Backed up by police and IDF forces, inspectors of the Ministry of Agriculture raided an illegal egg operation in Hebron after staking out the area for a period of time.
Inspectors recovered 35,000 eggs, all marked with a forged stamp of approval in addition to the words “Kosher for Pesach”. The eggs were all packed and sealed, ready for delivery to Israel. The eggs and the machines used to stamp them were confiscated. The eggs will be destroyed. Two suspects, area residents in their 30s, were taken into custody.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
And according to which view of halacha do eggs need to have a hecksher? Was there a question that these were from something other than chickens? This story sounds dubious? Perhaps these were Arab farmers (the arrest was in the West Bank) who were undercutting the Israeli importers of Turkish eggs thorugh price competition?????????
Sounds like these were eggs in shell which DO NOT NEED A HECHSHER EVER!
So what was the problem here?
#2- In Israel fresh eggs are subject to veterinary supervision and inspection. Properly supervised/inspected eggs are all stamped. Some people in Israel raised the chashash that there may be chometz in the ink with which the eggs are stamped. To allay their fears Tnuva and other major distributors of fresh eggs use a special ink for Pesach that has been approved by the Bada”tz. Eggs stamped with this ink are also stamped ‘kasher lepesach’. It would seem that the Hebron facility was not using the special ink. I would also speculate that the eggs were collected from Arab farmers and did not, in fact, undergo any veterinary supervision or inspection.