The blessing for drinking wine is: Blessed are you O God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. The word for vine in Hebrew is gefen, גפן. The Sages in the Talmud discuss what was the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that Adam and Eve ate from, causing them to be expelled from the Garden of Eden. Among a number of opinions is the idea that it was a grapevine.
When Noah departed from the ark after the flood one of the first things he did was plant a vineyard. He later became drunk from the wine of his vineyard, causing him to be violated and disgraced. It is explained in Kabbalah and Chassidut that his intention was to try to rectify the sin of Adam and Eve who fell due to the fruit of the vine. His attempt though ended in complete failure.
Any time we attempt to understand an idea or concept in the Torah, the most important place to start is by analyzing the letters comprising the word or words that express that idea. The first and last letters of the word gefen are a gimmel and nun (ג-ן) which spell the word gan, meaning “garden,” as in the Garden of Eden. The middle letter, a peh (פ) means “mouth.” These letters thus allude and support the idea that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden which they ingested with their mouth was the fruit of the vine.
It is explained in Kabbalah and Chassidut that sanctifying Shabbat and holidays by drinking wine is meant as an ongoing reminder and rectification of the fall of mankind. This is especially so on Shabbat which in many ways is reminiscent of a return to a pristine ambience likened to the Garden of Eden. Other religious ceremonies such as weddings and circumcision have also incorporated the drinking of wine is an important element of the ritual.
Wine in fact – like most things in life – can be used in a positive way or can devolve into negative behavior and even depravity. Therefore, elevating its status to the level of sanctification in religious ritual truly gives us the opportunity to rectify the primordial miscalculation of Adam and Eve as well as Noah.
Since this world is referred to by the Arizal, (the famous Kabbalist of Tsfat in the 1500’s) as the world of rectification (Olam Hatikkun), sanctifying the Shabbat, holidays and lifecycle events through drinking the fruit of the vine reminds us of our birthright and our fervent hope that the world will one day return to the utopia it was always meant to be.
