Drinking in Company: The Other Prohibition

Almost every question on this site is about what is in the drink. This one is not.

The Sages prohibited drinking the alcoholic drinks of non-Jews in their company — and the prohibition applies even where the drink is entirely kosher, certified, with no question about any ingredient in it.

What it covers

Drinks made from barley, dates, figs and anything comparable that brings a person to drunkenness — which in current terms takes in beer, whisky, cognac and the rest.

Not because of what is in them. Because of what drinking together does.

The reason

The Gemara asks directly why the beer of non-Jews was prohibited, and the answer given is intermarriage: that someone who accustoms himself to drinking and holding gatherings in that company will, in time, find himself marrying into it.

A second reason offered is a concern about uncovered liquid — but the practice follows the first.

Notice the shape of it. This is not a claim about the drink. It is a recognition that shared drinking is one of the most reliable ways that social closeness forms, which is exactly what the enactment was aimed at.

The crucial limit: it is about the setting

And here is what makes this rule unusual, and easy to get wrong in both directions.

Unlike the prohibitions on bread, cooked food and wine — which apply everywhere — this one applies only when drinking in the non-Jew's house. Bring the same drink home and drink it there, and it is permitted.

The Gemara preserves the practice of two Amoraim on exactly this: one would have the drink brought out of the shop and drink it outside; another would take it home and drink it there. Both were addressing the same concern, with the second taking a further step of distance.

So the rule does not make the drink forbidden. It makes the occasion forbidden.

Why bread is stricter than beer

A neat explanation is given for why the Sages were stricter about bread than about drink: a person lives by bread, so it requires more distancing, because there is more closeness of mind in sharing it.

That is a striking piece of reasoning — the severity tracks how much intimacy the sharing actually creates, not how significant the food is in itself.

It is also worth knowing that Tosfos observes the prohibition on drink is found in neither Mishnah nor Beraisa, and may originate with the Amoraim — which is part of why it is treated as narrower than the others.

What this means today

This is the rule behind a distinction people notice without being able to name: why a certified beer raises no question in your kitchen and a different question at an office gathering or in a bar.

How it applies to modern settings — a work function, a client dinner, a neighbour's barbecue — is genuinely a matter for your rav, and practice varies. What is worth taking from the sources is that the concern is specific and intelligible: it is about regular, sociable drinking in company, not about the liquid.

See also whisky and sherry casks and is beer kosher, both of which are about what is in the glass.