Horayot 3 – Only Jews in Israel Count for Majority

The previous rule that one is not liable if he followed the erroneous decision of the court is the minority opinion; the prevailing opinion is that one IS liable in such case. However, if the majority of Jews acted on a court's error – who ruled, for example, that a certain action is not idol worship when in reality it is – then each individual is not liable, and instead the court brings the sacrifice for the mistake they had made. The majority in this case is determined only among the Jews living in Israel.

What if the court mistakenly ruled that a certain prohibited fat (destined for the Altar) is permitted, and then a minority of Israel acted upon that, then the court retracted their mistake, and afterwards again mistakenly ruled that this fat was allowed, and now a different minority acted upon it – do they combine into a majority? This and other similar inquiries remain unresolved.

Ignacy Aleksander Gierymski - Feast of Trumpets (Slichot)

Horayot 2 – Court Makes a Mistake

If the court ruled to transgress one of the commandments written in the Torah - for example, they decided that a certain type of blood is allowed to be eaten, and an individual did it, relying on their words – he is free from liability. Whether he ate the blood together with them at a meal, or after observing them, or even if they just ruled it permitted, but did not do it themselves, since he relied on their words, it is not his fault.

However, if he was one of the Sages of the court, or even one of the students who was worthy to be on the court, and he knew that they erred, but he nevertheless followed their ruling, he is liable to bring a sin offering. If he knew that they erred, then why did he do it? Because he mistakenly thought that the mitzvah to follow the words of the Sages applies even in this case.

Art: Thomas Satterwhite Noble - The Price of Blood

Avodah Zarah 76 – Purifying a Knife

To purify a non-kosher knife, one wipes it, and it is clean. Rav Ukva bar Chama explained this to mean that he sticks the knife into the ground ten times. In addition, the ground has to be hard and not ploughed, and the knife – smooth, without dents. This only suffices to purify the knife to be used with cold foods.

Mar Yehudah and Bati bar Tuvi were sitting at a meal with the Persian king Shapoor. They brought an etrog to the king. The king sliced a piece and ate it. Then he sliced a piece and handed it to Bati. Then he stood up and stuck the knife into the ground ten times, cut a piece, and gave it to Mar Yehuda. Bati took offence and said, “And this person (meaning himself), is he not a Jew?” The king answered, “I know about Mar Yehudah that he is observant, but I don't know this about you.”

In another version the king said, “Remember what you did last night?” It was a custom to send the guest a woman, and Mar Yehudah did not accept his gift, but Bati did. In truth, Bati was a half-slave, and he was allowed to have relations with that woman who was non-Jewish, but the king did not know that.

End of Mesechet Avodah Zarah

Art: Kamal-Al-Molk - Persian Musicians

Avodah Zarah 75 – Purifying Winepress and Vessels

A stone winepress was usually covered with hot pitch, but to counteract the effect of fumes, wine was added to the pitch. Therefore, an idol worshipper's winepress could not be used by a Jew, but first had to be “dried.” Drying meant purifying it with water and ashes. If the winepress was made of wood, which required more pitch, then Rabbi Yehudah the Prince still says that all that is necessary is that it be “dried,” but the Sages require removing the pitch. If it was made of earthenware, then even if he removed the pitch, it is still prohibited, because earthenware walls absorb more wine.

If one buys food utensils from idol worshippers, then the utensils that are used only with cold food require only an immersion in the mikveh. Those that are used with hot liquids are purified in hot water. Those that are used with fire without liquid are purged in a flame. The spit and grill are purged in a flame.

Art: Felix Edouard Vallotto - Still Life with Large Earthenware Jug

Avodah Zarah 74 – Dry Mixtures

The laws of dry mixtures are different from those of liquids. When prohibited substances are mixed with permitted ones of the same kind, for example, prohibited grapes with permitted ones, the prohibited substance becomes nullified in a simple majority, one part in two. When it is mixed with permitted substances of a different kind, for example, grapes and olives, it is nullified in the ratio of one-to-sixty.

Following is a list of exceptions to the above rule: a sealed barrel of libation wine mixed even with a thousand barrels of kosher wine, an idol, an ox condemned to be stoned, red heifer, birds offered by a person cured from tzaraat, hair of a nazir, firstborn male donkey, a piece of meat cooked with milk, Yom Kippur goat sent to Azazel, and unconsecrated animals slaughtered in the Temple Courtyard. All these, mixed with any amount of similar items, make the whole group prohibited.

Art: Albrecht Durer - Self-Portrait at 26

Avodah Zarah 73 - Lenient Opinions About Wine

Libation wine is prohibited for benefit. Some say that the same prohibition applies to today's regular wines, but others maintain that nowadays, since idolatrous libations have fallen into disuse, the ordinary wine of non-Jews is prohibited only for drinking but not for benefit.

A minute quantity of libation wine mixed with kosher wine makes the mixture forbidden for benefit. Again, some say that today this stringency does not apply, and kosher wine is permitted unless the new wine imparts its own flavor to the mixture.

Rabbi Yochanan said that if one pours libation wine, even all day, from a small pitcher into a cistern of kosher wine, each successive drop of libation wine is nullified, and the wine in the cistern is permitted. Not only that, but each nullified drop is now viewed as kosher wine and it turn nullifies subsequent drops of libation wine.

Earlier we learned that any amount of prohibited substance, mixed with its own kind, for example, wine into wine, prohibits the kosher substance. Some say, however, that this stringent rule is true only for libation wine, but for all other substances it is nullified if it is less than one-sixtieth.

Art: Edouard Manet - Boy with a Pitcher 1862

Avodah Zarah 72 - Pouring the Wine

If a Jew took a funnel and measured wine into an idol worshipper's flask, and then took the funnel and measured wine into a Jew's flask, then the rule is as follows: if at the bottom of the funnel there is a small wine retainer, that is, if the bottom of the funnel has a protruding lip which retains a drop of the wine poured through in its previous use, then the wine that was poured through the funnel in the Jew's flask is prohibited.

Those who consider a stream connecting two vessels as an actual connection, transmitting the prohibition, explain that the bottom of the idolater's flask contained minute amounts of libation wine. Through the stream connection, the wine in the funnel also become prohibited, and through it – the next wine that was poured. Those who say that the stream is not a significant connection, explain that the funnel was touching the wine on the bottom.

If an idolater pours wine from a bottle into a cup, the wine in the cup is prohibited, but the wine remaining in the bottle is permitted.

Art: Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida - Elderly Castellano Pouring Wine