Rebitzen Tzviya Eliyahu, the widow of HaGaon HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu ZT”L feels a store that employs Arabs should not be given a hashgacha. She explains that for her, she eats exclusively at home, not at events and not even on planes when she traveled. “We took fruit and crackers along when we traveled” she explained.
Rebitzen Eliyahu explains the rav was stringent and did not eat anywhere. He would only eat pitot from Nechama Bakery because the latter did not employ Arabs like other well-known bakeries. She adds the rabbi would check and saw how Arabs “Would wipe their noses and this too was in the dough. He ran home immediately and never returned and told me ‘Rabbanit, you are never to buy from this bakery again, simple as that’”.
Mrs. Eliyahu explained that on another occasion, a woman who worked in another famous bakery came to her and told her she saw Arabs made a dough and then dragged it along the floor of the kitchen. She quotes the woman saying “I was the only one there who saw this. I told you not to eat a thing from this bakery for this is what the Arabs do. Look at the evil, look at the hate. They do this out of hate”.
The rebitzen adds one should only buy from Jews, one who is a Yirei Shomayim for there is no trusting a goy, “Even in his grave”. She explains this is because they all hate Jews and “he cannot maintain kashrus for me. Don’t ask me why the Rabbinate gives a hashgacha to these stores. On the days the rabbonim come around to check they do not do such things as if they care”.
Regarding fish and meat, the situation is more complicated. “Certainly one must only buy from a trustworthy Jew. The rav only ate poultry that was shechted here at home in my kitchen. The rav checked the chicken to make sure it was okay as well as checking the knife before shechita. We did the salting and soaking here too. The children and grandchildren saw the chickens running around before shechita. One explained he no longer wanted to eat poultry. It was a real nut house in the kitchen once, when we had chicken for three months. Our shochet traveled abroad every few months and we had just run out of children. So we did without. Either one lives by one’s principles or not. Either one has Yiras Hashem or not…”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
“…and we had just run out of children.”
Huh?????
Interesting point! But the prices of non Jewish workers vs. Jewish ones is prohibitively expensive.
The fact that they’re bloodthirsty for our blood ought be the fact that she doesn’t really seem to mention. In the states, the Mexican workers are no different as far as cleanliness is concerned.
“Our shochet traveled abroad every few months and we had just run out of children. So we did without.”
I think you meant to say ……..”we had just run out of chicken.” Not children.
She explains this is because they all hate Jews —#1
It is a well known fact that Rav Eliyahu zt”l stated on many occasions not to employ ARAB WORKERS and so did Rav Chaim just recently. We will have to pay higher fees for non-Arab workers….end of story!
“Rebitzen Tzviya Eliyahu, the widow of HaGaon HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu explains that for her, she eats exclusively at home, not at events and not even on planes when she traveled. “We took fruit and crackers along when we traveled”
Ahhh. Memories of my mother O”H. She would not eat anywhere for Kashrus and cleanliness.
There was a well known Chasidishe Ruv who lived in Los Angeles in the 60’s & 70’s. He would come to our home to have coffee and “Kokosh, Makosh and/or Tzimring” made with geyurente tayg. He would say “Please don’t let anyone know that I eat here since I won’t eat anywhere else but in my own home.”
It started when we moved to the L.A. Community in 1960. This Ruv came over to the apartment that we lived in, as was the custom of that period, to inspect the apartment and ask my parents about Tznius issues (ie. do you wear a sheitel, do you wear tznius clothing, is there 1 bed or 2 in the master bedroom, mikveh, etc.) and kashrus issues. In those days many “frum” families were not as educated in holocho because they came to the US after the Holocaust and had no formal education or were too young to remember what was done in the heim.
This Ruv noticed a pot of water covered with a dish towel sitting at the edge of the counter and asked my mother what it was for. My mother replied that she was soaking raisins to use in the dough to make it Mezonos. The Ruv cried and said that he hadn’t seen it done that way since before the war, in his mother’s home.
She should live and be well but I wouldn’t rely upon her as a posek on matters of kashruth. Her comments are a mix of racist stereotypes about arab workers in food service establishment (I can’t tell you about horrible personal hygiene I’ve seen displayed at ostensibly the most machmir restaurants with Badatz hashgachot) and simply nutty statements about turning her kitchen at home into a shlachtohois with the children running around (or was it the shochet “running out of children”??). Anyway a funny article but check with your local rav or posek (and condo assoaciation) about shechting chickens in the kitchen of your apartment.
I thought it is assur to take fruit out of Eretz Yisrael. I admire the Rabbanit for her convictions and acting on them, but I have no idea which bakeries & stores only employ Jews. Even the fish store on Meah Shearim (under Eidah Chareidis) has Arab workers.
One of my friends who worked as a mashgiach at a famous and large bakery in Jerusalem was fired because he insisted that the Arabs wash their hands after coming out of the toilet. His bosses did not care if they did or didn’t but were afraid that my friend was going to cause problems so he was fired.
In a restaraunt in Jerusalem, I was in the toilet room and saw an Arab finish doing his thing, did not wash his hands, walk to the restaurant and start to work. I complained to the manager, but nothing happened.
A buddy who worked in a big and famous meat processing plant in Atarot (north Jerusalem) said the Arabs never would wash their hands and the Jewish bosses did not care. Sometimes the Arabs would drop the meat on the dirty floor and pick it up with out washing it off. My friend (and I) can never eat from that brand again, even thought it has a great hechsher.
This is such an obvious point (and not because of hygienic reasons). But leave it to the pilpulists of our generation to justify funding our enemy in order to save some shekels. Rav Chaim Kanievsky, along with many others, already paskened that hiring Arabs is strictly forbidden nowadays. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
Why id the Rebbetzin in the picture crying?
Yaapchick,
Your racist comments are as disgusting as the rebbitzen’s.
Voth of you should do tshuva and ask HaSem for forgiveness
1. Even the Zionist regime would never tolerate a government recognized hecksher that discriminated against non-Jews (including Arabs) who actively aupport the state (e.g. serving in the IDF).
2. She also said he didn’t trust any hecksher and slaughtered his own. I don’t think that is a proposal aimed at the wider public.
3. The opinion of a Rebbitzin isn’t that significant unless she is engaged in running the business, which she wasn’t.