The Winemaker | Rabbi Naftali Reich

Rabbi Berel Wein shared with me that at the very beginning of his illustrious career, he was a Kashrus director at the OU. And there was a very prominent winery in Upstate New York that wanted to make a run of Kosher wines, and they contacted the OU. Rabbi Berel Wein went up there to introduce them as to what it would entail to make a Kosher run of wine. He sat in the boardroom with the executives. They were fascinated to hear exactly the details of Kosher wine. And as they left the boardroom to give him a tour of the winery, the chief winemaker came out of his beautiful office and he said to the executives, You go back to the office. Let me give the good rabbi a tour of the winery. Well, they went around and Rabbi Wein noticed that wherever they went, this chief winemaker was accorded great respect. The various workers were coming over to him with glasses with wine from different vats and different barrels, and he gave them a little swish and a little taste, and he determined whether the wine's temperature needs to be adjusted a degree or two, whether it was ready to be transferred to a different barrel. And when they came back to the winemaker's office, a gorgeous wood-paneled office with beautiful sofas, and they sat down, Rabbi Wein said to him: Sir, I'm a little jealous of you. You have such an amazing job, and you're paid to drink wine all day. And the fellow said to him: Rabbi, let me share with you. My grandfather was a winemaker, my father was a winemaker and I am, too. And since I was a little child, I have not tasted any salt, any pepper, any ketchup, any mustard in our house. Everything is bland. The rice, the potatoes. Because my taste buds are so perfected, I can detect the mildest nuance and flavor in any wine, because I've restrained and restricted myself from polluting or compromising my taste buds. You think it’s a cushy job and it’s well paid, but it comes with a price. And so, too, Rabbi Wein shared, Yiddishkeit comes with a price. We want to taste the delight of a Shabbos. We want to taste the delight of a Tefillah, We want to taste the Oneg of what it means to be close to Hashem. We want to taste the יין המשומר, that’s waiting for us in Olam Haba. There's only one way. Holding in check our taste buds, to ensure that we’ll be zoche to that Every time we restrain ourselves, we know that we're really perfecting the delight of a true relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, an intimate, infinite, eternal relationship that will reward us forever and ever.