Israeli Government: "Selling Lulavs Is A Shady Business"

Matthew Wagner of the Jerusalem Post reports on more crime in the Orthodox world:

… Lulav importers and distributors are known for using less than equitable methods to obtain the highest prices possible. Wholesalers tell how lulav shipments are delayed by police after being "tipped" that they contain drugs. After the thorough search is completed, Succot is over and the lulavs are worthless. Other wholesalers tell of "mysterious" delays at Egyptian customs after key officials have been paid off. Threats of violence are used to coerce dealers to buy or not to buy according to the whims of the big importers.

"Selling lulavs is a shady business," [Meir] Mizrahi, [head of the Agriculture Ministry's Plant Protection and Inspection Services and Plant Quarantine Service,] said.

"It attracts all sorts of people. Some are truly honest. But others are criminal types."

Lulavs are used during Succot to perform the biblical commandment to "take... branches of palm trees" together with willow branches, a citron and myrtle branches and "rejoice before the Lord your God."…

Comments

[Rebtsvi]

Yes. It's a shady business that criminals have gotten involved with.

It has nothing to do with the religious community.

The Lulav scandal is all about NON-RELGIOUS JEWS preying on their Religious brethren.

[secularjew]

Not true Lulavs must be owned at each step of the transaction by Shomar Mitvot Jews or they are treif-Trust me. I always buy my lulav's from a kosher distributor

[Rebtsvi]

Secular Jew, absolute nonsense. No such rule exists. BS par excellance.

[anonymous]

The Lulav scandal is all about NON-RELGIOUS JEWS preying on their Religious brethren.

Where do you get this nonsense?

[anonymous]

The Jerusalem Post
September 24, 2004
Harvesting the holiday
--
The etrog is the most treasured of the four items and can cost hundreds of dollars for a perfect specimen. The fruit originated in the Far East and comes in two types: the thin-peeled, meaty, juicy Ashkenazi type and the thick- skinned, drier and larger Yemenite type.

The Kapulsky patisserie chain boasts sweets made of the latter and jams and juices made of the former; some shopping chains also sell dried citrons, which are considered to be very healthy. A small amount are even sold to cosmetics manufacturers.

Etrogs come in many varieties and a variety that is cherished by one sect or rabbinical court can be considered a mere citron by another.

Eliezer Daubeh is very proud of his etrog trees. "We grow a special Yemenite variety - Yachaveh De'ahn. It has the purest lineage that can be found," he says. "Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yossef has given his own special Hechsher to these ones. They're derived from a plant imported about 100 years ago by Rabbi Shalom Ha-Levi from Yemen. He then passed the plant onto the grandson of the Hafetz Hayim, who in the 1950's planted cuttings in three places - at his home in Jerusalem; in Motza; and in Abu Gosh. Later, when he realized they were getting old and withered, he gave me some cuttings to plant."

Today, Daubeh has 25 dumans spread over three plantations - in Kfar Ma'as; Nehalim; and Netzarim.

"We try not to think about what will happen when we have to uproot from Netzarim," he says. "Even if we replant mature trees, it takes four or five years until we can get a profitable crop. For the first three years, you're not allowed to use the crop. Then in the fourth year, you can get a small crop that's useable. So, besides the actual pain of uprooting, there's a commercial price to be paid."
--

That's not to say that your average Yeshiva boy is incapable of being suckered into buying a non-kosher etrog or, as your average car dealer would call it - a lemon.

Long before the fruits find their way into the buyers' hands however, Jewish experts carefully evaluate their quality and their fitness, verifying that they meet all the requirements of the law. If they do, they get stamped.

Jews are advised by notices, billboards, web sites and newspapers, to buy the Four Species from RELIABLE SOURCES.
--
Specialized market-places crop up throughout the country during those four fateful days and stores selling religious items boast complete sets of species - wrapped, sealed and stamped. But, whenever in doubt about the kashrut of a species, Jews are expected to ask a rabbi for his halachic decision.

Market manager Yakov expects about 70 vendors to be selling their wares this year. "The good thing about a market," he says, "is the variety of products to choose from; a choice you simply can't get in a store."

Daubeh, on the other hand, cautions against the open market. "A real mevin would never buy his etrogim in the market; the pitfalls are too many. Perhaps the market is a good place to buy the other three species, but an etrog should be bought at a special store; one that specializes in religious artifacts or in etrogs. At the markets, you get mixtures of varieties all in a box. And even those who think they know what they're buying, can never really be sure if they're getting a pure variety.

"The markets are good for somebody who's buying an Etrog for the kids to show at school," he concludes.

But, long before the marketplace sets into swing, other forces are busy ensuring that the genuine etrog will not only be rare, but priceless (or as near to priceless as the market can allow).

The precious etrog is very

difficult to grow for several reasons.

To begin, of all the citrus fruits, the etrog is the most susceptible to frostbite and pests. "Five years ago," says Daubeh, "we had a California pest that infected the trees and was immune to most pesticides. The problem is that you can't spray too much pesticide, because the chemicals may leave stains on the fruit and even a small stain can grow to make the fruit unkosher."

A citron tree may not produce a profitable crop for the first 13 or 14 years of its life and fruit grown during a 'Shmita year' (one year in every seven, when a patch of land must rest) cannot be sold.

Finally, due to careful selection, not much more than 10 percent of the produce survives back-pruning.

As a result, each Etrog must be carefully and individually packed.

Technology is no help. Because of religious prohibitions, etrog trees may not be grafted onto heartier roots, leaving them vulnerable to atmospheric alteration.

Daubeh explains the high price tag: "To begin with, an etrog is very expensive to grow. We get about 50 trees to the dunam, but we put in about a dunam's-worth of water and treatment into a single tree," he explains. "Although we get about 200 etrogs per tree, we can lose anywhere between 20% to 80% of the fruit to selection. The unfit get tossed out.

"We sell an etrog to the retailer for anywhere between NIS 10-70. The rabbis then examine each etrog individually, after which time the vendors examine them again. Finally, agents representing the various rabbinical sects examine them, as well. The price goes up with each examination.

"Between the examination process and all that handling - which causes a certain amount of damage and waste - by the time the etrog is in the buyer's hands, the price has gone up by about 100%."

The result is that citrons are very expensive and can cost hundreds of shekels for one single lemony-looking fruit.

Most citrons sold in the United States are imported from Israel or other Mediterranean countries and can be priced anywhere from $ 10 to $ 80, or more. The cheapest and most abundant ones come from Morocco, where they grow wild and genealogically pure.
--

[anonymous]

The Jerusalem Post
September 16, 1994
A Perfect Lulav

And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of the tree hadar, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick leaved trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. (Leviticus 23:40)

Armed with that biblical injunction, Jews - during the days preceding Succot - have from time immemorial scoured the fields and the markets looking for what have become known as the Four Species.

The fruit of the hadar tree is the etrog, the palm branches are lulavim, the boughs of thick-leaved trees are the myrtle (hadas) branches, and the willow of the brook is the source of willow (arava) branches.

Because the Bible states, "You shall rejoice before the Lord your God," the rabbis have learned that the more beautiful each of the species, the better.

Which explains in part the spectacle of people at the Four Species markets that sprout up immediately after Yom Kippur, inspecting etrogim as though they are jewels, counting the leaves on hadassim as if they are counting out change, and, often with a magnifying glass, checking meticulously that the top of the lulav has not been nipped off.

(The aravot, which have a very short shelf life, are generally purchased the day before Succot, so the leaves are green, not brown, when the blessing over the lulav and etrog is made for the first time on Succot morning. )

Watching the Four-Species shopper can be intriguing, with the person in search of the perfect lulav the most interesting to watch. The palm branch is picked up gingerly, lest the top be accidentally broken off, and then turned horizontally. The careful lulav buyer then brings the palm branch horizontal to his eye and - closing one eye - looks down the length of it as if he were looking through the sights of a gun, or staring down the length of a pool cue. A warped, curved lulav is invalid.

The lulav should also be moist and green, have a top that is not broken or nipped, have leaves that are connected to each other and be at least four handbreaths long.

AVRHAM LUDMIR, the manager of Hadar, a Tel Aviv company involved in the import and export of lulavim and etrogim, says the majority of the lulavim used in the country come from El-Arish. He estimated that fully 80 percent of the hundreds of thousands of lulavim that have hit the market in the last few days and that will be waved in synagogues in a Succot ceremony ripe with symbolism, come from that Egyptian

Jericho, with its moniker the "City of Dates," has only 7,000 date trees, says Buki Glasner, a specialist on palm trees for the Agriculture Ministry. El-Arish has many times that number of palm trees. Israeli date plantations, located primarily in the Jordan and Beit She'an valleys, have 200,000 palm trees, that yield about 400,000 lulavim.

Each palm tree, Glasner says, bears two lulavim. Ludmir says that the process of extracting the lulav must be done carefully, so the palm's dates are not destroyed.

According to Ludmir, the lulav trade in Jericho this year has been badly hit by the onset of PLO autonomy, with many merchants fearful of spending hours upon hours in the city in search of the perfect lulav.

"First of all, the city of dates does not have a large number of trees," he says.

"Secondly, it is more dangerous now, and people are more hesitant to go there to look for their lulavim."

If autonomy has discouraged people from seeking lulavim from Jericho, at least those worried about the effect of shmita need not worry. Ludmir said lulavim are not affected by the laws of shmita.

[Shmarya]

Try to process: Some of the criminals are Orthodox. Some may not be just as some of the good guys are Orthodox and some are not.

But, in the end, at least some of the criminals are Orthodox. This year the leading profitteer seems to be. Perhaps more importantly, ***ALL*** of the rabbis tolerating or enabling the situation are Orthodox.

[Herman Douchebag]

Rebtsvi:

Of course secular jew is full of shit-he makes up rules just like the Haredi make them up-

[anonymous]

http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/alulavscs66.htm

NEWS
Lulav Shortage Worsens; Cartel Suspected

By Betzalel Kahn

The dire shortage of lulavim in the Daled Minim market continues despite permission by the Ministry of Agriculture to import 600,000 lulavim from Egypt and Jordan. Half of these shipments have yet to arrive and the 300,000 lulavim brought into Eretz Yisroel are being controlled by a cartel trying to monopolize the Daled Minim market.

The shortage caused a sharp rise in prices and many dealers called on the public to hold off their purchases for a few days until the issue is clarified. In the meantime one chareidi dealer managed to import a large quantity of lulavim from Egypt and the Gaza Strip despite the cartel's efforts to block all other imports.

According to a Ministry of Agriculture announcement on Sunday, "The lulav shortage . . . resulting from the cancellation of imports from Egypt was solved through intervention by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Yisrael Katz," who arranged to have 600,000 lulavim brought into the country.

Meir Mizrachi, the Agriculture Ministry's commissioner for plant growth protection services, reported that 300,000 lulavim have already arrived in Israel and are ready for sale after undergoing tests by his department. Another 150,000 lulavim have already received import licenses after the orchards in Jordan were tested, and another 150,000 are expected to arrive from Egypt.

But a Yated Ne'eman investigation found that the first 300,000 lulavim from Egypt belong to a single importer who managed to cause an artificial shortage in the lulav market by preventing other dealers from purchasing lulavim from the enormous el-Arish orchards in Egypt and possibly in Jordan as well.

Based on information provided by Daled Minim dealers to Yated, it appears that the individual in question, who faces criminal charges for creating a lulav cartel a few years ago and whose trial in that matter is still underway, managed through deceit to gain control of the entire lulav market in Egypt, creating an unprecedented monopoly.

The shortage also has a direct effect on the Daled Minim market in the US. Many dealers who exported esrogim and haddasim to the US recently encountered an exceptionally high return rate because they could not include lulavim in their Daled Minim packages.

Furthermore, one of the leading dealers in the US, a man from Lakewood who purchased 200,000 lulavim from this individual, paid tens of thousands of dollars several weeks ago yet has not received a single lulav. The importer claims the shipment got lost at sea, yet it appears that the same lulavim were sold to another dealer in the US who did receive the merchandise.

A New York beis din run by Yeshivas Beis Yosef and headed by HaRav Yaakov Chaim Yaffen issued a restraining order late last week forbidding the sale of these lulavim pending a proper inquiry in order to ensure that the public does not unwittingly transgress the sin of gezeiloh by using stolen lulavim.

Meanwhile, the 150,000 lulavim the Agriculture Ministry said would arrive from Jordan are no longer expected to arrive. Moments after the arrival of the dealer who obtained permission to import lulavim from an enormous orchard belonging to one of the members of the royal family in Jordan, an inexplicable government order suddenly arrived, forbidding the harvest for no apparent reason.

The dealer says he suspects that one of the dealers in Israel used various connections to prevent the import as part of efforts to create an artificial shortage. This same dealer tried to import lulavim from Iraq through a Jordanian middleman, but the Ministry of Agriculture banned the deal since the orchards there could not be inspected before the harvest.

Chareidi public figures have been trying to persuade the Egyptian authorities to permit the export of lulavim from el-Arish. On Sunday MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni spoke with the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Minister's Office to demand that they apply pressure on the Egyptian authorities to permit the import of larger quantities of lulavim. After the Ministry of Agriculture reported that, "600,000 lulavim would be brought into Israel," the Agriculture Ministry asked the Foreign Ministry to stop applying pressure on the Egyptians. Yet it appears the pressure is still needed and the possibility of involving ranking officials from both countries is under consideration.

Heavy pressure was also applied on the Israeli Agriculture Ministry recently to grant a single dealer an exclusive license to import lulavim from Egypt. Ministry officials told Yated Ne'eman that the importer in question applied pressure on the ministry through improper means. Ministry Director-General Yossi Yishai says the Egyptians reduced the quantity of lulavim provided by el-Arish in order to protect the date orchards. Dealers in Israel insist that the Egyptians' decision was the result of pressure applied by one of Israel's lulav importers.

A shipment of 100,000 lulavim circumvented the cartel, arriving from Egypt via Haifa Port. The Israeli dealer who arranged the shipment said he intends to break the monopoly created by the group of importers who illegally took over the lulav market in Egypt to jack up prices. He also managed to bring in 80,000 lulavim cut at Deir-el- Balah in the Gaza Strip based an arrangement between Deputy Welfare Minister MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. In a conversation with Rabbi Ravitz, Mofaz said the defense system is aware of this critical need and "every effort will be made to permit this transfer."

To allow the shipment to reach Israel the Karni Crossing had to be opened for a few hours on Sunday following several days of secret arrangements. Mofaz told Rabbi Ravitz that the transfer would be executed through back-to-back unloading and loading at Karni on Friday, but due to technical and other problems the shipment was delayed until Sunday. Immediately after the transfer, the Ministry of Agriculture insisted on spraying the lulavim to prevent the possibility of unwanted insects. The arrival of the shipment brought an immediate reduction in lulav prices.

Rabbi Gafni said that in addition to its obligation to share all of the information at its disposal regarding the criminal elements behind the lulav cartel with Israel Police and the Antitrust Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture—with the help of the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office—must also act immediately to create additional sources for lulav imports by contacting the Egyptian and Jordanian authorities.

HaRav Yaakov Chaim Yaffen (Jofen), z'l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Beis Yosef in Brooklyn, passed away some time ago, and is not heading a beis din on this earth (he was not a Lubavitcher). Maybe his name is still on the stationery though, and hence, that error (I am not questioning the beis din - perhaps his son shlit"a, yibodeil lichayim aruchim, has taken his place on it - just correcting the fact).

[beth h]

I built a sukkah of my own this year for the first time:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethness/6227177427/

It went together surprisingly easily once I figure out the design and scrounged up the materials.

I also decided to experiment and make my own lulav (NW Native Version):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethness/6238178620/

The wastefulness involved in flying non-edible vegetation over from halfway around the world ought to, IMHO, render the Israeli lulav Treyf on the spot. So I made my own lulva from native species in the place where I live.
It's not about being anti-Israel but about being fully Jewish in diaspora. Friends cannot wait to come over and shake it. And the beauty is that this can be adapted to whatever native species exist in your area. A mitzvah should not be ridculuously expensive -- or unsustainable -- to carry out!
Chag Sameach!