Channel 2 News on Monday night, the eve of 9 Adar II ran a special report citing how Rabbanut and private “badatz” hashgachos continue to ignore a ruling of the Supreme Court of Israel. The court in its ruling decided that a hashgacha agency may set regulations pertaining to kashrus, but it may not compel a hotel or establishment to adhere to other standards, including modesty regulations.
Examples given in the report include a Rabbanut that is unwilling to grant a hotel or event hall a hashgacha for as long as it has belly dancers. The ruling also makes it illegal for a local rabbinate to demand a level of shmiras Shabbos in a hotel, including a non-Jewish concierge to handle Shabbos checkouts and similar chilul Shabbos matter. A regulation demanding that a hotel with a hashgacha bypass electronic door locks on Shabbos is also illegal as per the ruling.
The court states the Rabbanut may not make granting a hashgacha dependent on adherence to any of the regulations that are not directly related to the kashrus standard of food served.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
1. The “Rabbanut” is a government agency. It has nothing to do with Torah. If Netanyahu, Bennett and Lapid tell them a “psak” they are required to accept it. That’s what being part of the government means. If you don’t follow what the boss says, you get replaced. If Lapid says a pig is kosher, you better believe it.
2. The private hecksherim will refuse to do what the government says, and it is likely there will be an attempt to close them down. Many of the Dati Leumi have been arguing there should be one standard of halacha in the Medinah, and that includes the view that its a mitzvah to serve in the army as well as whose halacha to follow, and that anyone who doesn’t support the state should be treated as an enemy of the state. Given that the leading private hecksher belongs to a body that is the remnant of the pre-zionist “shadow government”, and in theory doesn’t even grant de jure recognition to the state, the zionists will be delighted to use their superior force to close it down.
If the “groisse poskim” in Israel’s Supreme Court really think that private hashgachos – including the mehadrin section of the Rabbanut – are going to kowtow to their version of kashrus, they are seriously delusional.
Even in the U.S., no Jewish establishment can get a decent hechsher if the business is not closed on Shabbos.
Beyond being ludicrous in its overreach, this is a serious breach of democracy and free enterprise – not that Israel’s Supreme Court has ever been bothered much by either one. No one is forcing any business to use a rabbanut mehadrin or any “badatz” hashgachah.
A business owner who wishes to cater to the stricter dati leumi or chareidi market should be free to make a business decision as to whether or not he wants to make himself amenable to that community’s standards. If he does that is his choice. And if he doesn’t, that is also his choice.
Either way, the Supreme Court has no business telling him what to do.
The simple solution is to create a new certificate category of “Shomer Mitzvos”, where the agency certifies that ALL pertinent halachos are being kept at the certified establishment, not merely “kashrus”.
Anyone who cares will hold to the new hechsherim and the old ones will be boycotted by anyone who knows what they’re doing. Hashgachos are for the benefit of the establishment, and the other hotels/restaurants will be smirked at when they call themselves “Kosher;” Only rubes and posers will accept them.
It is sad – and fascinating, too – that we are comng to a time where the government is painting the Orthodox into a corner and forcing us to choose between State and Religion. Didn’t the “extremist” chachamim of 50 years ago predict this, when they fought to NOT get involved in politics? We, the frum community in Israel, had a good run living in the best of both worlds, but that run is over. Let’s just hope that Hashem, berachamav, doesn’t punish us with midas hadin for our own excesses and complicity in the system.
the foolish freie are at it again, thinking that yiddishkeit is limited to eating kosher