Individual Wine Cups at Congregational Kiddush

You ask my opinion about a novel suggestion made by one of your congregants. He had viewed a Christian church at worship taking their Communion. At this service tiny wine goblets were passed by the ushers on silver trays so that each member of the congrega tion participated. The question is whether it would be wrong to institute some such custom in our congrega tions on Friday night: passing individual wine cups so that each member of the congregation may partake of the Kiddush. (To Rabbi Amiel Wohl, Waco, Texas)

In your letter you quite properly call attention to the fact that it is forbidden by Jewish law to imitate Gentile religious practice in our worship. This is based on the verse in Leviticus 18 : 3: “Ye shall not walk according to their statutes.” The applicability and limitation of this general principle of nonimitation is discussed in the law, and the statement is made that not every observance of ours which looks like an imitation of Gentile practice is actually an imitation. This analysis is found primarily in the Talmud, b. Sanhedrin 52b. There the discussion concerns one of the four modes of capital punishment, namely, executing a criminal by means of the sword. One rabbi objects to use of the sword on the ground that this is the method used by the Roman government. The majority of the rabbis answer that, since punishment by the sword is mentioned in Scripture, the fact that the Romans use the sword does not make our use of the sword an imitation of them. The phrase used there is: “It is not from them that we learn it.”

Therefore the question that we must now decide is whether this sort of method of handling the Kiddush wine in the synagogue has a Jewish basis. If it has, then it would not be an imitation, for “not from them do we learn it.” Of course we can say at the outset on this question that the whole use of wine in Communion at the Christian church comes from the Last Supper, which comes from the Seder and so is originally Jewish. However, the particular form in which it is used in the Christian church as described above may be so characteristically Christian that as a tech nique it becomes undesirable on the ground of being imitative. Is there, then, any justification in tradition for some such technique?

The whole practice of having Kiddush in the synagogue on Friday night does not have a firm basis in Jewish law. We can learn this from the fact that Joseph Caro reports in the Shulchan Aruch, Orah Hayyim 269, that in Palestine it was not a custom at all to have a synagogue Kiddush; and, as a matter of fact, Jacob ben Asher, in the Tur (same reference) after a long discussion of the legal difficulties involved in the synagogue Kiddush, says that if he could do so, he would abolish it altogether.

The main development of the law as to the Kiddush in the synagogue is discussed by Jacob ben Asher in the section mentioned and is somewhat more fully dealt with by the Spanish liturgist Abudraham in his Code.

The first difficulty is reflected in what Samuel (Pesachim 101a) says, that Kiddush should never be recited except in the same place where the meal is eaten. Therefore it should be recited only at home. However, since there are (or used to be) travelers who ate in the synagogue (or in the adjoining rooms) the Kiddush was recited in the synagogue for their sake. Since, therefore, the chazan who made the Kiddush was not going to eat on the synagogue premises, he must not taste the wine. But if the wine is not tasted, does not the blessing in the Kiddush become a wasted blessing (Beracha I’vatald)? To avoid this, the custom arose of giving the children a taste of the wine. This custom still prevails in many Orthodox synagogues. The children gather around the chazan as he makes the Kiddush and they taste the wine.

Although this would make it clear that the wine should not be tasted at all (except by the children), nevertheless, there is a fairly well-founded tradition that the entire congregation was given to taste of the wine. This is found in a responsum of the Gaon Natronai (cited by the Tur) that the entire congregation was given to taste of it not because they would thus fulfill the mitzvah of Kiddush which, properly, they must fulfill at home where their meal is served, but for another reason entirely, namely, for medical reasons. The Talmud (b. Berachos 43 b ) says: “A haughty stride takes away one five-hundredth of the vision of the eyes. What is the cure? Let him taste the wine of the Friday night Kiddush.” Hence, says Natronai, since not everyone has wine for Kiddush (since Kiddush at home can be made over bread) the wine is given to the members of the congregation at the services to put on their eyelids. Later commentators say that if they drink it, it is also healing in effect (see Joshua Falk in his “Derisha” to the passage in the Tur).

Nevertheless, in spite of the custom mentioned by Natronai and his justification for it, it never became widespread that the entire congregation should taste of the synagogue Kiddush. In fact, Hai Gaon says that if there are no strangers who will eat on the synagogue premises, there should be no synagogue Kiddush at all.

Incidentally, this rather rare custom that adults partake of the Kiddush seems to have revived in our time in the Friday evening services at most Army posts. The chaplains’ assistants pass out little paper cups of wine; and after the Kiddush is completed by the cantor, every worshiper drinks his wine. However, this custom could more easily be justified by the law than the custom which you propose. These soldiers are “strangers.” They have no home in which to make Kiddush, and therefore they certainly have the right to have Kiddush made for them in the synagogue. But members of a congregation who have homes at which they are presumed to make Kiddush, certainly should not taste of the wine in the synagogue, and in fact it is doubtful whether there should be a Kiddush in the synagogue at all, since whatever strangers may be at the service will hardly eat on the synagogue premises.

Therefore, since there is so little Jewish precedent for members of the congregation to partake of the Kiddush (only Natronai’s report) it would certainly look like an imitation of Gentile practice if such a procedure were instituted. Perhaps it should be avoided, as the law is fond of saying in such cases, “because of the look of things” (Mipne maris ayn).

In spite of all the above, there is perhaps a way in which something like the procedure suggested could with propriety be instituted. First of all, at any congregational meal on the Sabbath or on a holiday, each individual could have his cup of wine and the Kiddush made, since it is indeed “the place where the meal is served.” Moreover, every congregation which has Friday evening services has nowadays a little collation (Oneg Shabbas) after services. Many of them have the Kiddush at the Oneg Shabbas. That is certainly in the place where a meal is held. If we assume that many did not have the Kiddush at home over wine, we may then provide Kiddush for them now. This could be organized in a very orderly way. The first procedure at the Oneg Shabbas would be the making of Kiddush with every member of the congregation tasting his cup of wine. Then the rest of the collation would follow. This certainly would be less objectionable and look less like “imitation” than serving individual cups at the service. With a little planning, the individual Kiddush at the Oneg Shabbas could be developed into a beautiful ceremony which would be widely approved and adopted.