Raspberry recognized as non-kosher by Israel's rabbinate

For a month and a half in Israel, it is impossible to find on the shelves of supermarkets neither raspberry jam, nor jam, nor confiture. Packages with frozen berries also disappeared.

No, everything is much more serious. The reasons for the fact that raspberries and products containing it suddenly disappeared from the shelves, wrote on Tuesday, February 2, the site of 12 TV channel.

It turns out that the reason for the deficit is not the crisis in agriculture or the miscalculations of importers. The Chief Rabbinate changed the status of raspberries from kosher to non-kosher. Moreover, even those raspberries with a kosher certificate issued abroad have been declared a non-kosher product.

In fact, from a halakha point of view, raspberries have always been a problem. There are two reasons. The special structure of this berry makes it difficult to clean it from insects and their waste products, and insects are considered non-kosher. That is, you can clean it up, it's just that this process is laborious and needs special supervision.

The second reason, according to TV channel 12, is that the halachic dispute about whether raspberries are a berry or a fruit has not yet been resolved. It does not grow on the ground, but on a perennial bush. If raspberries are a fruit, then there is a ban on eating fruit from the tree in the first years of its growth. That is, again, the question is who will control the age of the bush from which the raspberries are harvested.

So far, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has been happy with overseas control. But lately the rabbis have toughened their position on this issue (but only in this). Raspberries grown in Israel, in some cases, can still receive a kosher certificate, because here you can establish control that suits the rabbi. But imported - no. The trouble is that in our stores almost all of it is imported.

And the raspberries were taken from the store shelves. Delicacies such as teabags with raspberries or fillings in ice cream and pastries are permitted. But preserves, jams, confitures, not to mention the whole berry, are completely prohibited.

“About a month and a half ago, all raspberries were withdrawn from sale by order of the Chief Rabbinate,” Channel 12 confirmed in one of the retail chains. “There is no brand on the market today that sells raspberries, and the situation is unlikely to change in the near future.”

Small and independent traders and non-kosher store owners who still sell raspberries try to label them as non-kosher and pack them separately.