[Avodah] Yayin Nesech - Definition

[Zev Sero]

> QUESTION: What is “yayin nesech”? Do the rules of bitul (nullification) 
> apply to it?
> 
> 
> ANSWER: Yayin nesech is wine that was poured as a libation in the 
> service of idolatry.
> 

Not *that* was poured, but *from which* was poured.  As I understand it 
the issur applies not just to the libation but to all the wine that is 
left in the container.

But this is misleading, since the nations among whom we live do not 
practice libation, as the Greeks and Romans did, and I'm not aware of 
any other nations that do so, so real nesech no longer exists. (Catholic 
communion wine is not nesech, but even worse: it is ne`evad, so its 
status is not tikroves `akum but `akum itself. However it is pretty much 
impossible for such wine ever to come into a Jew's possession, so it's 
irrelevant.)

Therefore when we refer to "nesech" we don't mean actual nesech, we mean 
wine that *could potentially* be nesech, because a nochri caused it to 
move, and he *could* have had in mind to pour a libation even though we 
know he didn't.   This issur is derabanan, and the rules for bitul are 
more lenient.

-- 
Zev Sero            “Were we directed from Washington when to sow
zev at sero.name       and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
		    –Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821.