If you’re going on a journey and want to bring wine, you can easily find it sold in a can or travel-sized bottle. I’m sure that in some stores in New York, you can even find kosher wine sold perfectly portioned for Kiddush. But in the ancient world, it was harder to bring wine with you on the go. Enter — Hadrianic earthenware!
What is Hadrianic earthenware? Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: It is earthenware of Emperor Hadrian.
When Rav Dimi came, he said: There was virgin soil that no man had ever tilled, and Hadrian tilled it and planted (grapes) in it. And they placed this wine in unglazed jugs, and they absorbed the wine. And they would break it to shards and carry them with them, and anywhere that they stopped, they soaked and drank.
Clay is an absorbent material, which means unglazed earthenware absorbs flavors. That is why most potters glaze their creations — to make them waterproof and impermeable. In Rav Dimi’s telling, the Emperor Hadrian (who ruled the Roman Empire from 117 to 138 CE) planted vineyards on new soil and produced a wine that he stored in unglazed jugs. Rashi, who tradition tells us was himself a winemaker, explains that virgin soil has all its “strength” (read: nutrients), and so produces a particularly strong wine. Hadrian’s unglazed clay jugs absorbed the wine which was later released when shards of the jugs were soaked in water. Rehydration, Rav Dimi explains, is the key to imperial travel wine.
Was it any good? The Talmud continues:
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: And our first is like the third of theirs.
Rashi reads Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi as saying that “our” top-quality wine is equal to “their” third-rate wine — which means that first rate wine of the Romans must be outstanding. Rabbenu Hananel, an 11th-century talmudist who lived in Kairouan (today Tunisia), reads Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi as saying that the strength of “our” travel wine steeped for the first time is equal to the strength of “their” travel wine that has already been steeped in water twice. But whether Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was referring to the wine’s strength or the depth of its flavor, it’s clear that he thinks that Hadrianic wine really holds up and tastes even better than Jewish wine.
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s statement underlines a theme that we’ve seen across a number of pages so far in this tractate: The rabbinic laws related in some way to Avodah Zarah are concerned with Jewish identity. The rabbis of the Talmud recognize that their idolatrous neighbors create well-made buildings and delicious drinks, and that these might even be better than those created by the rabbis themselves. But in order to maintain their profound commitment to monotheism, the rabbis limit their access to these delights. Some things are more important than an excellent wine — even portable potables.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 32 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 20, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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