Court Defends Rabbi Regarding Kashrut

Last week was a significant court ruling regarding kashrut, in which the courts ruled in favor of the rabbi to declare a place as not kosher, despite the place have [certain] certificates seemingly attesting to its good standing.

Rav Avigdor Neventzahl, rav of the Old City of Jerusalem, has publicly announced that a certain falafel-shawarma shop was not kosher. He did so despite the falafel shop having a kashrut certificate from a respectable organization. The falafel shop was only missing one thing - the kashrut certificate from the Rabbanut.

The law is that the only organization allowed legally to declare something as kosher is the Rabbanut. Once a product or shop has a Rabbanut hechsher, then the proprietor can go and find another organization to authorize a level beyond the basic, each depending on his customer base, location or whatever might influence his desire for additional certification.

If the Rabbanut does not deem something to be kosher, nobody else can. That's the law. The Eida cannot declare a product kosher, the Agudah, Beit Yosef, Machpud, etc. Nobody except the Rabbanut. The others are all add-ons to the Rabbanut.

This falafel and shawarma shop did not have a Rabbanut hechsher, but it had a hechsher form a Badatz. Rav Neventzahl publicized his statement that the certificates in the store cannot be relied upon and it is forbidden to eat there under any circumstances. After thatm the owner of the falafel shop sued Rav Neventzahl for saying his shop is not kosher.

Rav Neventzahl's defense was simply that without a Rabbanut hechsher, the place is not kosher, and the Badatz certificate in the shop has no right to declare it kosher.

The judge decided in favor of Rav Neventzahl, saying that there is really no argument. By law only the Rabbanut or the Religious Council has the legal power to declare something as kosher. As a result, that restaurant was operating without a certificate of kashrut. And, the judge continued, being that Rav Neventzahl is the official rabbi of the Old City, he is the address for issues of halacha within that area. He is therefore obligated to warn publicly about a business within presenting itself as kosher when it really is not.

As well, the judge explained, the certificates from the variosu Badatzes do not certify kashrut - they are not called "Teudat hechsher", rather, they are certificates of supervision, and they were put there in order to make the customer think that the place was kosher.

Therefore, the announcement that the restaurant had no certificate of kashrut was true.

The court decision was sent out on the Rabbanut email list last week.

It is important that the court vindicated Rav Neventzahl and upheld the kashrut law. It could have gone out on a limb (like the way the courts are accused of being too activist) and declared that anybody has the right to declare kosher, or that nobody has a monopoly on kashrut, or something similar. As long as the Rabbanut is in charge, it is important that there not be chaos in the kashrut system (or as little as possible). It's nice to see the court defending the rabbi.

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