Rabbinut Gives In – Heter Mechira Produce To Be Certified And Available In All Areas Of The Country

Ynet reports:

Eight days after the High Court's ruling, the Chief Rabbinate obeyed the decision and authorized five rabbis to grant kashrut certificates to businesses which practice heter mechira in area where local rabbis refused to do so.

According to the Council, each rabbi will deal with the issues his area. In areas that are not under the jurisdiction of the five rabbis – the issue will be determined by the Council.…

Tzohar [the non-haredi rabbinical group that forced the issue by setting up its own produce-supervision agency to certify heter mechira produce in areas where the Rabbinute and haredi local rabbis refused to do so] … said in response, "We are satisfied with the Rabbinate's decision. We will continue to operate the alternate kashrut apparatus until we are convinced that every business that wants a certificate based on heter mechira receives it. We did not establish an alternative rabbinate; we will be happy if the Rabbinate fulfills its mandate and make our apparatus unnecessary."…

Of course, we'll need to wait a bit to see if the Rabbinut is truly making heter mechira produce available without penalty to all businesses that want to sell it. I suspect we may have a story a year from now where the local haredi rabbis who refused to allow heter mechira into the (largely secular) cities they 'serve' refuse to certify these businesses in regular kashrut matters or find other ways of harassing businesses that did not give in to haredi demands. Time will tell …

Comments

[Warren Burstein]

I haven't found a list of which local rabbanuts weren't doing HM but I've noticed HM certification in the produce department of the supermarket I use in Jerusalem from a rabbi in Holon. Every restaurant I remembered to look at (beyond just checking if it had some certificate, which is all I require myself) had Mehadrin. But I didn't notice before Shmita started, maybe they were already Mehadrin and I never noticed.

Some certificates (maybe all the Mehadrin ones, I don't spend that much time looking at them) say "shmita kehilchata". Which leaves open the question, which halacha? What if a consumer prefers one particular halachic approach to shmitah over another (I myself will eat any of them, including HM)? These certificates wouldn't help.

I noticed a certificate that I hadn't seen before (the typography was different than the ones the rabbanut issues) yesterday in a new sushi place on Rechov Agripas. But it was behind the counter, too far away to read, and I had already eaten so I didn't feel like bothering the owner with questions if I wasn't buying anything.

[SJ (formerly Alex)]

This is very good news.