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.
