Q&A: Jewish Law in Practice Regarding Restaurant Kashrut
Jewish Law in Practice Regarding Restaurant Kashrut
Question
Hello Rabbi.
I am a yeshiva student, and I do not know how to conduct myself regarding the kashrut of restaurants and the like.
I see two types of people: those who eat anywhere that has a kashrut certificate under some kind of supervision, and those who eat only with certain kashrut certifications.
From the latter we constantly hear that the rabbinate’s kashrut certification in most cities is beneath all criticism, while the former argue that it is impossible for a place under kashrut supervision to be forbidden to eat in, and that avoiding it is merely a stringency (perhaps a reasonable one, but not obligatory), and so on.
It is important to emphasize that I am speaking even about Religious Zionists who do not rely on most rabbinate certifications, and not only about Haredim.
I do not know how to act: are those who are careful merely being stringent, more power to them, or not even that (and are they just like Hasidim who rely only on their rebbe’s certification and treat everything else as non-kosher)?
Or are they doing what is actually necessary and binding on everyone (as many of them claim)?
Thank you.
Answer
Hello,
In all kashrut organizations there are problems. It is very difficult to supervise properly, and interests and human nature do not help here either. Bad rumors are heard about every kashrut organization, and in many cases this is a matter of rival organizations’ interests or politics.
My impression is that specifically the supervision of the Chief Rabbinate, despite all my lack of sympathy for them, has been improving over the years.
As a rule, when there is supervision, the establishment has a presumption of kashrut. That does not mean there cannot be problems, but it does mean that if there was a problem, you have a claim of duress regarding it. We are left with the question of spiritual harm from eating non-kosher things under duress, but that is not something I would worry about.
However, it is true that ordinary rabbinate supervision openly maintains minimal standards; that is, there are things they do not supervise and on which they are lenient. With regard to that, of course, the claim of duress is irrelevant, since that is the basis on which they provide supervision, and one who chooses to eat there does so knowing that the standard is not the highest. Therefore, there is room to be stringent and eat only in a place monitored under mehadrin supervision.