Last update - 00:00 25/09/2007
Knesset panel threatens to found separate kashrut authority
By Amiram Cohen, Haaretz Correspondent
In protest of the Chief Rabbinate's policy regarding the "shmita" or sabbatical agricultural year, the chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee has threatened to establish a separate authority to grant kashrut certification for produce.
"If the Chief Rabbinate does not get its act together in the near future, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will advance the establishment of an alternative kashrut authority in Israel, which will provide fitting solutions for the general public," committee chairman Menachem Ben Sasson (Kadima) said.
According to religious Jewish law, land must lie fallow every seven years - the shmita year - to allow it to rest. Jews worldwide may eat fruit and vegetables from Israel during the sabbatical year only if they were grown on land owned by non-Jews.
For decades, the Chief Rabbinate and the local rabbinates of most major cities have accepted the "heiter mechira" system, allowing Jewish farmers to symbolically sell their land to a non-Jew for the fallow year on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, then buy it back at the year's end. The temporary change of ownership means produce farmed during the year is considered kosher and can be sold to Jews.
Ultra-Orthodox rabbinates have never recognized heiter mechira as a valid system, but have traditionally turned a blind eye to the practice, allowing Jewish farmers to continue their livelihood during the sabbatical year.
In recent years, however, ultra-Orthodox rabbinates have increasingly objected to the system. This year, the rabbinates of several regions have threatened to nullify the kosher certification of farmers who practiced it. The Agriculture Ministry has called on the Chief Rabbinate to empower local rabbinates who agree to accept heiter mechira to authorize produce for sale and thus bypass rabbinates which refuse.
Ben Sasson called on the Chief Rabbinate to give kashrut authorization to all "businesses and institutions in all the cities in which local rabbis refused to do so."
The High Court objects to the Chief Rabbinate Council's decision to allow local rabbinates independence on this issue. Local rabbis who oppose the arrangement would give kashrut certification only to businesses in their city that agree to import produce.
"In Jerusalem, tomatoes are sold for NIS 9.50 per kilogram, and in certain cities for NIS 12. This price increase won't stop in Jerusalem and not at tomatoes. It will take with it all fresh produce. The price increase will also seriously harm the Haredi public and Israeli farmers. The kashrut authority will also be harmed because the general public will turn its back on it and I intend to lead a process to protect all of these systems," Ben Sasson said.
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