Avodah Zarah 58

On today’s daf, in the midst of a continuing discussion of whether wine touched by gentiles renders it off limits for Jews, the Gemara introduces a related issue: stirring water into wine. In the ancient world, wine was generally too strong to drink on its own, so people diluted it with water. If a gentile mixes the drink, can a Jew still imbibe? 

Rabbi Asi asked Rabbi Yohanan: With regard to wine that a gentile mixed with water, what is the halakha? … Rabbi Yohanan said to Rabbi Asi: Although the gentile did not touch the wine when diluting it, it is prohibited by rabbinic decree due to the maxim: Go, go, we say to a nazirite, who is prohibited from drinking wine and eating grapes; go around and go around, but do not come near to the vineyard. 

Rabbi Yohanan compares this case to another situation involving forbidden wine — that of the nazirite. As we learned in Tractate Nazir, nazirites vow to abstain from all grape products. To ensure the nazirite doesn’t violate the prohibition, the rabbis advise him not even to come close to a vineyard. Likewise, Rabbi Yohanan says that as an extra layer of caution, it is forbidden to drink wine mixed by a gentile even if the gentile didn’t touch the wine. Not everyone seems to have gotten Rabbi Yohanan’s memo, however. 

Rabbi Yirmeya happened to come to Savta. He saw wine that a gentile diluted with water and then a Jew drank from it, and Rabbi Yirmeya then deemed the wine prohibited to them, due to the maxim: Go, go, we say to a nazirite, go around and go around, but do not come near to the vineyard. It was also stated: Rabbi Yohanan says, and some say that Rabbi Asi says that Rabbi Yohanan says: Wine that a gentile diluted is prohibited, due to the maxim: Go, go, we say to a nazirite, go around and go around, but do not come near to the vineyard.

Rabbi Yirmeya comes to a village where the Jews are drinking wine that was diluted by gentiles. He reiterates Rabbi Yohanan’s ruling that such wine is forbidden, which teaches us that it’s not just a suggestion, but an actual law. In the case of the nazirite, no one is saying that he’s forbidden to cut through a vineyard, just that it’s not a good idea not to. Why then does Rabbi Yohanan compare advising a nazirite to skirt around a vineyard, which isn’t legally required, to the prohibition against drinking wine diluted by a gentile, which is? Because both are “fences” — additional stringencies put in place to avoid even approaching the violation of a commandment.

The notion of putting a fence around the Torah is an ancient concept in Judaism. In Pirkei Avot, the rabbis mention the need for additional safeguards around mitzvot in the very first verse: “They said three things: Be patient in [the administration of] justice, raise many disciples and make a fence around the Torah.” In the example of the nazirite, one might even imagine an actual fence embedded in the strong suggestion to go around the outside of the vineyard.

What does such a fence look like in Jewish practice today? In the Ten Commandments, we are told to remember the Sabbath and not to do any work on it. But the rabbis identify 39 forbidden categories of activity and then go even further by prohibiting even picking up objects that might be used for such activity. In this way, a person who seeks to avoid the use of such objects doesn’t even expose themselves to the temptation to do so. 

These fences aren’t arbitrary; they’re meant to protect people who wish to be scrupulous about mitzvot from inadvertently acting contrary to halacha. In building rabbinic fences, the sages are seeking not only to assure adherence to the law, but to  preserve Jews’ special relationship with God through observing God’s commandments.  

Read all of Avodah Zarah 58 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 15, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.