Aug 12, 2021

Lieberman wants wine for kiddush

I am not sure if it was just discovered or realized, or if this is something new being added, but Hamechadesh is reporting that as part of the new tax on sugary drinks, the price of grape juice will increase by 17%. 

The new tax includes drinks beyond a certain amount of sugar, even if no sugar is added and it is natural fruit sugar (fructose?).

Hamechadesh points out that everyone who makes kiddush will be affected by this tax and grape juice is not being granted an exception as a basic necessity (necessity in the sense of being a high percentage of Jews in the State of Israel making kiddush on Friday nights and Shabbos morning).

A cynic would say that the entire tax was designed by Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman entirely around this to hurt the religious and the religious act of kiddush. More likely it is like an innocent pedestrian getting killed in a drive by shooting - unintended consequence. Probably a tiny amount of lobbying will get an exception granted.

The last possibility is that Lieberman wants to push us to drink less grape juice and more wine. I think wine is even more mehudar than grape juice from the mitzva perspective, so maybe Lieberman is trying to get us to do mitzvas in a better way!  Or, maybe the wine lobby is even behind it!





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5 comments:

  1. How does this compare to the liquor tax?

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  2. My wife is very allergic to the smell of grape juice. We have no objections to efforts to decrease the possibility of being exposed.

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    1. I'm very skeptical of that. How can one be allergic to a smell? And to grape juice and not wine? And why should the rest of society have to pay for this?

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    2. I suspect It's not the smell itself, but something the becomes airborne. Similar to some people with super sensitive peanut allergies - merely opening a bag of peanuts can send them into anaphylactic shock.

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