Q. Dear Rabbi,
My husband and I will be posted to an army base in Inuvik for 3 months beginning Jan 2013. We are not religious but we do perform the Kiddush ceremony every Friday night. Normally we use "kosher" wine for the Kiddush. Since kosher wine is not available on the base, can we use regular wine for the ceremony? A friend of mine (she is very religious) told me that the prohibition against using regular non-kosher wine is no longer applicable because wine makers don't worship idols (or something to that effect).
Thank you.
A. The restrictions on non-kosher wine apply today as in the past. (That is indeed why we have certified kosher wine). When kosher wine is not available, you can recite Kiddush on the two chalos (kosher too). You would wash your hands for the bread prior to beginning the Kiddush recitation, and you hold the breads while saying it. You then substitute the bracha of Pri Hageffen with Hamotzi (O.H. 272,9). If no kosher bread is available you may use two matzos. If that is not available either, you may use beer instead.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
