Why L’chaim is Said Only on Wine and Alcohol

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program. I want to share what Rabbi Mindel answered to someone who asked him a question, and there are notations of the Rebbe on it.

The question was: why do we say l'chaim when we drink wine, and not on any other food? When we eat an apple we don't say l'chaim, we don't say it on a banana, or even on water — you could, but people say it on wine, on alcohol. What is the reason for saying so?

Rabbi Mindel gave an answer. He wrote it, and the Rebbe saw it and noted a few answers, and I'll read the answers now. This answer that I'm going to tell you right now — the Rebbe had a lot of questions, but only on this one, and I'll tell you what it is. The Rebbe had questions; I don't know why he writes like this: the Maharam Mintz says wine was the cause of the curse that came over the world in the time of Noach, when he became drunk.

So when we have wine, we pronounce — addressing the people present — that we drink wine moderately. We are stressing that we only want its strength and not its damaging power.

So here, it seems, he had questions on something. But this is what I have to tell you — another reason why we say l'chaim on wine: [unclear] says that man sinned by drinking wine from the Tree of Death, while we stress that we drink wine from the Tree of Life. So we say l'chaim on wine because wine was from the Tree of Death, so we say it should be "to life."

Another answer he writes: "Wine is part of the first meal given to a mourner over the loss of a relative" — used to have years ago — "in order to make a difference between the sad occasion and the happy moment." So when we drink wine we say l'chaim — that's another reason.

Now the Gemara gives another reason. The Gemara describes the procedure of the execution of someone condemned to death. The Gemara says that on the way to the execution, they would give the convict a cup of wine — Rabbi Mindel wrote, and the Rebbe wrote, as an act of grace — so that he would become slightly intoxicated and not be fully aware of what was facing him. So to make a difference between this cup of death and the cup of wine of life, we say l'chaim.

So there are many more reasons given for why we say l'chaim, but the idea is that wine has both the power of good and the power of bad, life and death. So when we say l'chaim, we tell each other that we only wish to consume the good, not the harmful, of wine.

Now, speaking about years ago, at the Rebbe's table by farbrengens, I remember the Rebbe had a bottle of Benedictine on the table. Later on, he didn't have it anymore.

So I once heard from Rabbi Groner, olov hasholom — he said that it's not because they found something wrong with the Benedictine. I don't remember exactly, but something happened: somebody gave the Rebbe the bottle, or the Rebbe overheard that person say that it has a little tzelem, a little cross, on the bottle. It has a little cross. As soon as the Rebbe heard "tzelem," from then on, no more — there's nothing. We still use it, but because the Rebbe heard that, everything is important. If that is what happened, the Rebbe doesn't use it anymore.

This reminds me of the same thing — also once on Pesach, you know, the Rebbe ate upstairs at 770 all the time, until the Rebbetzin passed away. They ate upstairs every Yom Tov, I think. So on Pesach they also ate there. So they served potato soup. The soup had potato starch in it. So the waiter — I think he put the potato-starch soup on the table and he said, "You know, we don't need it, but it looks like..." The Rebbe pushed away the plate, didn't eat. Even if you said "it looks like" — how important is every word that comes out of your mouth — if it's something negative, that's it.

So, talking about this, I wanted to mention to you about Benedictine. Many years ago the Rebbe used Benedictine all the time. A wine merchant wrote to Rabbi Mindel questioning the use of Benedictine, writing to Rabbi Mindel: "Has the Rebbe permitted the use of Benedictine, or not?" That's what he wrote. So he asked the Rebbe, and the Rebbe circled the word "permitted," and the Rebbe wrote, "It's known that I don't pass [judgment on such matters]..."

Now I'll tell you the background of what happened about Benedictine. There was a person by the name of Zalman Shazar. He was the president of Israel. Zalman Shazar every year would go to Chabad to join the Yud Tes Kislev farbrengen. In the year 5723, he was elected president of Israel. And there was a whole debate in Israel whether he would go, because before he was a private person, and now he's a president. So there was a whole debate. That year, not only did Zalman Shazar join the farbrengen with the people, but he also brought special regards from the Rebbe, a bottle of mashke, and that caused a big tumult — a big noise — in that circle. Many people wanted to know why the president participated in that.

So a journalist from a newspaper was there, and he asked — right after that — why they sent the Benedictine with Shazar, because there is a question: this liqueur is produced, it's known, by the monks, but the ingredients are a secret. So how are we sure that this Benedictine is kosher?

So this got to Rabbi Mindel, and he wrote down what he answered to this person. I'm not sure of the before and after, but I have the piece of paper, so I'll tell you what the Rebbe answered about Benedictine.

The Rebbe said like this: "It's already a custom of many years, by my father-in-law the Rebbe, and also by his father, the Rebbe, to use Benedictine. They were in the country where this liqueur is produced a number of times. They were there, and they did not have any suspicion that there was a problem — that other wine was mixed into it — and it's also clear that the method of production has never been changed. Moreover," the Rebbe writes, "there was an investigation into the matter again a few years ago, and this was again confirmed to be so. However, if not for the fact that this was the custom in the previous generation, and that my father" — meaning the Rebbe's father — "also used it, for which there is a reason that I will not go into now, I would not have renewed this custom." That's what he writes.

Then he writes, "I'm happy that there are those who are careful in the performance of mitzvos, like the ones who are questioning this. If only they would be as careful in all positive and negative mitzvos like this, it would be good."

Now, talking about drinking alcohol — anybody, especially [unclear] — I'm not going to speak about it today; maybe next week. I have a lot of question letters from the Rebbe, from people, from mothers, from husbands, from wives, that they have a problem with shalom bayis because their husband drinks, or because their children drink, and there are a lot of health problems. And the answers — it causes me pain regarding drinking mashke, how much the Rebbe was against it. And I'm shocked that still today there are people who drink mashke. What the answer about drinking mashke was — he gave a whole, a whole response which I have no time for today, but I think next week, or maybe in two weeks, I'm going to share with you what people asked, what people wrote, and the Rebbe's answer about not drinking alcohol. We should be very, very careful.

So maybe next week I'll share that with you. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.