[Avodah] Selling whiskey/bourbon

[Zev Sero]

rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
> RRW
>> Now - bottled wine is pre-diluted.
> 
> RZS
>> Not true.
> 
> Rambam MT hil hametz 7:9 Touger edition p. 144

The Rambam says no such thing.
 
>> In Talmudic Time wines were very strong and had to be mixed with water
>> before being drunk.
>> At Present, most commercially prodeuced wines have already been diluted
>> with water...

This is absolutely not true.  Wine in Chazal's day was no stronger than
today.  In fact it was somewhat weaker, on average: it couldn't possibly
have been stronger than 12%, whereas nowadays we have wines that are as
high as 16%.   And our wines are certainly not watered!



> RZS
>> But a drop of water *after* fermentation would make instant chametz.
> 
> Gotta Source?

The same shulchan aruch you quoted.   It talks only about water from the
harvest, not from after fermentation.

> SA:
>     Ho'eel
>     uch'var nistabtlu hamayyid b'yayin qodem shelash ho'issa
> 
> Added to the wine Iwter is bateil before hitting the issa

So why is water in orange juice different?  You must surely have an
explanation for that, since you rejected the obvious one offered.


> Who is the first to be m'chaleiq between whether the wine has yet
> fermented or not?

I don't know who is the first to put this *obvious* chiluk on paper,
but it's explicit in SA Harav.   I haven't got sefarim here to check,
but I'd guess that if you look in the MA you'll probably find it there
too.   You should also look in siman 272 re raisin wine, where the same
chiluk applies: raisin wine is nearly 100% water and is still hagafen;
after fermentation one can add more water up to shiur mezigah but beyond
that it becomes shehakol.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher