Avodah Zara 73: Relative Amounts of Liquid Required to Forbid

Unfortunately, today's blog was written and then accidentally erased before it was posted.

Because it is ere Pesach tonight, there is no more time to blog on the Talmud.  However, I can share the basic outline of today's daf.  A new mishna told us that if we pour grape products into a vat of wine, the wine is kosher as long as the grape products are less than 1/7 th of the entire mixture.  Less than that and the wine cannot be consumed.  

The notion of one type of food - differentiating itself form other types of food by substance, ritual status, etc. - affecting the status of another type of food speaks to a foreign perspective.  How can one thing be poisoned or ruined by another?  How can some things carry more sanctity than others?  As I have written earlier, sometimes it seems as though we are studying the transfer of cooties.