Aging Improves
“And to his father he sent the following: ten he donkeys carrying of the best of Egypt” (Genesis 45:23). Rashi explains: “‘the best of Egypt’— aged wine, which the elderly appreciate.” Wine is one of the few things for which the old is better than the new. Therefore, the elderly appreciate aged wine, because it expresses the superiority of the old over the new. (Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot)
Good Wine Improves
Aged wine improves only if it was good wine to begin with. But if the wine was inferior at the outset, the more it ages, the more it spoils. Aging is likewise a virtue in a person, but this depends on what he was in his youth. (Rabbi Shlomo Alter)
Through Exile
The wine Yosef sent his father alludes to the “wine of Torah” that the Jewish people merited through the exile in Egypt. This is what is meant by the verse (Genesis 49:11), “A man will harness his donkey to a vine”— in order to merit the wine of Torah, a person must be like a donkey carrying a load. (the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek)
Helpful Drinking
The custom is that when one says “L’chaim,” the response is “L’chaim tovim u’leshalom”—“to good life and peace.” This is because the first time drinking wine is mentioned in the Torah—regarding Noach—the consequences were negative. Likewise, the Tree of Knowledge was a grapevine. Therefore, we bless that this wine should be “for good life and peace.” (Hayom Yom)
