drinking; from when does it become a wine libation; the law of the gentile’s intentional and unintentional touch; his propulsion and the propulsion of that propulsion, and if the Jew is aiding him; which guarding will suffice for us with our wine in the house of the gentile, or in our house if there is a gentile there, or in a carriage and he left a gentile there, such as coming in and out, such that the wine will be permissible; the prohibition that we have with the vessels of their wine, and the law of how to make it fit (kosher); the many details that come to us also about the vessels of their cooking and that is the matter called, “expurgations [of the vessels] of the gentiles”; the laws of our distancing that we not defile our souls also in the matters that are extensions of these disgusting things, such as that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Makkot 16b) not to eat and drink in disgusting vessels such as urinals, vessels for feces and a bloodletting horn, since the soul is disgusted in the matter; and the rest of its details - are elucidated in the last chapters of Avodah Zarah, and some of them are in Chullin.

And this warning (prohibition) is practiced in every place and at all times by males and females. And one who transgresses it and eats the smallest amount — or drinks even a drop of true wine libation — is lashed. As the law of these things is not like the law of other laws of prohibited foods, which are with a kazayit, and the law of drinking [which] is with a reviit; since the Torah warned about idolatry and stated (Deuteronomy 13:18), “Nothing is to cling to your hand from the anathema” — meaning to say even the smallest amount.

In this prevention of wine libations, both Rambam (in Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative Commandments 194), may his memory be blessed, and Ramban (in his gloss to the Sefer HaMitzvot), may his memory be blessed, conceded that there is a negative commandment in this and that it is counted in the tally of the negative commandments. However they did disagree about it in the [following] matter: that Rambam extracts the prohibition of wine libations from the verse that is written in Parashat Haazinu (Deuteronomy 32:38), “drank the wine of their libations”; and the prohibition of other gifts to idolatry from, “Nothing is to cling to your hand from the anathema” (Deuteronomy 13:18) and from “You shall not bring an abomination” (Deuteronomy 7:26); [whereas] Ramban, may his memory be blessed, wrote that we learn the prohibition of all of the gifts of idolatry from this verse of “Guard yourself,” and wine libations are included. And I have written this verse, like his opinion — not like my custom in all of the book, as I have written all [of the other verses] according to the opinion of Rambam, may his memory be blessed. But in this [case] I saw that this verse is very fit to expound the matter from it; and also that there is a warning in it. And [it is] as they, may their memory be blessed, said (Eruvin 96a), [that] every place where it states, “guard yourself,” or “lest” or “do not,” it is nothing but a negative commandment. However in the verse, “drank the wine of their libations,” there is no warning. And I also saw great ones from the enumerators of the commandment that wrote like this.