p. 381 | Passover Wine by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 18, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 24.

Passover Wine.

By Editor

A MEMBER of the editorial staff of the Methodist Times (London), in the issue of that paper for April 10, gives a very interesting account of what he saw and heard at a modern celebration of the Jewish passover, at the house of an orthodox Jew, to which he had been invited on the occasion. The account is too long to be inserted here, but we give the closing paragraph. The writer says:

"Supper being ended, I said, amongst other things, to an intelligent and affable Rabbi, who sat next to me, 'May I ask with what kind of wine you have celebrated the passover this evening?' 'With a non-intoxicating wine,' he promptly replied. Jews never use fermented wine in their synagogue services, and must not use it on the passover, either for synagogue or home purposes. Fermented liquor of any kind comes under the category of 'leaven,' which is proscribed in so many well-known places in the Old Testament. The wine which is used by Jews during the week of passover is supplied to the community by those licensed by the Chief Rabbi's Board, and by those only. Each bottle is sealed in the presence of a representative of the ecclesiastical authorities. The bottle standing yonder on the sideboard, from which the wine used to-night was taken, was thus sealed. I may also mention that poor Jews who cannot afford to buy this wine, make an unfermented wine of their own, which is nothing else but an infusion of Valencia or Muscatel raisins. I have recently read the passage in Matthew in which the paschal supper is described. There can be no doubt whatever that the wine used upon that occasion was unfermented. Jesus as an observant Jew would not only not have drunk fermented wine on the passover, but would not have celebrated the passover in any house from which everything fermented had not been removed. I may mention that the wine I use in the service at the synagogue is an infusion of raisins. You will allow me, perhaps, to express my surprise that Christians, who profess to be followers of Jesus of Nazareth, can take what he could not possibly have taken as a Jew—intoxicating wine, at so sacred a service as the sacrament of the Lord's supper."—Methodist Recorder.