SATURDAY PRAYER: HOCHMA – GRACE FOR THE FIRST SHABBAT MEAL
READING: SUNSET FRIDAY
WINE IS THE LIGHT OF THE UPPER WISDOM
-by Rav Michael Laitman
Grapes belong to a very high level—the level of Hochma. Why is there a special ceremony of tasting wine and saying blessings for wine? The reason is that according to Kabbalah, wine represents the Upper Light, the Light of Wisdom, the Light of Hochma, not just because it is a useful product as they think nowadays.
Wine kills bacteria that live in it because the Upper Light treats, corrects, and fulfills all our desires completely. No matter how much dirt there is on the grapes, during the process of fermentation all dirt turns into sediment and the wine stays clean.
Collecting grapes and making wine is not an easy process. Kabbalah describes each nuance of this procedure: the type of grapes, the diameter of each grape is pro-rata to its external surface, the month the grape is collected, and on which side of the mountain relative to Jerusalem of where it grows, etc.
Usually, Kabbalists collect grapes before sunrise because the formidable force (Amtakat a-Dinim) that is present in wine “sleeps” at sunrise. It’s as if grapes sleep and wake up at the same time.