rosends
Well-Known Member
I was studying a little talmud yesterday, Tractate Avodah Zarah and I came upon the injunction against using Hadrianic pottery. Gosh, one is led to wonder, what's the problem with Hadrianic pottery?
Apparently, Hadrian had access to a really fresh, uncultivated plot of land. He planted grapes and they were some awesome grapes, from which, he made some exceptionally good/strong wine. He then took the wine and stored it in these really new clay vessels (this is one understanding of the story). The fresh pottery of the jugs absorbed a bunch of wine so the soldiers would break the jugs and carry pieces of them when they went out to do whatever it is soldiers do. When they craved wine, they would take some water and steep the pottery shards in the water. There was so much wine embedded and it was so potent, that it, yes, "magically" turned water into wine. The talmud finishes by saying that our regular wine is of the strength/quality of the third soaking of those pieces of pottery.
So it must have looked miraculous to someone who didn't know about this process. Imagine if someone picked up a piece of pottery that looked stained and wanted to clean it, so he dropped it into a pot of water and then he ended up with wine!
Apparently, Hadrian had access to a really fresh, uncultivated plot of land. He planted grapes and they were some awesome grapes, from which, he made some exceptionally good/strong wine. He then took the wine and stored it in these really new clay vessels (this is one understanding of the story). The fresh pottery of the jugs absorbed a bunch of wine so the soldiers would break the jugs and carry pieces of them when they went out to do whatever it is soldiers do. When they craved wine, they would take some water and steep the pottery shards in the water. There was so much wine embedded and it was so potent, that it, yes, "magically" turned water into wine. The talmud finishes by saying that our regular wine is of the strength/quality of the third soaking of those pieces of pottery.
So it must have looked miraculous to someone who didn't know about this process. Imagine if someone picked up a piece of pottery that looked stained and wanted to clean it, so he dropped it into a pot of water and then he ended up with wine!
