In response to a request from Israel’s Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Dovid Lau Shlita and Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita, Minister of Religious Services David Azoulai has ordered abolishing the costs associated with local religious councils around the country selling chametz for businesses.

The previous directive issued earlier this month by the head of the supervision and control division of the Ministry of Religious Services states that a business owner who has a kosher certificate will not be required to pay for the sale of chametz in his possession.

The ministry released a directive that a store that has a local rabbinate hechsher year-round is not required to pay for the sale of its chametz for Pesach. Regarding a store that does not have a local rabbinate hashgacha year-round, the charge decided upon by the Ministries of Justice and Finance is NIS 130 for the service.

This directive led the Chief Rabbis to fear that small grocery stores for example, which as a rule do not have hashgacha year-round, will not sell their chametz since they will have to pay NIS 130. Hence, the Chief Rabbis turned to Azoulai who in turned eliminated the need for any store to have to pay to sell chametz ahead of Yomtov. The Ministry of Religious Services responded and eliminated the earlier directive requiring stores with a hechsher to pay the fee for selling chametz.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)