That seems likely, zealots love a good dividing line. I’m reminded of all the weird obsessing in the Mishnah about wine because the non-Jews of the period used it in sacrifices.
Well there were also times it was unsafe to use red wine because the non-Jews were looking for any excuse to claim it was the blood of Christian babies.
This was before that - Avodah Zarah is the one I actually read through.
Like, you can’t leave a barrel of mashed grapes too long, because it’s then assumed a pagan broke in, danced on it and left, turning it into pagan wine which is the same as doing idolatry yourself, somehow. And it goes on.
There’s other examples as well, of course. Puritans got worked up about Catholic-seeming practices within the Church of England, although I don’t remember which ones, off the top of my head.
That seems likely, zealots love a good dividing line. I’m reminded of all the weird obsessing in the Mishnah about wine because the non-Jews of the period used it in sacrifices.
Well there were also times it was unsafe to use red wine because the non-Jews were looking for any excuse to claim it was the blood of Christian babies.
This was before that - Avodah Zarah is the one I actually read through.
Like, you can’t leave a barrel of mashed grapes too long, because it’s then assumed a pagan broke in, danced on it and left, turning it into pagan wine which is the same as doing idolatry yourself, somehow. And it goes on.
There’s other examples as well, of course. Puritans got worked up about Catholic-seeming practices within the Church of England, although I don’t remember which ones, off the top of my head.