Review of new H. Soloveitchik book
In Haaretz there is a review of Haym Soloveitchik’s new book Ha-Yayin Bimei Ha-Beinayim,
Soloveitchik’s book is a study of the subject of yayin nesekh (or “idolatrous wine,” that is, wine that has been touched by gentiles and is therefore forbidden to Jews) as it affected the day-to-day lives of medieval German Jewry. In the author’s words, it “traces the development of halakha [Jewish law] as it relates to each stage of production, from the vat to the chalice: winemaking, transport, household use, and wine vessels and their purification.” This fascinating volume touches on two areas that are impossible to separate: halakhic research and the history of the Jews of Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages. The halakhic matters it discusses are not simple, but the author presents them in a clear fashion, such that a layman can also understand them. As a rule, the book, which includes numerous colorful maps and illustrations, is written out of a kind of delight and joyfulness that can’t help but infect the reader. Soloveitchik, a professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University, in New York, presents what amounts to a portrait of the everyday lives of the Jews in Ashkenaz and France in the Middle Ages.
See here for the full review.