Wine

Some of the few intact Phoenician gravestones feature grapes, as do many Roman graves. I could never figure out the pun though, until I found that the Arabic word for “wine” is different from the standard Hebrew / Aramaic / Phoenician one: In Arabic, the most common word for “wine”& “alcohol” is خمر ḫmr khamr. And that is very similar to خمار ḫmˀr khimar, a very common word for “veil”.

The words are likely related: The basic common meaning of the word root is “covering to keep something warm and fermenting”. From that you get the 2 meanings “wine” & “veil”.

Both words also exist in Hebrew & Aramaic, they’re just somewhat rare, and spelled differently (see below). But the Phoenician spook overlords must have known both words & meanings, since their Semitic-speaking bureaucracies covered the entire Fertile Crescent, and many regions beyond.

That may also be the reason why only Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol, while Judaism merely forbids the consumption of blood: Arabic ḫmr for “wine” puns with ḫmr for “veil”. Hebrew dm for “blood” puns with dmh for “disguise”. ˀkl for “consumption” puns with glh for “revealing”, so both laws mean the same thing: Spooks mustn’t reveal a veil or disguise! But since ḫmr for “wine” is rare in Hebrew, and dmh for “disguise” is rare in Arabic, the spook overlords apparently figured it was easier to use different puns for their religions in different languages. That’s either because spooklings who didn’t speak foreign dialects couldn’t have easily memorized them. Or because otherwise they couldn’t have made their subjects to unwittingly sermonize spook law for them.

• In this sense, Hebrew לא אכל חמר lˀ ˀkl ḥmr la akal khamar means: “Do not consume wine!”
• And Hebrew לא גלה חמר lˀ glh ḥmr la galah khamer means: “Do not reveal a veil!” …if we use the Arabic meaning of ḥmr / ḫmr.

Needless to say, there’s nothing wrong with not drinking wine, or with drinking wine.