We learned yesterday that the Talmud prohibits Jews from drinking the wine of non-Jews. The rabbis are concerned that non-Jews might dedicate their wine to foreign gods and, therefore, if Jews drink it they will benefit from idolatry. The discussion on yesterday’s daf weaves together fears about wine being corrupted by idolatry with fears of unsealed wine being contaminated by snake venom. The latter is toxic to physical survival, the former, according to the rabbis, to Jewish spiritual survival. As Mira Wasserman explores in her book Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals, the discussion develops a parallel between non-Jews and venomous snakes. This parallel is derogatory and thus deeply troubling to modern readers.
Today’s daf explores which kinds of wine are exempt from fears about contamination — either through snake venom or idolatry. Curiously, the Talmud tells a story (about one kind of wine) that challenges the broader attitude I just described.
Shmuel and Ablet were sitting, and others brought cooked wine before them. Ablet withdrew his hand. Shmuel said to him that they said: Cooked wine is not subject to the prohibition of wine used for a libation.
There is a lot that is only implied in this story. First, Ablet is not Jewish. Because he isn’t Jewish, he doesn’t want to touch their shared wine so that he doesn’t make it undrinkable for Shmuel. Second, Shmuel’s explanation that this wine is cooked means that it is no longer of a quality high enough for a non-Jew to use as a libation to a foreign god, and so it can’t be corrupted by the touch of a gentile. This has remained a Jewish standard and is why many kosher wines today are labelled mevushal, cooked. Third, Shmuel the rabbi and Ablet the non-Jew are friends who have spent enough time together that Ablet knows (and respects) some of the rabbinic prohibitions around wine.
There are other talmudic stories about the friendship between Shmuel and Ablet. On Shabbat 129a, Ablet finds Shmuel lying out in the sun and says to him, “Wise man of the Jews, can evil become good?” (I like to think Ablet was very concerned about sunburns.) In response, Shmuel explains that he recently had his blood let, so the heat of the sun is beneficial to him. Note that Ablet calls Shmuel a wise man and seems to care about his physical health. On Shabbat 156b, Shmuel and Ablet are once again sitting together and observing people go to and from the lake. The story takes place over many hours, and the two spend them all people watching together.
I don’t want to ignore the rabbis’ real fear of non-Jews — their sense that non-Jews were both physically and spiritually dangerous to Jews. But even in a broader discussion which normalizes that fear, and encodes it into law, we see glimpses of another possible world: one in which Jews and non-Jews are friends who spend time together, understand each other’s practices and respect them.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 30 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 18, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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