All food in Israel is kosher?

DrMom

Sat, Aug 26 2023, 5:28 pm

amother Springgreen wrote:

This is my pet peeve. I hate when Americans come to Israel and assume everything is kosher because it’s Israel.
I had to convince my mom (chassidish women from Williamsburg) that the fruits she bought in this random place in Tel Aviv isn’t kosher because there was NO HECHSHER and she argued that fruits don’t need a hechsher….
Another time I went with American friends to the beach and they were about to go eat at a restaurant and I told them I’m 100% sure it’s not kosher and the waitress came over and they start ordering and she says “Btw I see you are Chareidi, we are not kosher, we fry meat and cheese together…”
Makes me so frustrated.

I'm actually surprised that somebody with a frum educational background could be so grossly ignorant about kashrut, and be so clueless about Israel.

Even with this restaurant incident: Didn't they read the menu?

amother

Maroon

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 1:27 am

LovesHashem wrote:

Actually that's not true. I can't find the source now but I read recently for example on a gov source from Jerusalem that mehadrin there only uses stuff from the top mehadrin heschers - rubin, Landau, kehillos, machpud, eidah etc. Not even bet Yosef products I believe.

Mehuderet which is a step less, which we don't eat uses anything that has the word mehadrin on it basically. Even they don't use rabbanut products.

Not sure where you heard rabbanut mehadrin uses rabbanut products....

Also besides the products there's the mashgiach, how often they come and check. Every city is different but so far when we've asked around if the chareidi community in a random city eats their local rabbanut mehadrin so far the answer has almost always been yes, at least for dairy.

My work ordered lunch from a caterer with a rabbanut mehadrin hechsher. There were individual juice bottles with just a regular rabbanut hechsher (not mehadrin). And it was during shmittah, which means they may have been heter mechira. I asked a rabbi I know who is certified by the rabbanut to be a mashgiach why the caterer would have sent non-mehadrin products and he told me that rabbanut mehadrin does not mean that all products/ingredients have to be mehadrin.

salt

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 1:30 am

amother Springgreen wrote:

That's funny. It's davka in Israel that fruits need a hechsher!

salt

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 1:31 am

I think most people on this site that say that everything in Israel is kosher, is in response to posters who say they are coming on a trip to Israel and bringing all their food with them.

Of course there are non-kosher restaurants and hotels, but if you go into a regular supermarket in Jerusalem, which is where most imamother tourists are staying, you can pretty much assume you can buy everything on the shelves.

LovesHashem

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 1:56 am

amother Maroon wrote:

Durng Shmittah I believe certain Rabbanut Mehadrin did use heter mechira products. I don't remember. I remember we checked every teudah and it specified if they were heter mechira or not before eating somewhere. I think the teudah would say shmittah khalacha and not shmittah lmehadrin - they always listed what types of stuff the used.

I know for example rabbanut mehadrin in Efrat and Mateh Yehudah as far as I know only used heter mechira because they believed that was superior. Whenever we looked into somewhere there during shmittah it was heter mechirah.

Like I said different rabbanut mehadrin have different standards. There's been one or two cities we haven't heard if they are reliable or not as much as we tried to look into it so we don't go there.

Elfrida

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 1:58 am

amother Maroon wrote:

Just as a note, juice bottles are normally from tne previous years produce. It's now (and for the next year or two) that you need to worry about them being heter mechira, not during shmittah itself. Any packaged product that is heter mechira will normally say so on the package.

Bnei Berak 10

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 2:55 am

Elfrida wrote:

This
Around five/six years ago I bought wine on sale in a makolet in bnei brak. To my horror I discovered the two bottles of white in had bought were Heter Mechira.
I had to bury them.
So yes, even in bnei brak one has to keep one's eyes open.
That's why it's annoying and time consuming to shop at a non-religious grocery store.

salt

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 2:59 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Can I just say that many people rely on heter mechira, and it is considered kosher for them.
If you have specific kashrut requirements, then of course you have to look at the hechser and small-print.

But heter mechira is not the same as a restaurant cooking meat and milk together.

amother

Blushpink

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 3:01 am

Non Israelis just don’t know
They see hebrew words and think it’s kosher
Please be super careful. There are different levels of kashrut in israel with some hechsherim being stricter than others so you need to get a list of which hechsherim is on your level and make sure to ask everywhere. Yes fruits and vegs are also problematic. 2 fruit stores next door to each other in the shuk, one is good and one is not.
2 bars of magnum or nestle ice cream one is cholov yisroel and one is not.
If your not from israel please ask don’t assume things are kosher. And if you dress and look chareidei most stores will tell you if you ask that this is not your hechsher
Or ask to speak to the owner or mashgiach
It’s sooo tricky and scary how people just assume things in israel are kosher

Bnei Berak 10

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 3:13 am

salt wrote:

I didn't check the small print that time. Learned my lesson Smile

Bnei Berak 10

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 3:15 am

amother Blushpink wrote:

That's why it's time consuming and frustrating to shop in a non-religious grocery store.

LovesHashem

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 3:54 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

That's why it's time consuming and frustrating to shop in a non-religious grocery store.

I've bought heter mechirah, rabbanut items, triangle k and items that weren't even kosher at all at chareidi stores. Lesson learned, always check EVERYTHING.

Never assume anything.

I've also been lied to about teudot on restaraunts many times, seen fake teudot, I've seen it all. I never buy or eat anything without double checking.

LovesHashem

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 4:47 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

So interesting how different rabbanim hold. My Rav said for heter mechira keilim isn't an issue, so if we have friends that use it we can go for shabbos if they just buy mehadrin stuff for shabbos. There's a place I love to get coffee that was selling sandwiches and other food made there that were heter mechira and my rav said I could definitely continue to get coffee there. But a friend of mine who also got coffee there asked their rav and was told to avoid it.

I always wonder how that works, after shmittah it's the same keilim so how can you ever go back there?

Anyway my Rav said the main issue is with buying it. Once it's already in your possession, you were gifted it or bought it by mistake it's not so clear cut that you can't use it. He said it's a machlokes and there's definitely opinions that say you can eat it/use it.

This past shmittah I was gifted cut flowers (not a plant) that were heter mechira (they came to my door) and my rav said I can use them, keep them alive as best I can and I just have to only throw them out when they get really gross/moldy or whatever. No burying or anything.

Bnei Berak 10

Sun, Aug 27 2023, 9:39 am

LovesHashem wrote:

I asked by Rabbi. He said to bury the bottles.

DrMom

Mon, Aug 28 2023, 4:42 am

amother Maroon wrote:

That's weird. I have a friend who is a caterer and to get rabbinut mehadrin certification she absolutely has to only use mehadrin products and cannot use rabbinut non-meheadrin drinks.

amother

Daisy

Mon, Aug 28 2023, 8:25 am

Elfrida wrote:

The issue isn't only shmitta. Truma and maser is a huge issue always. And you need hasgacha you can rely on for that. Someone who doesn't eat rabanut, wouldn't eat juice with a rabanut-only hechsher.

amother

Milk

Mon, Aug 28 2023, 8:38 am

salt wrote:

yes!! yes! We hold that heter michira is better than supporting non jews, Arabs in particular. That's an issur toם - "Lo Ticahnem" - (דברים פרק ז' לא תחנם ). + We're Yishivish

amother

Hotpink

Mon, Aug 28 2023, 8:57 am

amother Milk wrote:

yes!! yes! We hold that heter michira is better than supporting non jews, Arabs in particular. That's an issur toם - "Lo Ticahnem" - (דברים פרק ז' לא תחנם ). + We're Yishivish

Never heard this. Also yeshivish. We don’t hold by heter mechira and when we’re in Israel we get produce from outside of Israel. It could be that if asked hypothetically heter mechira could be better but definitely not ideal. Heter mechira is not held by mainstream yeshivish rabbanim, or so I thought. The hechshers we use don’t hold by heter mechira, both in Israel and out. Maybe there was a specific situation but I don’t think this is the norm.