Wine Addition - Botel (Continued)

QUESTION: A non-Jew who was helping at a party added a cup of non-Mevushal wine to a large bowl of punch. Can a Sefardi who is at the party drink the punch?

ANSWER: A previous Halacha Yomis noted that wine is batel in water (and other drinks) in six parts. Since there was clearly more than six parts water and juice already in the bowl, the non-kosher wine was batel and the punch would be permitted. This psak is true for Ashkenazim who follow the Rama who holds that while it is forbidden to drink stam yainom, there is no issur hano’oh (it is permissible to derive benefit from stam yainom). However, the Shulchan Aruch (followed by Sefardim) rules that one may not derive any benefit from stam yayin. If the wine improves the taste of the punch even though it is batel, this would be considered benefitting from the forbidden wine. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l (Igeros Moshe YD 1:62) initially assumes that the punch should be forbidden for a Sefardi, since he would be benefitting from the taste of the wine but he concedes that this is difficult to read into the words of Shulchan Aruch. Shulchan Aruch clearly writes that if wine fell into water, it is batel in six parts and he makes no mention of forbidding it due to the benefit of taste. Rav Moshe gives a rationale to explain why it is permitted for a Sefardi to drink the punch even though he is benefiting, but he concludes that if he is a yerei Shamayim, he should be machmir.

____________________________________________________

The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.