Editing Louis Ginzberg (section)

==Responsa==
One of Ginzberg's responsa concerns the use of wine in the Jewish community during the [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition Era]]. The [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], ratified on January 16, 1920, declared that "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of [[Alcoholic beverage|intoxicating liquors]] within ... the United States ... for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." The subsequent [[Volstead Act]] defined "intoxicating liquors" and provided for several exceptions, one of which as for [[Sacramental wine|sacramental]] use. The [[Christian Church]] was able to successfully regulate the use of ceremonial wine. The clergy could easily monitor the nominal amount of sacramental wine that each worshipper drank, especially because it was usually drunk only in Church and only on Sundays (for the [[Eucharist|communion or Eucharist]] ceremony). This was not the case for the Jews, who needed a greater quantity of wine per person. Furthermore, the wine was drunk in the privacy of the home on [[Shabbat]], [[Jewish holidays]], [[Jewish wedding|weddings]], and ''[[brit milah]]'' (circumcision) ceremonies. This alone would have made the regulation of ceremonial wine complicated. It was not difficult for crooks to rig illegal "wine synagogues" to trick the government to receive their wine which would then be bootlegged.<ref name="Sprecher">{{cite journal |last1=Sprecher |first1=Hannah |title=Let 'Them' Drink and Forget 'Our' Poverty: Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition|journal=American Jewish Archives |date=1991 |volume=43 |page=135 |url=https://sites.americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1991_43_02_00_sprecher.pdf}}</ref>

While contemporary Orthodox Jewish authorities are generally permissive of [[grape juice]] as a wine substitute,<ref>{{cite web|title=May We Use Grape Juice for the Arba Kosot? - Part One|first=Chaim|last=Jachter|url=https://www.koltorah.org/halachah/pesach/may-we-use-grape-juice-for-the-arba-kosot-part-one-by-rabbi-chaim-jachter |work=Kol Torah |date=10 July 2018 |access-date=2021-09-12}}</ref> Orthodox rabbis of the 1920s soundly rejected its use.<ref name="Sprecher"/> The [[Reform Judaism|Reform movement]] in 1920 proclaimed that grape juice be used instead of wine to eliminate future complaints. Shortly afterwards, on January 24, 1922, the [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative movement]] publicized the 71-page response written by Ginzberg tackling the ''halakhic'' aspects of drinking grape juice instead of wine in light of the historical circumstances. Besides Ginzberg's well-grounded decision to permit grape juice, he includes meta-''halakhic'' reasoning:

{{Block quote|The decision of the author of [[Avraham Gombiner|Magen Abraham]] that the commandment is honored best by the use of old wine is rejected. Even this authority would admit that it is better to pronounce the ''[[kiddush]]'' over new wine than to [[Chillul Hashem|desecrate the Divine Name]] and to disgrace the Jewish people, and we well know the damage caused the Jewish people by the trafficking in sacramental wine.}}

At the time of Ginzburg's responsum, the Orthodox rabbinate had exclusive authority to sanction sacramental wine for Jews, and the responsum was thought by the Orthodox community to be tainted by self-interest.<ref name="Sprecher" />