Newly elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau is in the news again, this time a Channel 2 report. The chief rabbi appears to be heading to a decision to cancel the planned burekas reform. This refers to a decision by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel of a number of weeks ago seeking to regulate the shape of burekas to differentiate between parve and dairy items. While kosher consumers seemed pleased with the plan, the union representing bakeries insist the new shapes and demands are too complicated.
It appears the new chief rabbi is opting to side with the bakers and he is going to cancel the plan to implement a nationwide regulatory plan to facilitate determining the dairy/parve status of burekas.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Obviousy Channel 2 is having a slow news day.
Have they also reported what Bibi are for breakfast this morning?
Rav Lau, shlita, is showing some real common sense which was unfortunately lacking in some of the prior decisions made by his predecessor. There is already too much regulation on the private sector and adding needless burdens and costs to products that are already 100 percent compliant with stringent kashruth laws makes zero sense. Hopefully, we will see more of these kinds of enlightened rulings going forward.
The Bakers are making a mountain out of a molehill.
How complicated is it to make a triangle or a square for milk products and round for Parev.
The UNION claims its too complicated? Who died and left them in charge?!!??!?!?!? The inmates are running the looney bin!!
GodolHadoroh: Do you understand the (significant) halacha issues here? This is a topic discussed in the gemarah, not some chumrastein’s bright idea. I am expressing no opinion, only that the issues here are significant, and not related at all to common sense.
Rav Lau shlit”a has more important matters to take care of with the chilonim than shapes of burekas.
#2 I’m not so sure about the kashruth laws. There is the tshuva of Rav Moshe about bread having to have some indication baked into it to indicate that it is dairy.
There is actually a significant Halachic issue here. The original decission on shapes is based on the Halacha that one is not allowed to bake Milchig bread without a siman that it’s milchig (or in very small quantities). While this Halacha relates to bread, and likely not other baked goods like bourekas, the issue of confusion that led to the Gemara’s gzeira on bread also would apply to bourekas, since they’re generally sold unwraped (no labels), and there are common versions that are both Milchig and Pareve – and other than the shape, it can be impossible to tell from the outside which is which.
This is the issue the Rabbanut, which aims to meet the needs of all Israelis (and not only the Lamdanim), was trying to address with the rules on shapes. By making it simple (triangle or curved – dairy, straight or rectangular – pareve), the traditional non-learned Israeli houswife (and her family) will not come to be nichshal.
an Israeli Yid
#6. I guess Kashrus isn’t that important an issue to you. If we can’t tell it apart, people may eat bosur with cholov. The original decision was correct.
“Nathan Der Weise: How complicated is it to make a triangle or a square for milk products and round for Parev.”
Clearly you think it’s not complicated. Have you ever visited one of these bakeries? Have you ever spoken with someone that works in one? Do you know that many of these bakeries have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, some millions, into the machines they use? With these machines, it’s not like you click a button and suddenly round, square, or heart shaped burekes pop out. These machines are highly specialized and require substantial planning and investment long in advance.
You should think a bit more before blurting out something thoughtless.
@Gadolhadorah It may not be “100 percent compliant with stringent kashruth laws” to make dairy the same shape as other products as people may get mixed up (happened to me). See shulchan arch yorei deah, somewhere near siman 87
No. 2: You have allowed your American right-wing political ideology – too much regulation of the private sector – to blind you to a genuine issue of halacha, which is Hashem’s regulation of the Jewish people and all aspects of Jewish life. I don’t know whether Torah requires pareve and dairy versions of similar foods to be shaped differently, but that is a halachic question for the gedolim, not amateurs like you and me. See, e.g., comment no. 11.