ABSTRACT
In a question referred to the late tenth-century-early eleventh-century head of the rabbinic Babylonian academy of Pumbedita Rav Hayya Gaʾon (d. 1038), the gaʾon was asked about certain wine vessels that were touched by gentiles. According to the petitioner, the vessels were shipped on a boat and were marked by their Jewish owners so that they could distinguish them from the rest of the cargo. As the boat arrived in the port, the entire cargo was captured by the king’s officials for the purpose of its assessment. Subsequently, some of the wine vessels were kept by the authorities and the rest were returned to their Jewish owners. The petitioner, fearing that the vessels might have been touched by non-Jews, thus rendering the kosher wine unsuitable for Jewish consumption, asked whether the wine can still be sold to Jews. To this the gaʾon responded:
First you should know that if those gentiles with whom you are concerned are from the religion of the Ishmaʿelites, a principal [aspect] of their religion is the prohibition [to consume] wine, its detesting, and a curse upon those who drink it. Therefore it is [clearly] far removed from their ritual, [since] they see it as an offence. As a result, the matter is not as severe and there is no fear that they may render it libation. [However], when our master, Rav Yehudai, was asked [regarding a similar matter] he did neither object nor permit [its use], for many among them (i.e. among the Muslims) were Magians who during that time converted to the religion of these Ishmaʿelites … yet their heart was still not clean of Magianism, whose [practice] renders wine libation; and even another generation and a third [they] were [still] loose [in their religious convictions?] and part of their original religion had still remained in them. Hence there was concern about their contact [with wine], as it would render it libation. Over the generations [however], no trace at all [of their old religion] has remained in them and whoever [among them] is found drinking wine is seen as an offender ...1
