As we now know, wine from gentiles was highly suspect to the rabbis because of the concern that it might have been offered as a libation to a foreign god. It turns out that this applies specifically to grape wine. Wine made from other fruits, like apples, is not suspected of being used for libations for reasons that will soon become clear.
On today’s daf, we learn from a beraita that the rabbis permit a Jew to purchase apple wine from a gentile as long as it comes from a storehouse, storeroom or the salesman’s basket. If, however, it is sold in the open market, it is forbidden because it is assumed that the merchant has mixed some grape wine into it. An unscrupulous merchant might do this if the price of grape wine is lower than the price of apple wine, in order to increase his profit margin.
Following this teaching, the Gemara shares the following story:
Once Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi felt discomfort in his stomach. He said: Isn’t there any person who knows whether apple wine of gentiles is prohibited or permitted?
Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei said before him: Once my father felt discomfort in his stomach and they brought him apple wine of gentiles that was 70 years old, and he drank it and was cured.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: You had so much knowledge in your hand, and yet you caused me to suffer!
Like most people with a stomach ache, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi is not at his emotional best. Instead of thanking Rabbi Yishmael for his tip about the permissibility and effectiveness of gentile-made apple wine, he grouses at his colleague for waiting so long to share this helpful information. Apple wine, it turns out, was a potent medicine (likely the reason it was not libated).
Lucky for Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, his associates are able to secure what he needs to feel better:
They checked and found one gentile who had 300 large jugs of apple wine that was 70 years old, and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi drank from it and was cured.
He said: Blessed is the Omnipresent who delivered His universe to keepers (shomrim).
This concludes the chapter. The apple wine was permitted because it was taken out of storage and not bought on the open market, so it was assumed to be uncut with grape wine. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi successfully used it to treat his illness. Once cured, he offered a blessing of gratitude to God, the meaning of which is not completely clear, but it seems to be an expression of thanks to God for ensuring that there would be people in the world who keep fermented apple cider for 70 years so that it can be used to cure stomach ailments.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s blessing echoes Genesis 2:15, a verse from the story of Adam and Eve: “The Lord God settled the human in the garden of Eden, to till it and keep it.” Humans, Jewish tradition understands, are charged with keeping the world that God has created.
Perhaps this linguistic connection suggests that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi believes, despite their differences, that his non-Jewish neighbors are partners in cultivating God’s world and bringing forth its bounties. His story also shows that Jews depend on non-Jews — in this case, for medicine.
I am struck by the editorial decision to place this story, in which Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi expresses gratitude for his non-Jewish neighbors, at the end of a chapter that spends so much time vilifying them. Doing so, perhaps, demonstrates that the rabbis were as aware of what the larger society had to offer as they were of the dangers that came along with it.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 40 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 28, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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