Shalom!

The winery where I work provides custom crush facilities for very small producers. This year, for the first time, we have kosher wine being made on premise. It's been an interesting cultural experience but also a bit stressful. Only the 2 rabbis and their Orthodox winemaker are allowed to touch anything involved in the process: grapes, yeast, tanks, pumps, filters etc. If the equipment stops working, we have to call a cell phone #. If the power goes out, we can't turn it back on. If we accidentally touch the tank, the wine cannot be labeled kosher.

And I am an awful person. Because each time I walk by the tank with big Caution signs on it, I want to reach out a fingertip and touch the stainless steel. No one but God would see me. No one else would know that the wine had been contaminated by an unbeliever.

But I won't do it. Maybe it's my Catholic guilt. Maybe it's because I don't want to get fired. Or maybe it's because sacred is sacred, even if, as an outsider, I can't really believe fully. Still, it will be relief when the wine is bottled and removed from temptation.