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18 Teves 5762 - January 2, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
The Badatz Determines Kashrus, not the Bagatz

Would you eat meat that the High Court says is perfectly kosher -- if the supervising rov is unhappy with it?

That is the question that arises in the wake of the Israeli High Court's most recent pronouncement on the Jewish religion.

It is established practice that slaughterhouses may not sell the treif meat to Jewish customers or Jewish businesses. To do so is unequivocally prohibited according to the halochoh, and all kashrus organizations insist that the treif byproducts of the shechitah be disposed of properly.

The slaughterhouse in Chaderah, Hod Chefer, which is under the supervision of the rov of Chaderah, HaRav Dovid Werner, sued in court to be allowed to exercise its "right" to sell treif chickens to a Jewish butcher. No one was terribly surprised when the court found that the slaughterhouse is allowed to sell its treif chickens to whomever it wants, and the Chief Rabbinate is not allowed to forbid this practice or to withdraw its certificate of kashrus for this practice.

The High Court may be able to force the Rabbinate to post a paper kashrus certificate, but can they force it to take full responsibility for the kashrus? Can they force customers to buy and eat the meat?

There are already reports that kosher businesses do not want to continue to buy from Hod Chefer if the Rabbinate is certifying it only under protest. If the High Court does not stop this absurd attempt to force its standards of kashrus it will soon find that it has to order Jews to eat the meat against their will.

One can force the Jew to dance to any tune that he likes, but will it be a virtuoso performance? And can one force the Jewish audience to come in and applaud enthusiastically?

What sort of right does the slaughterhouse have to sell to one customer for a few more shekels that can override the right of the rov to supervise kashrus according to the accepted interpretation of the laws of the Torah?

To have to work in an establishment that is brazenly violating the halochoh is certainly something that is likely to interfere with the rov's ability to perform his duties properly. Kashrus supervision is difficult and involves a very heavy responsibility, and cannot be performed reliably under protest.

There can be no doubt that the High Court knew that its action would be provocative and that it acted deliberately. The Court well knows that its relationship with the Jewish religion is sensitive and that its ruling would not be welcomed. Yet it chose to go ahead and force a confrontation between itself and the practice of Judaism.

It is clear that the issue is not limited to the Rabbinate of Chaderah but applies to the free practice of our religion as we see fit all over the State of Israel. It is a struggle in which we should be able to enlist to our side all those who believe in freedom of religion, and it is a struggle that we must win.


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