54. Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, 



bidden in the seventh year, but the cleaning out of the vine- 

 branches was permitted i. This was really a piece of bad 

 legislation, because the vinestalks exhausted themselves by 

 over-production and they were much harder to cut in the 

 following year. 



The preferred kind of grape seems to have been the dark 

 blue grape, which furnished a dark red wine. This is indicated 

 by the designation of "blood of the grape" (nD3?-d-i, ti^^^y n"i)2 

 for the grape-juice. Another indication that the inhabitants of 

 Palestine cultivated particularly the red or dark blue grape vines 

 is the name pl'liJ^ or npllZJ* for a special wine, which undoubtedly 

 received its name from its red grapes. Later, however, the 

 cultivation of the white grapes superseded that of the red and 

 dark blue grapes. At what time this change took place is hard 

 to tell but with the beginning of the Middle Ages the export of 

 Palestinian wines was that of white wines. In the vicinity of 

 Jerusalem, of the two kind of Tai>uke-v'mes, the one bears white 

 grapes, the other dark blue grapes, Only the latter, together 

 with the white Ds/ieHda/e-gra.pe, are used for the making of 

 wijie, while the white Tabuke grape is eaten ^ 



The vintage (-|2D, "I'^iD, fTi'^SD) was a time of great rejoicing^ 

 as in all wine-growing countries. But this festive, joyful mood 

 is much greater in the Orient than in Europe, where early frosts 

 often disturb this joy. In the Orient after the blazing summer 

 heat generally follow beautiful days, which greatly help to make 

 the time of the vintage the most favored season of the year. 

 The inhabitants of Shilo celebrated at the end of each year 

 (D'^^'in nsipnb I. Sam. l, 20) the hag Yahveh, ni)T^ an, which 

 was the old festival of the gathering of grapes and olives. It 

 developed later into a general harvest festival, the C|'^cxn UH 

 at which the young girls used to perform dances. This festi- 

 val of Shilo was not merely of a local character, but accord - 



i) Lev. 25, 5. 



2) Gen. 49, 11; Dt. 32, 14; comp. Gen. 49, 12; Is. 63, 2ff.; Prov. 23, 31; 

 Sir. 50, 15; I. Mace. 6, 34; Matth. 26, 27 ff.; Apoc. 14, 19 ff. 



3) Is. 5i 2; Jer. 2, 21. 4) Gen. 49, 11. 



5) Anderlind, Die Rebe hi Syrien, insbesondere Palestina, ZDPV , XI, 

 p. 161. 



6) Judg. 9, 27; Is. 16, 10; Jer. 25, 30; 48, 33. 



