How accepted is Rabbanut Mehadrin? (Yerushalayim)

shalhevet

Wed, Dec 11 2013, 3:30 am

Heyaaa wrote:

afaik rabanut mehadrin means (with regards to a restaurant) that there is a mashigiach on premises and that he checks the vegetables himself. plain rabanut means there is a mashgiach who comes by but it's not regulated that well.

If this is your level of information, then I wonder about the rest of your post.
First of all, are you talking about Yerushalayim mehadrin or rabbanut mehadrin in general?
If it's in general, then, sorry to say, you know nothing. Rabbanut mehadrin does not mean anything in particular. Every rabbanut can decide its own standards for its regular hechsher and for mehadrin. Just because Rabbanut Haifa mehadrin has standard x, that is nothing to do with Rabbanut Tzfat mehadrin. There is no general rule of what mehadrin means - you can ask each rabbanut what they claim it includes.

If you are talking about Yerushalayim mehadrin, then I don't understand why you only refer to vegetables. What about hechsherim on the products they use? Bishul akum (and to Ashkenazi or Sephardi standards)? Checking of rice and legumes? Taking challa? Mashgiach temidi? Trumos v'maasros? Orla? Sieving flour? etc. etc. Also, the yiras shamayim of the mashgiach is very important - you can often get a feeling for this by calling the hotel and talking to him. Does he say everything is fine, or will he go through each thing with you and explain?

Regarding Yerushalayim Mehadrin and politics. What happened was that the Likud (a secular political party) took control of the Religious Council and employed mashgichim of their own choosing, which means not everyone is trustworthy and standards changed - although the change was political, it did have a practical impact on the kashrus levels, and that is why many people no longer rely on it. Also, I have checked, and the fleishigs are definitely not the mehadrin hechsherim most Israeli chareidim rely upon, but inferior (glatt) ones. You can call the individual mashgiach and ask what is used, but that will still not tell you how reliable the mashgiach is.

Quote:

I assume when you say plaza you mean the leonardo. I ate there this winter and it had a large percentage of very frum people there and my friend (who is really makpid on hechshers) told me that it's a better hechsher than most of those hotels.

Here's a joke for you.
Ten men in black jackets and hats were sitting round a table at a chassuna, merrily eating away.
Suddenly another frum man sat down and nudged the guy to his right. "Excuse me, could you tell me what the hechsher is here?" The guy he nudged turns to the guy on his right and asks him the same question. And so on. Until they get back to the first person. When no one knows the answer they all answer that they were eating because they saw the other men eating and assumed it must be okay.

I have no idea why someone would say one establishment with hechsher x is better than another with the same hechsher. It might be true (a more conscientious/ yarei shamayim mashgiach) and it might not (wishful thinking or someone saw many "very frum" people eating there). But even if it's true, if it's based on hearsay and nothing official, it can all change in a moment (new policies, new mashgiach), so research things very well.

southernima

Wed, Dec 11 2013, 4:32 am

imasoftov wrote:

amother wrote:

imasoftov wrote:

I'd say kashrut here in Israel is precisely like kashrut in America, there are different hechsherim, and there are lots of rumors floating around but little real information. In both Israel and the US (and everywhere else you might wind up), ask your own rabbi what hechsherim to accept, not the internet.

How is that helpful? OP is asking what people like her generally do.

Ask me again under your own user name.

for what its worth I found this to be extremely helpful. As someone new to israel and trying to navigate the various heckshers, you are right.... you gotta ask to know!

Heyaaa

Wed, Dec 11 2013, 4:39 am

shalhevet wrote:

Heyaaa wrote:

Quote:

I was talking about yerushalayim but I don't know the difference. I wrote what I understood from what dh told me. Next time I won't say anything unless I'm totally clear on the info.

Heyaaa

Sun, Dec 15 2013, 4:35 am

amother wrote:

Heyaaa wrote:

amother wrote:

Heyaaa wrote:

We are a chassidic and dh learns in kollel if that means anything.
We eat chalav stam in the states.

That's really strange. I don't know a single chassidish person who would eat chalav stam.

First of all not sure why you say that under amother. Second what's your question

Did you see a question mark? It was a statement. Meaning you're not chassidish and therefore your statement is unhelpful.

If I wanted to lie I would do it under amother.

Dh did his research and he follows what he follows based on his research. I don't know exactly why he holds what he does but I try to buy only hechsherim that he will eat.

finallyamommy

Sun, Dec 15 2013, 6:43 am

We are also a yeshivish couple, though not kollel, and personally we don't touch rabbanut or rabbanut mehadrin either. My rav says there's not actually that much of a difference between them, except that rabbanut mehadrin has full-time mashgichim. (which says nothing about, say, shechita, and I'm sure there are other issues).

We would eat out at milchig restaurants that are Eida or Rubin or Belz or She'eiris... there might be others, that's what I remember offhand. For chicken we only use Eida and for beef we only use She'eris. That's based on DH's research and speaking with a kashrus expert that our rav referred him to, so please don't ask me for specifics as I can't answer questions!

I will readily admit that our standards are rather on the high end, and we do eat out at friends who use Rubin or Landau, etc., but none of the yeshivish people we know use Rabbanut, mehadrin or otherwise.

Last edited by finallyamommy on Wed, Feb 12 2014, 10:08 am; edited 1 time in total

Smiling Wife

Sun, Dec 15 2013, 7:38 am

amother wrote:

MH says that about 10 years ago many frum American tourists (even chassidish but not ultra like Satmar) would eat at Rabbanut Mehadrin restaurants. My brother tells me it's no longer the case.

Does anyone know? Would love to hear experiences.

I guess we'd be labelled as frum, yeshivish, black hat types.

We will be staying in the Plaza hotel, I believe it's Rabbanut Mehadrin.

Is there a difference between eating milchig and fleishig?

I hope this question doesn't offend anyone... It's something we need to know.

Any comments and advice would be great.

About Jerusalem Mehadrin>
I don't know if this will help, we made aliyah 2 years ago, we asked a shaila and the rav said the following > Go and ask the mashgiach of the restaurant.

Kashrus here is VERY VERY political and can't be compared to the US at all, all of your understandings of US kashrus agencies need to be wiped completely ie you cant just apply it here. If you want to be on the safe side dont do rabanut jerusalem mehadrin, but if you want to be a yid who asks and finds out then ask the mashgiach or your rav and find out, if your rav doesnt know ASK HIM TO DIRECT YOU TO ANOTHER RAV THAT KNOWS, what would your rav do if he is traveling to Israel? I am sure he will find a rav to speak to, so do the same...