Rabbis Threaten Woman Over Lettuce, Kosher Claims

"People realize that my kitchen is Glatt kosher, only I don't have a certificate from the rabbinate.…I have kipa-wearing diners who tell me they come because I display [my own] 'kashrut certificate from conscience,' and not [a kosher certificate from] the Rabbinate.”

Rabbis Threaten Woman Over Lettuce, Kosher Claims
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

On Tuesday In Tiberias, just before Avigail Aharon was about to open her restaurant for the day, two uninvited guests arrived – representatives of Israel’s state-funded haredi-controlled Chief Rabbinate. The rabbis reportedly came to warn Aharon – threaten her, some would say.

Why?

Because Aharon’s restaurant displays a self-made certificate declaring that the restaurant is “kosher by conscience.” Aharon’s restaurant does not have kosher supervision from the Chief Rabbinate because she does not want it.

"It's absurd, a real laughing stock. By law this is deceptive kashrut. Only those who hold a valid certificate from the local Rabbinate can declare a restaurant kosher. People are eating under a falsified certificate,” Rabbi Raphael Cohen, the Tiberas Rabbinate’s kosher supervision head told Ha’aretz.

Aharon reportedly rejected Cohen’s claim

"People realize that my kitchen is Glatt kosher, only I don't have a certificate from the rabbinate. Yet the fears that I would be harmed by the lack of a certificate proved unfounded. I have kipa-wearing diners who tell me they come because I display a kashrut certificate from conscience, and not that of the Rabbinate,” she told the paper.

Aharon is a 10th-generation Tiberias native. Her restaurant has been open for five months.

My restaurant’s cuisine is “Tiberian…[which] has been built up over 800 years and was influenced by the conquerors who ruled the city, the Arab population, Spanish and Greek influences, Maimonides' culinary doctrine and also the Ashkenazi cuisine brought by the Karlin-Stolin Hasidic dynasty in the 18th century.…every Tiberian grew up on a kosher kitchen and even today most are traditional. Our kosher kitchen has been passed from generation to generation according to the Torah of Israel, not the Torah of Rabbi Raphael. There is no doubt that my kitchen is kosher. Because of the accepted conventions and social pressure, I went to the Tiberias rabbinate” but felt alienated there, she told Ha’aretz.

Aharon told Ha’aretz that Cohen once found "regular" lettuce that was not approved by the rabbinate in the restaurant’s basement.

"It was lettuce that we'd bought to take home and kept in the basement until then. [Cohen] "left the basement victoriously and with the lettuce in his hands, and in front of all the diners, demanded I return the certificate. I was white with embarrassment," she said.

"She was storing downstairs lettuce suspected of being infested by worms. People trust our kashrut certificate,” Cohen told Ha’aretz.

The Chief Rabbinate effectively banned all “mehadrin kosher” “bug free” vegetables two weeks ago after an investigation by Israeli scientists and public heath officials showed they were poisoned by dangerously high levels of approved and non-approved pesticides, including some which have been linked to cancers.

Aharon says she does not need the Rabbinate’s kosher certificate.

"I cook like my mother, like my grandmother, my great-grandmother, like they always have in Tiberias. It's a kosher kitchen."

When the Rabbinate’s threat became common knowledge earlier this week, many locals came to the restaurant to support Aharon’s decision to operate without the Rabbinate’s approval.

However, so far no other Tiberias restaurant owners are supporting her, although ten restaurants in and around the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem have also recently opted to throw out the Rabbinate’s rabbis and go it alone.

“I hope other [restaurant owners in Tiberas] will join [me],” Aharon reportedly said, “because no one has a monopoly on the religion."

Comments

[S]

The rabbis reportedly came to warn Aharon – threaten her

I hope she has a bodyguard at her restaurant and she should install cameras as well. These rabbis can be vicious!

[Sarek]

Lettuce put our heads together and search for bugs.

[Sarek]

"Leave Me Alone", Helen Reddy

Big ole Rabbi lettuce
wanders round the town. Telling restauranteurs now, take that kashrut down.
Don't you get too close now, Rabbi runs away.
Poor ole Rabbi lettuce: no bugs and now no spray.
I can hear him say

Leaf me alone, won't you leave me alone
Please leaf me alone, now leaf me alone
Oh leaf me alone, please leaf me alone,
yes leaf me
Leaf me alone, won't you leave me alone
Please leaf me alone, now leaf me alone
God leaf me along, just leaf me alone, oh leaf me

Big ole Rabbi lettuce, everybody laughs.
Say he's lost between the wheat and the chaff.
Treif has hurt that Rabbi,
something he can't bear.
You look at him real close now, you see a little tear. Oh when he says now

Leaf me alone, etc.

Some folks say the owner from Tiberias
Tried to tell the Rabbi,
but it was tedious.
Grand Rabbi tried to hide it, tried to hide the treif.
But something happened to Rabbi,
who tried to make things safe.
Who just said now

Leaf me alone, etc.

[Zipperless Baggie]

She should be glad he didn't demand to inspect her melons.

[ruthie]

BRAVA....smart and strong...wise woman...
real

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

I don't care much about her kashrut or lack of.I would not set foot in her restaurant ONLY because of that disgusting,pathetic,childish and ridiculous heathen idol she has on the wall behind her i.e. the chamsa,which mekubalim consider a good luck charm(as if it were permissible in Judaism!)

[A. Nuran]

A tiny spark of sanity. Pity it's going to be snuffed out

[Zipperless Baggie]

Don't denigrade something like the Chamsa if you haven't experienced it for yourself. More than once has having one been of great spiritual help to me, and twice it got me laid.

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

Zipperless Baggie,seriously:as someone else wrote in this website,today's orthodox/charedi Jews are obsessed with legal minutiae but don't care about being pagan and isolaters!
I loathe all amulets foolish mekubalim believe have any power;be it a chamsa,the twisted opinion they have of the mezuzah actually protecting one's house,or the written talismans made by their rabbis.Anyone who belies ANYTHING other than Hkbh has any power whatsover is an idol worshipper.Period.

[mimi]

Many people from the area have this symbol it is tradition. Yes, it is an idol but everything came from something else, even the 10 commandments were swiped from another source, but noone calls that idolotry.

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

mimi,how on earth can you compare the 10 commandments(indipendently if they 'were swiped from another source'or not) with the chamsa?The commandments are not physical objects,but G-dly instructiond we have to perform or refrain from;the chamsa is a man made idolthat disbelieving idiots believe protects them.
If you happen to open your Bible,you'll perhaps notice it speaks about a jealous G-d,who is the only One to protect or maim people and about Him being terribly angry at the Israelites making a golden calf as 'protection'.I guess He's pretty infuriated to see they make a metal hand with a blue eye inside it a ''protection''!

[mimi]

If by G-d you mean the Egyption god of judgement, yes. The ten commandments can be found in some ancient texts that predate Judaism. The use of eggs in ceremony are pagan. Not applicable here but the use of a Christmas Tree is pagan. Even the concept of Jesus was stolen from an earlier religion. And I may add circumcision, both male and female originating in Egypt as a religious ritual.

So while I get your point, and agree with you that the item is questionable, I wouldn't judge others for a pagan item that isn't the exact pagan item that you may have in your home.

[David]

How is having self-supervised Kashrut in a restaurant any different than inviting people into your own home for a meal?

People either trust your level of kashrut or they don't.

Unfortunately now, so few of the Charedim are able to work (due to their lack of education) rackets such as the kosher one are among the few areas they can make money and they get upset when someone doesn't want to participate.

[Bill Ginnosar]

What is the name and address of this place?
I would like to patronize it.

[seymour]

as long as she clearly states that it is self supervised it really should not be a problem

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

@mimi:unfortunately also the waving of hands 3 times in front of a candle Jewish women do on shabat originates from fire worship the Jews learnt in their Babylonian exile.

[thinking outloud]

Come buy my drugs and medicinal tonics.
I don't need no stinking FDA approval. I know what I am doing. you can trust me!

Come have your disease diagnosed by my lab.
its not CLIA approved, but who needs them, I know what I'm doing. I have a crayon drawn approval that i made myself hanging on the door

Come eat at my restaurant. I use Grade A meat. its not USDA grade A. I know meat, trust me, its just as good, if not better than USDA meat. Who needs them to tell me what is good meat?

AND If it's good enough for the random people who use my services its good enough for you.
what you don't trust me?

[Shmarya]

Posted by: thinking outloud | November 22, 2012 at 03:22 AM

It's really amazing how poorly educated so many haredim are.

The Shulkhan Arukh specifically allows women to 'supervise' their own kitchens and for anyone to eat in them.

It's all based on the trustworthiness of the woman.

It also supports the idea of being taught by your mother – not your father – to keep a kosher kitchen.

For centuries women ran inns and fed the leading rabbis of Europe and Babylonia without any kosher supervision at all.

To say that your comments are foolish is a gross understatement.

You clearly have never really learned.

[Jeff]

Unfortunately now, so few of the Charedim are able to work (due to their lack of education) rackets such as the kosher one are among the few areas they can make money and they get upset when someone doesn't want to participate.

Posted by: David | November 21, 2012 at 09:33 PM

That is precisely the reason for it - and how many kashrut inspectors and mashgiachim do they need, really? As I keep saying, they're running out of ways to support their growing numbers.

But they'll outlast us. Just ask them.

Also, what Shmarya said. Previous generations judged a food product's kashrut status by the list of ingredients. That isn't good enough any longer. My nephew has told me that just because they were doing it that way doesn't mean they were doing it correctly - but of course, the only really correct way of doing anything is the Chabad way.

"If it ain't from the Rebbe, it ain't Yiddishkeit!"™

[MIKELANGELO]

So she is basically saying that she is serving "Kosher style" food, but not necessarily Kosher. No mention of where the meat comes from, who actually checks the lettuce (this is Halachically mandated, hechsher or no hechsher) or any other measures, only what food styles and flavors she has to offer.
This is not new in the Kashrus industry, many caterers offer the same. It looks Kosher, it tastes Kosher, all is good then.

As you can see from the picture, her hair is obviously not covered, her top shows much of her chest, which implies that she is not fully committed to the observance of traditional Halacha (is she single?). I am not judging her, and I am not a bigot, but it precludes her from having the right to self certify her shop as Kosher.

Of course women can and should be trusted, but not when we are dealing with an apparent "traditionally observant woman" at best, whom doubtfully spent hours learning Hilchos Kashrus, of which there are many and sometimes complex ones.

I am a Kashrus professional, and as such I am aware of the corruption and racketeering that is rampant in the Israeli rabbinate, (not aware of any in Tiberias let me be clear), but I am also very clearly aware that there is no way an average Jew should and can take responsibility to feed the masses without the input of a trusted Rabbinic consultant. Yes in the shtiebels etc women were trusted, but they were also vetted first; rabbis would ask them questions about their knowledge etc, and only then if satisfied it would have been made known that they were to be trusted. I know of a particular Rebbe who used to consume food in a privately owned eatery in France, but only after he had spoken to the lady owner first.

We have quality standards and certifying agencies in all areas affecting our health and lives, why should it be different with Kashrus? Of course there will be the rogue operators and dishonest actors in this area as there are in all areas where you would want to have 100% trustworthy individuals to protect your interest, but reality dictates that it is a fact of life for these to be ideal situations and not actual realities. Is this a reason to abolish then all agencies altogether?

Lettuce for her personal use in the restaurant basement??? Give me a break! I have seen and heard these types of answers and excuses more times than I care now to describe! Even if it were true, by contract with the License issuing Rabanut she would have breached the agreement by simply bringing it into the shop. I personally do not consume the bug free greens as I have always suspected, as proven in the article, that they were laden with dangerous chemicals. Lettuce and all greens need to be checked for bugs, period; it is a time consuming inspection which require a high level of fear of G-D to do properly, and no single restaurant owner can be expected to spend 2/4 hours daily doing it when there are so many other aspects of the business to be looked after.

In some "frum environments" a pious looking and reputable person is still not permitted to operate a butchery without the presence of an additional, not partner, Halacha abiding Jew. The temptations and the self corrupting nature of every human are too big of a risk to be entrusted to themselves alone if and when the interest of potential trusty costumers are at stakes.

In Israel, and I know this for a fact and I can't disclose from where, there is a very large amount of non kosher and non shechted meat which is sold as Kosher in butcheries and other retail outlets. This is simply because as the Kashrut Department of the Rabbanut is government funded, they would not have the funds nor the authorization to approve a full time Mashghiach in every butchery as there should be, especially when owned by non religious Jews.

Yes, these are real Kashrus issues, and if you care for the spiritual health of your mind and body, you should be as suspicious with Kashrus as you are with other aspects of your life you care greatly about. The attitude of "it's their sins not mine, they will go to hell not me" is especially wrong when it comes to Kashrus as no matter who is wrong and cheated, the non Kosher food will still contaminate YOUR body and soul.

I would definitely NOT eat in her restaurant, as there are enough issues with Kosher certified locales to risk consuming from non certified. She is not forced to be certified Kosher, but to self certify as Kosher is misleading at best. People who would just notice a certificate on the wall without properly inspecting it, would assume it is indeed supervised by a Kashrus Rabbinate. She is transgressing the prohibition of "putting an obstacle before a blind person".

Look it up.

[thinking outloud]

shmarya,
in typical fashion you push your agenda in your response to comments without really reading the comment.

I never said, implied or in anyway suggested that she isn't trustworthy halachically, i'm saying that like the FDA, CLIA USDA and a gazillion other regulatory agencies, we use people (or people behind people) who may be slightly, if not substantially, more knowledgeable than the man on the street to guarantee that standards are upheld, and to turn to if standards aren't upheld.

this has nothing to do with a woman having ne'emanos or being a mashgiach (which r' moshe has a teshuva on and allows in some instances)

this has everything to do with a woman who is bucking the system ...

Again, pharmaceutical companies presumably know their science much better than the FDA, yet somehow I don't think you would trust an unapproved drug, no matter how safe and efficacious the company claims their drug to be. Same with farmers and USDA beef or diagnostic companies and CLIA approval.

[jackson jnr]

sarek . thank you for a good chuckle in these uncetain times.

[Jeff]

As you can see from the picture, her hair is obviously not covered, her top shows much of her chest, which implies that she is not fully committed to the observance of traditional Halacha (is she single?).

No, what it shows is that she isn't committed to dressing like a stock character out of Fiddler on the Roof.

I couldn't read any more after that; I was too busy rolling my eyes.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Good comments, chevra. Like AJS, I am against the paganization of Judaism, but Mimi is correct in saying that all religions (including ours) co-opts symbols and even rituals from previous religions. (The Rambam even felt that way, regarding sacrifices; korbanot were meant to wean us away from idolatrous rites). I accept the hamsa as an objet d'art, or as a symbol of Jewish identity like the Magen David (which is also kabbalistic in origin and is akin to the Asian yin-yang). As long as one uses it as simply a Jewish symbol, and not a magical charm.

Jeff and Shmarya are right, as usual, about kashrut. Back in the day supervision was rare, so one had to know and trust the owners. Kashrut has become cash-root for the rabbis.

Good parody, Sarek. It seems I have competition now.

Finally, Happy Thanksgiving to all you real Americans out there, who appreciate the Medina Shel Chesed we live in. (I will have a kosher turkey, for those who care.) To check if the turkey is glatt, inflate its lungs, then inhale (humor). Vampires celebrate Fangsgiving.

[Alter Kocker]

A story I told before. The Kosher inspector arrived at my client's restaurant and demanded payment. My client asked him to inspect the walk-in freezer. During the inspection the Kosher inspector was locked in the freezer for 3 hours until he agreed he really did not need the money. My client assured him that if he returned with any further demands he would freeze him solid and mail him back in chunks to the council of orthodox rabbis.

[Jeff]

I accept the hamsa as an objet d'art, or as a symbol of Jewish identity like the Magen David (which is also kabbalistic in origin and is akin to the Asian yin-yang).

The Magen David is actually older than that; it goes back to Indian religion - "Hinduism" (a term I dislike and try to avoid) - in which it belongs to a class of ritual symbols called yantras (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagram).

I imagine it would be one of the "gifts" Avraham Aveinu gave his other sons when he sent them to the East.

[Jeff]

During the inspection the Kosher inspector was locked in the freezer for 3 hours until he agreed he really did not need the money. My client assured him that if he returned with any further demands he would freeze him solid and mail him back in chunks to the council of orthodox rabbis.

You've gotta have some sizable cojones to pull a stunt like that. Impressive.

[Rebitzman]

Lost in all this is an Israeli law that backs the Chief Rabbinate in this one.

You want to discuss challenging or changing that law.......I'm with you, but it is the law, and the woman is working outside it.

[Alter Kocker]

Jeff:
I have been a financial professional for over 35 years. I have always operated my various and sundry practices with one motto: "When all the others turn you away, come see me". As a result, I have the privilege of serving people unacceptable to other accountants. Many will not serve people with "reputations" or "skeletons in the closet".

This makes for an interesting life, with even more interesting stories.

[Yoel Mechanic]

Seymour has made a very reasonable comment.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

"unfortunately also the waving of hands 3 times in front of a candle Jewish women do on shabat originates from fire worship the Jews learnt in their Babylonian exile."

That practice is from the Askenazic legal tradition and is a part of the "slight of hand" move implemented because of a concern about the "chicken and the egg" riddle regarding the order of the blessing and kindling of the Shabbat lights. The Sephardic approach is more simple and consistent with the normal paradigm of "action follows blessing", so the blessing is recited and then the lights are kindled without any of the fancy hand motion employed by Ashkenazim.

[George Walker]

Real yirayim don't eat out anyway
Modest proposal, when the haredim are forced to work ha ha, they can check all the vegetables for bugs

[Jeff]

This makes for an interesting life, with even more interesting stories.

Posted by: Alter Kocker | November 23, 2012 at 08:43 AM

I believe you!

[Yoel Mechanic]

David:
How is having self-supervised Kashrut in a restaurant any different than inviting people into your own home for a meal?
-----------------------------------------

The difference is that a restaurant is a commercial venture, and these days very large sums of money can be at stake. There is a tremendous price differential between kosher and non-kosher meats, and numerous other items. One's objectivity could be impaired if the owner, and the mashgiach are the same person. This is the reason that the hashgachah is considered more reliable when it is financially decoupled from the profits of the business.

None of this is relevant to a private home that is having guests over.

Both cases are based on trust, but the standards of what that trust is, are different for the different situations.

[Simcha]

This woman isn't misleading anyone. She clearly has a sign showing what her kashrut guidelines are. Who says that every establishment in Israel has to be at the kashrut specifications of the Rabbinate? I completely agree with her - who made them monopolisers of God?

[Ben]

Somebody give her a medal. There is no king but the one up in shamayim, and these Rabbis think they're prophets. When you follow the Torah, it's about what Hashem says, not about the orders of other men.

Democracy works well, according to the Torah. Monopoly, dictatorship, and personality cults do not.