Two senior religious-Zionist rabbis have come out in support of the reforms proposed by Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) that would end the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over kashrut supervision.
The proposed reforms would encourage more food businesses to obtain kashrut supervision, Rabbi Yaakov Medan, co-dean of the Har Etzion Yeshiva in Alon Shvut and a respected leader in the religious-Zionist community, told Kahana in a letter Saturday night. The measures would not undermine the Chief Rabbinate, he wrote.
It was important to preserve the respect and honor of the Chief Rabbinate, provided it does not negatively impact the provision of effective kashrut supervision, Medan wrote.
Last week, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, a respected arbiter of Halacha, expressed support for Kahana’s measures, according to the Religious Services Ministry.
Last Monday, Kahana announced a program of reforms that would allow independent kashrut authorities to provide supervision, with the Chief Rabbinate functioning as a regulator and operating an inspection authority to oversee their work.
The program would end the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over kashrut supervision. It was strongly opposed by the Chief Rabbinate and the chief rabbis.
Last Thursday, several senior rabbis in the hard-line wing of the religious-Zionist community said they were against the reforms. The reforms are opposed by the chief rabbis, and therefore they could not support them, they said.
Petah Tikva Chief Rabbi Micha Halevi expressed concern that since the reforms allow for multiple independent supervision authorities, should a business lose its kashrut license from one authority due to bad practice, it could swiftly apply to a different authority for a new license.
Care must be taken not to allow such a business to automatically obtain a license from another authority, Medan wrote.
“I am convinced that this program will bring more businesses to use kashrut and bring honest supervisors who are Torah scholars into the market who will work for a dignified salary, which he will receive from the kashrut authority and not from the business under supervision,” he wrote.
One of the biggest deficiencies of the current system is that kashrut supervisors are paid directly by the business they supervise. That situation is a prime cause of corruption, according to the State Comptroller’s Office, and the High Court of Justice has ruled it must stop.
“We are all committed to the honor of the rabbinate and to the honor of the rabbis, but also to the mitzvah of the Torah, ‘You shall not fear any man,’ when we come to strengthen such a vital and beloved mitzvah as the mitzvah of the kashrut of the food entering our mouths,” Medan wrote.
Any reforms must be approved by the Chief Rabbinate, a group of the most senior and respected conservative religious-Zionist rabbis, including Rabbi Haim Druckman, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel and Rabbi Haim Steiner, wrote in a letter last Thursday.
“Although there is a need for improvement on specific issues, such as kashrut, everything must be done only with the agreement of the Chief Rabbinate,” they wrote.