Kikar is reporting on an interesting psak issued by several rabonim from Bnei Braq, including Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, Rav Shimon Baadani, Rav Sariel Rosenberg and Rav Yehuda Silman.

The psak the rabbonim issued says that because of Corona people should not get drunk this year on Purim.

What's the connection between Corona and getting drunk on Purim, you might ask?

During Corona if someone gets drunk and clouds his ability to make good decisions he might end up not being careful with the necessary care to be taken to protect oneself from becoming exposed to Corona. This will also cause the infection numbers to rise and will cause a danger to the public.

 Additionally, the rabbonim add, this year with Purim on Friday, getting drunk can possibly lead to chilul shabos.

 

About two years ago the Knesset passed a law regulating the alcohol industry and their marketing capabilities. According to the new law, alcohol companies are no longer allowed to advertise on billboards and buses, along with being limited in various forms of media. At the time, in the committee sessions dealing with putting together the details of the law, it was decided not to include internet-based advertising in the law.

More recently, this past July, the committee included the Internet in its final set of details.

The law has now gone into effect, but the brewers and winemakers of Israel have been working to thwart it. They have been running a protest for the past couple of weeks. Now they, in coordination with a number of bodies and organizations, have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to force Minister of Health Yael German to remove the Internet from the included list of regulated media for this law.

The appeal is based on the claim that German overreached by including the Internet in the list of regulation when she had only been empowered to regulate the advertising in other media, not including Internet. As well, the claim is that it hurts businesses, especially small breweries and wineries and boutique breweries. It also doe snot apply to foreign manufacturers who will still be able to market to the Israeli market, on the Internet, and will only hurt local business.

The following video was made to oppose the ban on Internet advertising..


Manufacturers will not be able to advertise their companies on Facebook, twitter, other social media nor advertise on websites. This will be very harmful to them. It will likely also harm the first Israeli whiskey distillery, Milk and Honey, though they already successfully raised their funding on Indiegogo - so at least that is not at risk.

And here is today's Tweet of the Day..

הצעת חוק: מי שהצביע 'יש עתיד' יהיה זה שקונה את האלכוהול בכל חבורה
— Jen (@valoo87) July 1, 2013

it means:
New Law Proposal: Whoever voted Yesh Atid will be the one who has to buy the alcohol in any group...

due to the sharp increase in taxes on alcohol...

A Guest Post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier

BEER AND ALCOHOL AND THE NEED FOR THEIR KOSHER CERTIFICATION
By Dr. Harold Goldmeier, November 2011 @1600 words
hgoldmeier@aol.com Chicago, Il. 312-931-0532

The fastest growing segment of the spirits industry is craft beer, sports/energy drinks, and liquor with special flavorings and colorings. Even the processes for brewing, distilling, and aging these drinks are changing rapidly. Alcohol beverages are a threat to kosher and vegetarian consumers. It is time for kosher certifying agencies to warn their adherents that alcohol beverages must require a kosher certifying agency logo on each brand label.

Alcohol and beer sales remained flat for nearly two decades, while taste buds of young people changed. Demand has grown for sweeter more flavorful and exotic drinks. The industry decided to target women who find the taste of regular beer and alcohol bitter and harsh, and the metro crowd aficionados of culinary cuisine wanting chichi alcoholic drinks. Wine makers quickly responded resulting in an explosion of new wineries with new products, and sales including kosher wines are skyrocketing. Craft breweries and small distilleries are flooding the market with specialty blends, new ingredients, and brewing processes spearheading a dramatic growth in sales of beers, liquors, and especially vodkas. Little information about the ingredients and processes is readily available, but their kosherness is seldom questioned.

Goose Island Beer Company, for example, is the father of craft breweries and a favorite of Midwestern beer drinkers. They grew rapidly with 312 Urban Wheat Ale, Fleur, Pepe Nero, Honker’s, Bourbon County Stout, and more. Their beers and ales are classified under titles like URBAN, CLASSIC, VINTAGE, VINTAGE RESERVE and EXTREME. GIBC recently sold to Anheuser-Busch for nearly $40 million, and is accused by many as having sold its craft-brew soul.

Writer Jessica Festa found some of the more bizarre beers now on the market:
• Pizza tasting beer contains a mashed up Margarita pizza
• Bacon beer with bacon fat flavoring and hot Chili beer from a Mexican brewery
• Coffee beer with all kinds of real coffee and flavors added for that extra caffeine charge
• Peanut Butter, Banana Bread beers, and Crème Burlee beer is a milk stout desert drink with dark caramel malt for coloring and lactose sugar; it has a sister drink chocolate beer.

Oyster Beer. sounds delicious. Not!

A bottle of Oyster Beer sits on the shelf of my friends at one major kosher agency that I brought them from the last Craft Brewers conference.

You can easily find beer with an alcohol level to 6.5% with coloring from ruby red, dark caramel, to green. Beers, liquors, and vodkas have fruity flavors and scents described by someone as fruit cocktail drinks like peach, apple juice, watermelon cherry and berry flavorings. Others are spruced ginger, pumpkin, nutmeg, or cinnamon. Vodkas and whiskeys are sometimes aged in old fashioned pot stills like the ones used to make Cognac and Scotch; they have flavorings and colorings added for tartness or freshness and can contain blue agaves from Mexico crushed and fermented, or caraway seeds, star anise, orange, mango, and vanilla notes.
Most governments strictly control the brewing, distilling, and distribution of alcohol beverages in full cooperation with breweries and distillers; you do not hear them calling for less government regulation. In this industry it is used to protect the integrity of the beverage (you cannot call it Scotch if it is not made in Scotland), and to capture all the tax money they can get from this cash cow. Wild Turkey’s label does not read Real Whiskey, it boasts “Real Kentucky.”

Public health services make sure the breweries and distilling plants meet the highest standards, so there is never an outbreak of salmonella or e-coli that would threaten sales. The public hardly knows the ingredients or manner of making alcohol beverages, however, because these are proprietary secrets just as secretly guarded as the formula for Coca Cola (which is certified kosher). Imported beers and liquors especially from Mexico and Japan are ever increasingly popular drinks, and less is known about their ingredients than American made drinks.

Definitive data on the alcohol beverage industry are very hard to acquire. The industry is one of the largest grossing and most profitable in America, and guards the information about it with a heavy hand. Profits on wine, liquor, and beer were up 18%, sales up 5%, and exports from America up 8% over a year ago led by whiskey.

Kosher Beer

Let’s look a little closer just at beer production and sales for a taste of the size of this product sub-category:
• There are about 1,600 breweries in the U.S. This is an increase of 100 breweries over 2008. Most are microbreweries selling to the retail market.
• Six billion gallons of beer are sold every year with an annual per capita consumption of 85 liters or three million gallons.
• Craft beer sales are 12% of the beer market in 2010 accounting for 4.5 million barrels.

Kosher certification of alcohol beverages is increasing as part of the industry’s efforts to reach new markets. The kosher food market segment is $13 billion in annual sales. The web site, JUST-DRINKS, a beverage industry information site, concludes: “The market for alcoholic drinks is set to become increasingly competitive in the US, underscoring a growing need for innovation marketing and astute product development…” (emphasis added). Hennessy USA, looking to expand its US market share of high-end, single malt Scotch is has had its Glenmorangie and Ardberg certified kosher. The company redesigned its packaging and promotional materials to include the kosher logo on the package. In a statement to JUST-DRINKS, Glenmorangie’s US brand director said, “…kosher certification will bring our brand to an entirely new consumer base that can now enjoy our products.” Standard Millers and Coors and many of their new flavored beers are certified kosher also to reach new markets.

Brewers and distillers are also trying new processing methods. The equipments and land are tied up as the alcohol ages. Craft brewers and now craft distillers are loyal to the natural aging process, but they are trying different methods and ingredients speed things up and get more products to market more quickly because the demand for their drinks is so great. Coatings on the inside of bottles and cans are changing to lengthen shelf life, be more resistant to bacteria and air contamination.

Kosher Microbrewery Beer

The vegan advocate, BARNIVORE, warns that brew masters, winemakers, and distillers are experimenting and including ingredients from animals and dairy products. They heard that a whole chicken is dropped in the tank of one beverage. Filtering the drinks prio Some beers are aged in casks to absorb the flavor cabernets and other favorite wines. Wells and Young’s Brewing writes in an email to Barnivore that “All cask conditioned beers are unsuitable as they are fined using isinglass finings….Cask conditioned beer is otherwise known as 'traditional cask beer', and this means that it is not served from a 'keg' but from a 'cask', where the beer is naturally matured and 'conditioned'. This type of beer is served in pubs/bars from a hand pull dispense system direct from a cask.” Vertigo Brew warns that their Apricot Crème Ale contains gelatin as a clarifier as do most of their beers. Another brewer ceased using isinglass as a filter, but replaced it with “a collagen based process aid derived from Australian beef.”

Filtering drinks prior to bottling to bottling isinglass from fish bladders, gelatin, egg whites, and seashells may be used. None of these things appear on the labels. Every other food that uses alcohol or extracts from alcohol are now the objects of concern—candies, baked goods, baking mixes, aged meats, etc.

Two special alcohol beverages deserve a closer look: sports/energy drinks and vodkas. Some of the largest alcohol producers are behind sports/energy drinks. This is a huge and fast growing market appealing to students, athletes, and anyone else who needs a drink with a boost. They are flavorful and colorful and few of them are certified kosher.

Vodka has a colorful history for such a colorless drink. Vodka is classically not aged in wooden casks, and is most often made from grains, potatoes or fruits. There are some vodkas, though, that can be questionable and straight out not kosher. Tastings.com is a great source for information about vodka. For instance, vodka can be flavored “with a mix of ginger, cloves, lemon peel, coffee, anise and other herbs and spices…."Old" Vodka, a holdover from the early centuries of Vodka production, which can be infused with everything from fruit tree leaves to brandy, Port, Malaga wine, and dried fruit….Some brands are aged in oak casks. The base for these Vodkas can vary from grains in northern countries such as the United Kingdom, Holland, and Germany, to grapes and other fruits in the winemaking regions of France and Italy….The United States and Canada produce nonflavored Vodkas, both from various grains (including corn) and from molasses. American Vodkas are, by law, neutral spirits, so the distinction between brands is more a matter of price and perception than taste.”

Finally, let the buyer beware. “Organic” and “all natural ingredients” on the label mean very little, because no one is inspecting and certifying the kashrut of these claims. The spirits market is as competitive as any in the world. Price and profit rule. Small-sized or multi-national producers cannot be trusted on their own not to cut corners with cheaper ingredients and processes to maximize profits. According to Lubicom, a kosher foods consulting/marketing company, 55% of the people who look for a kosher symbol on their food labels do so for health and safety reasons; they believe kosher certification commits brewers , distillers, and food manufacturers to a higher standard. It reassures consumers that these manufacturers hold the standards for their products to a higher authority beyond government. May be so, but without the same comprehensive and rigorous inspection and certification of alcohol beverages by kosher certifying agencies the alcohol consumer really cannot trust the true kosher, vegetarian and vegan status of their beers, liquors, and vodkas.

After whiskeys have started getting hecsherim, sure to lead to a complete change in the kosher whiskey industry, it looks like vodka might have to be next... perhaps even more urgently than the need of a hechsher for whiskey.

Being introduced to the vodka market is a whole slew of new types of vodkas - with various flavors. No longer just vanilla or chocolate chip mint, but meat flavored vodkas. Flavors like Smoked Salmon Vodka and Bakon Vodka are first, with more to come along the way if this type of flavoring is deemed a success..

''I think there was some madness and some drunkenness involved, honestly,'' said Toby Foster, an Alaska Distillery partner and the one charged with coming up with new flavors with Alaska themes.

Foster's intent was to market a local vodka which would stand out among the numerous other bottles on the liquor store shelves.

''I was trying to think of something Alaskan. What's more Alaskan than smoked salmon? It was one of those epiphanies, I suppose,'' he said.

The idea turned out to be the easy part. Finding the right formula was a little more challenging.

Foster and Scotti MacDonald, another partner, said the current formula took 48 tries, and some of the first 47 attempts were downright disgusting.

''Definitely the first few times we had our heave bucket close by,'' MacDonald said. ''It was pretty bad, and you know, greasy.''

''But once we got it down and honed in on where the real secret was in making this, it was fun and games after that,'' she said.

Vodka is the highest selling spirits category in the country, and in the last five or six years, flavored vodkas have been taking off, said Danielle Eddy, spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Fruit flavors were first, followed by vegetables and herbs -- even a Russian garlic vodka.

''In the past few months, Bakon Vodka came out on the market. However, smoked salmon vodka is the most unique that we've heard of,'' Eddy said by cell phone from Scotland, where she was attending an industry event.

''Bacon does lend a nice umami flavor, it's that richness,'' she said. ''Smoked salmon is going to add that same type of richness, but from a lighter perspective.''

1. I am quite surprised by how much fireworks are being set off by kids. I thought we were way beyond that after the successful anti-fireworks campaigns of previous years.

I remember the firecrackers decreasing each year as awareness to the dangers was hammered into the kids heads, and the tolerance policies of the shuls and schools in the area plummeted to zero.

I don't know what changed, but I don't remember so many firecrackers of different types, as were set off tonight, being set off by so many kids on Purim night in a very long time.

It was definitely surprising, and I have no idea what changed that it became so hefker again in that regard.

2. Boys from many yeshivas head out to communities outside of Jerusalem to take advantage of the extra day of partying provided. Bet Shemesh is a prime target, though I dont know if it is unique to Bet Shemesh or not, because of the proximity to Jerusalem.

Some come collecting money for their yeshivas or for other organizations. Some come just to party.

Most of the yeshiva guys are decent. Some are not. It was really disgusting seeing a few of these guys getting completely drunk, especially at a time where there is no obligation - these boys likely don't have any obligation on this day of Purim, and even if they did because they chose to spend the whole Purim here including sleeping overnight, there is no mitzvah to get drunk at night - only by day (if at all).

I have seen plenty of drunken guys over the years, so it is not unusual. I have also seen some guys get drunk in the spirit of Purim, and then there are some guys who just get drunk using Purim as an excuse.

Seeing these few guys roaming around the neighborhood getting drunk using Purim as an excuse, being wild and ruining other people's parties with their wild drunkenness, is not pleasant. I am surprised the yeshivas let them get so out of control. Perhaps the yeshivas consider - drunk boys in a religious neighborhood or drunk boys in downtown Jerusalem? and they probably much prefer the drunk boys hanging out in a religious neighborhood. However the bad name they leave behind them, and the horrible appearance they leave and the bad taste they leave around them - it might be worth reconsidering. Maybe the yeshivas should have their own parties and keep their own drunk boys under their own watchful supervision - I don't know, but those boys need to be kept on a leash.

Yesterday we were driving up north (for the half marathon) and we stopped at a gas station to buy some food at the kiosk for breakfast on the way.

While looking around in the kiosk, I saw that they had a shelf stocking various hard alcoholic drinks - mostly vodka, but a couple bottles of Scotch as well.

What's up with that? Gas stations are selling hard liquor to people driving? To me that looks like a recipe for disaster.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach pens a frightening analysis about the problems with the guys and girls who come to Israel for yeshiva and seminary in the one year post high-school programs.

What do you think? Is it as bad as he says?

In my day, when I was in yeshiva (post highschool), it was limited to a few select yeshivas that had these problems. The average yeshiva did not have these problems (or if they did it was individuals in the yeshiva/sem and not widespread).

I have heard from some people that the problems are more prevalent now, though usually it is smoking a hookah and some drinking. Rabbi Boteach is describing something much worse than what I have heard.

Is it as bad as he says?