Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

Drink Offering

August 15, 2024

Q A complimentary gift card for a nonkosher online winery was inserted into an order that I received. May I use it to have a gift of wine sent to the home of my non-Jewish employee?

A Wine manufactured by a non-Jew is stam yeinam, which is treated mideRabanan as yayin nesech and is forbidden. Most nonkosher items may be used in ways other than eating or drinking, but no hana’ah (benefit) may be derived from yayin nesech (Y.D. 123:1).

The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 63b; Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 132:4; see Shach) discusses an employer allowing his non-Jewish employees to buy themselves wine on his account. It says that if the employer paid the vendor in advance, he would be considered the purchaser of the yayin nesech, and that is forbidden. But if the purchase was made on credit, then the employees are the purchasers, and the employer may step in later to pay the bill.

When a company issues a gift card, it legally owes the cardholder what the card promises. Whatever merchandise will later be bought with the card is effectively prepaid. So in your case, you are the purchaser, even though the wine never enters your possession. It is also forbidden for you to give the card to the employee as a gift.

But that’s only if the gift card is issued in your name (or to your email address), in which case you own the issuer’s debt. If the card has no addressee, and it is activated by entering on the issuer’s website a code printed on the card, then the gift is available to anyone who legitimately obtains the code. In that case, you may give the card to your employee as a gift, because you have no involvement in the purchase.