On a recent visit to the Sonoma Valley, I learned that all wine grapes are grated-a graft is made onto an existing root stock. Much the same is true for fruit trees-you cannot grow a fruit tree from seed, since the actual branches producing the fruit are all grafts. Yet, the OT forbids the practice-I wonder why?
And, how do Israeli vintners and fruit farmers get around this?;j
They get around this because it doesn’t say this. It doesn’t say, “No grafting”, it says, “No planting two different kinds of seeds together in the same vineyard.” There’s a difference.
The bible is big on not mixing two unlike things. You can’t plant two different kinds of seed in your vinyard, can’t yoke two different kinds of animals to your plow, can’t wear two different kinds of fabric.
Right, those are all in Deuteronomy 22–but it doesn’t say, “You can’t graft fruit trees.” It says, “You can’t plant two different kinds of seed together.”
If you’re going to extrapolate Deut. 22 to mean “no mixing of unlike things” in general, then why stop with grafting? Why not include martinis, macaroni and cheese, and plastic slip covers on a leather couch?
Actually, the general ban on crossbreeding different plant species is in Leviticus (19:19); the prohibition on crossbreeding animals is there too, in the same verse, and so is the one on wearing different kinds of fabric. (To be exact, that last one refers specifically to mixtures of wool and linen, as explicitly stated in Deut. 22:11.)
FYI-Trees are harmed in the transmission of this message cuz my electricity has a significant portion coming from pulp burning plants.