By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

No, this is not an article about money from non-kosher sources. It is an article about non-kosher money. Literally.

It seems that a spokesperson for the Bank of England recently stated that they have just become aware that the polymer used to make Britain’s new Five Pound Bank note contains tallow. The tallow, explained the spokesperson, is used to make the note more anti-static. Tallow, of course, is chemically treated animal fat.

The news had reverberations. A petition to the Bank of England to remove the tallow from the new notes has now gathered more than 120,000 signatures.

The Bank of England responded that its supplier was now “working intensively” to find a possible solution to the issue, adding that the issues “has only just come to light.”

Religious leaders of various religions were up in arms. Students of history are well aware that the Indian Rebellion of 1857 was caused because the British put tallow on the cartridges of the newly issued Enfield P-53 rifles. This caused mass rebellion by the Hindu and Muslim native troops.

Animal activists and vegans were also aghast at the revelations of the bank notes. “The new British note is non-kosher,” ran some headlines of Jewish papers last week. Pandemonium was about to erupt.

IS IT REALLY NON-KOSHER?

No one would really contemplate the possibility that there is a genuine kashrus problem. However, the discussion will help educate us in terms of some fascinating principles in the world of Kashrus. And so, we will deal with the following questions, exploring any possible chumrah – stringency.

If a hot pot of cholent were to be placed upon the British bank-note and there is liquid in between, does the pot become treif? Or, if some cholent fell on the note, may one eat the cholent? Is the amount of tallow considered batel, halachically insignificant, in the eyes of Jewish law?

The Five Towns Jewish Times spoke to the manufacturers of the British Pound note. Patricia Potts, a spokeswoman at Innovia Films, confirmed to the paper that there are indeed “minute” traces of tallow in the company’s polymer. She estimated that it is less than .0005 percent of the total weight of the pound note. She also said that the supplier had used tallow to help make the material more “anti-static.” She declined to name the supplier.
“They are looking to eliminate that, but obviously that will take time,” Potts said. “It’s a very difficult process.”

Potts said that Innovia Films did not know until recently that animal fats were being used. She said the company has a policy to never “knowingly add any animal ingredients into our products.”

Innovia Films supplies polymer to 23 other countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand, for use in currency. Potts was unable to say whether polymers used in the other countries also contain animal fats.
Central banks have been switching to polymer cash in recent years because the flexible material resists dirt and lasts longer than paper cash. It also has some robust security features that are only possible with plastic money.

Clearly, the amount that is used is less than a sixty to one ratio – the operative number when it comes to kosher and non-kosher. However, there are times when even if it less than one sixtieth we are stringent.

DAVAR HAMAAMID

Although we can assume that there is not that much tallow in the polymer, perhaps it is not considered halachically batel (insignificant) because it may be a davar hamaamid (See end of YD Siman 87:11). A davar hamaamid is something that solidifies or gives form or structure to the underlying food. Rennet, for example, is a group of enzymes that causes milk to coagulate and become cheese. This is the rationale why we do not say that the rennet, animal product, used in the production of cheese is batel. Even though it is less than one sixtieth, if it came from a non-kosher source – the entire mixture is non-kosher.

Gelatin is also used as a stabilizer and as a thickening agent. It too is considered a davar hamaamid.

Nonetheless, an anti-static would not be considered a davar hamaamid. The Nodah BiYehudah (MT YD Siman 56) rules that the meat that they place in whiskey to remove the sharpness is also not considered a davar hamaamid. Certainly that would apply here as well.

IKKAR TIKKUNO BEKACH

There is another fascinating issue as well, which is a debate between the Rashba (Vol. III #214) and the Noda BiYehudah (MT YD Siman 56). The Rashba writes that we do not say bitul when that is the standard method in which the item is made. The laws of bitul, states the Rashba, are only if it happens by accident. The issue is discussed in the Beis Yoseph at the end of Yore Deah Siman 134. The Mogain Avrohom also rules like the Rashba (OC 442). The Mishna Brurah as well is stringent like the Rashba’s opinion.

The Responsa Melamed L’Ho’il (Rav Dovid Tzvi Hoffmann – no relation to the author) concludes that when Jews settle a new place, they may rely upon the Noda BiYehudah, but after an infrastructure has been developed in that place, they should be stringent like the Rashba’s opinion. This seems to be the rationale why people consume whiskeys with no supervision because they believe that whiskey consumption is still likened to an area where there is no infrastructure and they rely on the Noda BiYehudah’s opinion.

This may also be a contributing factor as to the reason why our parents’ (or grandparents’) generation often relied on reading the ingredients of an item and often ate without a hashgacha.

CHEMICAL CHANGES

Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky (Achiezer Vol. III #31 and 33:5) discusses whether chemical changes in the animal product would render it inedible and thus would remove it from the status of non-kosher. This is based upon Rema’s ruling (Yoreh De’ah 87:10) that if the skin of a calf’s stomach was completely dried out, then it was permissible to use it. This is because dried skin is inedible and considered like a piece of wood. According to Yoreh Deah 99:1 we find a similar idea regarding dried out bones of a non-kosher animal.

Here, however, the nature of the tallow remains unchanged. The cases of which the Achiezer referred to involved fundamental changes in the nature of non-kosher. Its use here as an anti-static shows that the tallow remains intact. It could be, however, that the combination of the tallow with the other chemicals and products in the bank note have causes a chemical change in the end product. We must also weigh in, however, that Dayan Yitzchok Weiss zt”l in his Minchas Yitzchak (Vol. I #52) states that the Poskim have, in general, rejected the approach that chemical changes bring about halachically significant rulings as to the status of the non-kosher item.

TRANSFER OF TASTE THROUGH A POT

It should be noted that there is transfer of taste, from a halachic perspective, from outside of a pot to inside a pot. For example, if milk spills on the outside of a cholent pot – its taste can possibly transfer through the pot. There are actually three opinions on this. Some say that the taste transfers through to the other side and transfers throughout the pot. Others say that it remains on the other side on the opposite spot. And a third opinion states that the taste remains on the outside of the pot. This is called “Bliyah mitoch hadofen” and we are stringent like all three opinions.

Taste only travels, however, through a liquid medium. Placing the pot on a dry treif surface is forbidden, ideally, but bdi’eved would be permitted. Thus if there was no liquid in between the British pound not and the cholent pot, it would not become treif.

CONCLUSIONS

Notwithstanding all of the above, the Rashba’s logic is only in regard to food items. They were never stated and just would not apply in the case of a non-food item. These bills are non-food items. Also, the very rationale of the Rashba is that bitul b’shishim is only ineffective when it is the normal method of manufacturing. Here, no one purposefully puts money next to their food. Thus even the Rashba would say that the tallow is insignificant.

Hopefully this excursion into the theoretical helped educate us in the beautiful heritage that is our Torah. As far as the tallow is concerned – vesain tallow u-mutar livracha..

The author can be reached at [email protected]