Rabbis who are counted among the veterans in the Tzohar Rabbis organization are circulating a petition objecting to the organization’s recent launch of an independent kashrus certification.

While Tzohar announced it is not seeking to compete with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, rabbonim opposing the initiative feel they are competing and they will contribute to the demise of the state kashrus system that has been in existence since established by Rav Kook ZT”L.

Among the rabbonim behind the petition is the rav of the community of Metar, Rabbi Moshe Beigal, a known kashrus expert, as well as the rav of Moshav Nov, Rabbi Uri Sadan. These are both rabbonim affiliated with Tzohar and perform marriages for Tzohar.

“We, the undersigned Rabbis of Tzohar, have been partners for years in the path of Tzohar, who is welcoming and bringing the Jewish people closer to its heritage and HKBH, volunteers in the wedding enterprise and other projects. We joyfully leave our homes in order to illuminate the luminosity of Israel’s tradition.” The letter was sent to the rabbis of Tzohar.

“We recently became acquainted with a new initiative by the organization to set up a private kashrus body, which aims to correct kashrus problems found in a number of local rabbinates. In contrast to the wedding project, this body will operate outside the framework of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, under the auspices of the High Court of Justice’s interpretation of the Kashrut Fraud Law, which allows private bodies to issue supervision certificates, as long as they do not use the word “kosher.”

Rabbi Beigal, who is considered one of the kashrus experts in religious Zionism, is one of the founders of the Torah and Land Institute and a member of the kashrut committee of the organization. He was involved in a number of Tzohar initiatives on kashrus, including a pilot training for Tzohar supervisors within the Chief Rabbinate, and an examination of the possibility of camera surveillance.

“Apart from the harm to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, we are very concerned that this step will open the door to bodies that are not halachically obligated to follow a similar path, and thus will seriously harm kashrus in the State of Israel.

We wish to express our opposition to the establishment of a private kashrus body by the organization in which we are members, without detracting from our support for the original goals of the organization to change the sense of Jewish identity of the residents of Israel by improving the encounter between the world of the rabbinate and the secular and traditional public. We call on Tzohar’s management to backdown from the kashrus project and return to dealing with subjects that bring Judaism, love and brotherhood closer to Israel. ”

At this stage, rabbis are signing dozens of rabbis who are participating in Tzohar’s wedding project.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)