Jewish Question for the Braintrust -- 9 Days

[gnomi]

Can one drink wine during the Nine Days?

(not being a wine drinker, I never bothered to find out. But I was asked, so I'm asking.)

Comments

[zsero.livejournal.com]

No wine or grape juice. But other alcoholic beverages are fine.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

So is the prohibition against drinking it specifically? I mean, can one use wine in a dessert during the Nine Days (the wine isn't cooked in the recipe)?

[zsero.livejournal.com]

The problem is that these lenten restrictions aren't really laws, they're more like firm customs, so it's difficult to pin them down with such analytical precision. A quick look at the Shulchan Aruch and the commentaries on the page doesn't yield anything precisely on point. My guess is that if the wine is mixed with the other ingredients, and is a subordinate ingredient such that its bracha status is lost, then it should be OK. Even better if "wine" isn't part of the usual description of this dessert. But this is the sort of borderline case where you might want to CYLOR.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

What are the Nine Days?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

There's a period between the 17th day of the month of Tamuz (which was on 23/24 July) through the 9th of the month of Av (which is, this year, on 13/14 August) that is a period of mourning. The first 9 days of the month of Av (which by the Jewish calendar started on Friday night 5 August) are a period of greater mourning, during which there are more restrictions. This all culminates this Saturday night/Sunday with the 25-hour fast of the 9th of Av.

The 9th of Av is a very tragic day in the history of the Jews. A number of calamities befell the Jews on that day. See here (http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayd.htm) for more info.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Jewish lent.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Is that more s'fira?

[zsero.livejournal.com]

So who says we can't have two lenten periods? But the sefira period is much more squishy, both in terms of what is commonly avoided, and in terms of its dates. There are very few days in those six weeks on which everybody is observing sefira restrictions.

[epj.livejournal.com]

Is there an Easter at the end of it? By that I mean that Lent, while a period of penitence and fasting, is also a time of preparation for the miracle of Easter. Is there a similar sort of celebration at the end of the Nine Days?

[zsero.livejournal.com]

No, because the thing being mourned (the Temple) hasn't been restored yet. So there's a Good Friday/Holy Saturday, but we've been waiting 1935 years for an Easter Sunday. Maybe this year, though so far it looks like things are about to get worse, not better, with the expulsion of the Jews from the Gaza strip set to happen on the morning of the 10th of Av, right when the Temple was burning, back in 70 CE.

[sorek.livejournal.com]

google is your friend:

http://www.ou.org/yerushalayim/threeweeks/ninedays.htm

I've read downstream you were asking about wine in cooking but I figured I'd throw out the url anyway.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Jewfaq.org (Judaism 101) said essentially the same thing. I'm still not clear on the cooking part of it, though it seems like it would be OK to use it in cooking.

[sorek.livejournal.com]

A followup. While checking out http://www.chaiodom.org/ I found this:

"Laws of the Nine Days
...
14. To use wine in cooking or baking seems to be permissible."

Of course, the right answer is, as before, "Ask the Rabbi".

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. I'll pass along the information.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

oddly, I was told to avoid using wine for cooking, as it is preferable to avoid grape products all together, or so I'm told.