After having concluded its discussion of statues and images, the Gemara now returns to the topic of non-Jewish wine, which will be its focus for the rest of the tractate. Today’s daf relays an intriguing incident:
There was a certain child who learned the tractate of Avodah Zarah when he was six years old. People raised a dilemma to him: What is the halakhah? Is it permitted to tread on grapes in the winepress together with the gentile?
The child said to them: One may tread on grapes in the winepress together with the gentile. They asked the child: But doesn’t the gentile render the wine a libation by touching it with his hands? The child replied: It is permitted in a case where we tie his hands.
An unnamed wunderkind who has memorized the mishnahs of Avodah Zarah at the age of six becomes the community expert on non-Jewish wine. The people’s question to him is at first glance a bit baffling, because we previously learned explicitly in a mishnah that one can indeed tread grapes in a winepress with a non-Jew.
But soon we learn what prompted their confusion. Shouldn’t we be worried that, in the process of this treading, the non-Jew may casually tip some of the wine out of the press to honor a foreign god? The mishnah’s perspective is that this is not a concern because the freshly-squeezed juice in the press does not count as wine. The grape juice only takes on the status of wine once it enters the storage vat below. So even if a gentile libated the juice while still in the press, it would have no impact — because it is not yet considered wine.
However, on yesterday’s daf, Rav Huna emended our understanding of when the liquid assumes the status of wine:
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With regard to wine, once it begins to flow it can become wine used for a libation.
Whereas the mishnah claims that grape juice only assumes the status of wine once it has entered the storage vat, Rav Huna believes that once the liquid begins flowing towards the exit of the winepress, it becomes wine. Therefore, while according to the earlier tannaitic understanding, the mishnah’s law about treading with a gentile is perfectly understandable, according to the later amoraic understanding, it presents a problem.
This, in turn, leads to the child’s rather improbable suggestion that one can tread grapes with a gentile so long as the gentile’s hands are tied, rendering it impossible for them to libate. Surely most people wouldn’t consent to such a condition, so this is an okimta — a limitation on the application of a law — that functions mostly in the realm of theoreticals.
Even with this improbable restriction, the people still have a follow-up question for the boy genius:
But doesn’t the gentile render the wine a libation by touching it with his foot? The child replied: Touching it with one’s foot is not considered rendering it a libation.
People assume non-Jews to be such serial libaters that even if their hands are tied, we need to worry that they may sprinkle some juice with their feet while treading grapes! The expert child, however, rules that such a sprinkling would not qualify as libation. With this anecdote, we’ve nevertheless gone from a fairly straightforward mishnaic ruling–one can trend grapes with a non-Jew–to a ruling so narrow as to be practically inapplicable, due to a shift in our understanding of when liquid assumes the status of wine between tannaitic and amoraic times.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 56 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 13, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
