DEUT1160 Do not eat of produce grown from “mixed seeds” (kila’yim) in your vineyard. The more that any given thing is likely to be a stumbling block, the more Hashem places restrictions on it and puts us at a distance from it. Without question, wine presents a great number of stumbling blocks, and untold number of souls have been led to ruin by it. As is known, wine awakens man's yetzer hara (evil inclination) and pushes aside his noble aspect--the yetzer hatov. Man’s evil inclination-- the baseness in him-- wants him only to eat, drink, lounge around and sleep. Wine is a major cause for this style of life. On the other hand, because wine does have some benefits, Hashem allows us to drink it when necessary. At the same time, since it is permitted only for certain essential purposes, if any trace of sin is associated with it at its outset--at the time of the planting of the vines--we are not to derive any benefit from it. Is enough that wine is a powerful stumbling block, so we certainly should not partake of it when a sin was committed in the original planting of the vine.
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