Hope no one minds, but since this looked like a separate topic, I thought I'd throw it into a new thread.
This is really a good question, and one that hasn't gotten much attention. The late Roger Morse in his publications on mead briefly mentions the sacramental use of mead in Judaism, or the problems in making a kosher mead when kosher law did not recognize the use of yeast, but there's not much more than that.
I think Morse had "sacramental" confused with "kosher." To the best of my knowledge, mead is not used in Jewish liturgy. It does play a part in the Passover celebrations, from what little I've been able to find on the 'net on this subject, however, this would have been during the family gatherings and not part of the worship service itself. Mead does show up in Jewish folklore, more specifically, Ashkenaz Judaism, the Judaism of Eastern Europe. Here, mead as an important part of the culture of Eastern Europe became assimilated into the general culture of the Jewish people.
I've found online versions of the Jewish Talmud and done searches, but there does not seem to be any mention of mead. Honey is given discussion, and there was a honey wine of sorts but not a true mead, i.e., fermented from honey. Mead lore seems to have entered Jewish culture through the culture of Eastern Europe.
) Back in the Ukraine, my great-grandmother used to make mead for Passover but not for ritual use, that is she wanted to provide family and guests with a nice tipple that was leaven-free, a requirement for being Passover-kosher. I do wonder how she managed to get it to ferment without yeast of some sort, for all yeast is prohibited for Passover use; in any case she and her family were very poor people who probably couldn't afford yeast of any description. My grandmother told my Dad that the honey drink was called Med and tasted "like sweet beer", so I assume it was a very young, hopped mead created for short-term consumption.
