"Beware of making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are advancing, lest they be a snare in your midst. . . "(Shmot/Exodus 34:12) Based on this passage- which, depending on how you read it, goes up till verse 15 or so- the ancient rabbis banned certain kinds of commerce with non-Jews, with the reasoning being that:
Going a step further, a more general (and slightly less strict) prohibition was put on "stam yaynam," that is, "regular wine" made outside the Jewish community. Wine that is "mevushal," which means cooked or boiled, was considered unfit for ritual use, and is thus permitted in some situations where other wines would be prohibited. For example, many strictly observant Jews will not drink wine that has been sold or even handled by non-Jews, but in some cases if the wine is "mevushal" it can be bought in an ordinary liquor store or supermarket.
Thus we get from a verse in this week's Torah portion which seems to prohibit making treaties with surrounding nations to that square bottle of sweet Manischewitz "wine" (Chianti Classico it's not) which you may have encountered at a synagogue, Shabbat table or Passover seder. (I should note here that I'm following Sefer HaHinnuch, a medieval textbook on the commandments, which does however point out that some major scholars see the prohibition on the wine of non-Jews coming out of a verse in Deuteronomy.)
So far, so good- except for the fact that in this instance, the social context of the halacha makes all the difference in the world. (Once again, I think I just summed up Conservative Judaism.) Reasonable people can and do differ on how best to strengthen the Jewish community, but I personally cannot believe that regarding our neighbors as "idolaters" is the best way to do so. We live in a world where the Jewish community stands in religious solidarity with Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other people of good faith in coalitions which support social justice and a compassionate society- can we really lobby, march, or pray with our neighbors one day and the next day think that drinking their wine will fatally weaken our Judaism? Thus, the Conservative Movement has embraced the possibility of a more lenient stance on the kosher status of wine (while at the same time pointing out that some wines, especially European ones, can be "fined" with animal or dairy ingredients, which is a totally different problem in keeping kosher.) Our teacher Rabbi Elliott Dorff has argued that the prohibition on "stam yaynam" could be discontinued in a pluralistic society where most wine is made by large corporations, unconnected to any religious practice or community at all. I certainly agree with R. Dorff's perspective (which is more nuanced than I can describe in a few words) and I might go even further to say that traditional practices which depend on a suspicious view of our neighbors demand moral scrutiny as a general principle.
To put it another way, there are very good reasons to keep kosher, but a fear that in purchasing wine, one is being tempted to idolatry, or supporting it in some way, is not, to me, one of them. It is certainly a great idea to buy Israeli wines to show connection to and support of Israel, but that is a positive perspective, not one based on fear or suspicion.
Rejecting idolatry isn't only about looking at what's out there in the world; it's also about looking within, and uprooting from within traditional teachings any residual xenophobia from earlier periods of Jewish history. I believe the prohibition on the wine of non-Jews falls in that category, and I encourage those reading this to study the issue further. Conservative Judaism has always seen traditional practices in the light of evolving knowledge and social perspectives - let's drink to that!
Rabbi Neal Joseph Loevinger