Paternistic Monopolies: Follow Up
Lenore Davis August 14, 2019
PATERNALISTIC MONOPOLIES:
5T VAAD and LOCAL YESHIVAS
FOLLOW UP
By: Suri Stern
It appears I touched a nerve in the community.
I had restaurants sending me free platters of food, thanking me for saying what they couldn’t.
I had Rabbis in Israel, Italy and Australia comment on the article, sanguinely.
This week marks 13 years since Thefivetowns.com went live. The very first customer was Zvi Friedman’s Amoco station.
There was no internet on Central Avenue, no stores had computers, and the owners wanted to know why they should advertise online, and what online meant.
It was before Google, when I had my webmaster place over 75,000 Five Towns businesses on my online directory, so those who lived or visited the five towns, would know where to find kosher food, non-kosher food, Jewish services and Christian services.
People kept asking me why it was Thefivetowns.com and not TheJewishFiveTowns.com, and I responded that I wanted to build bridges with those who were feeling alienated by the influx of Orthodox Jews who were dismissing them.
Patrick Henry stated “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend…your right to say it.”
This article is about live and let live.
It is about choices.
It is about tolerance.
It is about governance.
Does this community want to continue having the choice of:
Unsupervised milk and Cholov Yisrael
Lettuce that has to be checked v. Bodek lettuce
Stroehman’s bread v. Zomick’s bread
Artichokes, raspberries, black berries, spinach?
There are plenty halachic authorities to support doing away
with all of the above in kosher stores. It is simple to say no.
It is much harder to find a way to say yes.
Thirteen years ago, when I interviewed Rabbi Pelcovitz, ZTL, he saw the storm on the horizon, he saw that the rainbow assortment of Jews in Far Rockaway and Lawrence were giving away to a sea of black. He saw that every Jew and Rabbi was in competition to out-machmir each other, and he didn’t see any/many who could stay the movement to the right.
Saying no to businesses who want to open early on Tisha B’av, hurts their parnassah/their sustenance.
Prohibiting restaurants from opening on shabbos to pre-paid customers, hurts their sustenance.
But it also hurts the community in the same way we learn in the very first parshah in Genesis/Beraishis, when the snake told Eve that she could not touch the tree, when, in truth, she could touch the tree, she merely could not eat from the tree. From this we learn the concept of Bal Tosif, adding to that which is in the Torah.
Yes, indeed, the rabbis add boundaries to that which is in the torah for the purpose of distancing Jews from sin, but I ask you this:
Was it a sin for 60 years of Vaad existence, for them to have been open on Tisha B’av morning?
Was it a sin permitting spinach in the restaurants all these years?
Is it a sin to permit people to buy produce and inspect it themselves?
For every Jew who drinks Kirkland milk, do we not have the gaon Rav Moshe behind us, yet…there are many who disagree.
Sure it is easy to restrict, but it takes a greater rabbi to permit, where to restrict would burden his constituency.
Mr. Elan Kornblum was able to reach the Vaad, to discuss this decision, and this is part of the excerpt of what he discovered:
While it has been noted that the closure of grocery stores until midday was not officially the policy of the Vaad of Five Towns until recently, that is not due to a change in the Halachic status of the matter, but rather they say it was brought to their attention by local residents themselves that the OU and most supervision nationwide adopts this policy. The rabbis met last year and decided to implement it. Problem was it was a few weeks before Tisha B’av and one supermarket had already received numerous orders and felt it was too close to the day to make this decision. The Vaad understood and allowed the stores to be open. However, with more advanced notice, they contacted the stores much earlier this year and made them aware of the new policy. I believe the Vaad felt that there were numerous ways one can get kosher food if it was an emergency (and perhaps if there was only one kosher store in town things would change) and they felt that this was a necessary policy based on the learnings.
However, it was pointed out that next year Tisha B’Av falls on Thursday which may make it more difficult for owners and customers to shop for Shabbos, so based on the opinion of certain ps’ak, there is some leniency to open before 1pm on a Thursday. So we shall see what happens next year.
Bottomline, the issue of food preparation on the morning of Tisha B’Av is unanimous among the Halachic sources and there is no reason that they should be brought into question in our communities if the rabbis we trust to make halachic decision regarding the business they supervise have made this decision. That is their role and their job. To not only supervise the food but to make sure the stores are held to the laws of our sages.
This brings to question who approached the Vaad, how many people approached the Vaad, and what authority do they have. Why did they have the power to overrule decades of tradition in our community? What has happened to Minhag Hamakom, and who has the right to dictate our collective minhag. If we give it to the Vaad, then they have a responsibility to their constituents to listen, if they want to retain their monopoly.
If this decision is “unanimous among the halachic sources,” then why didn’t the Vaad Rabbis throughout these decades enact this rule, and why didn’t Rabbi Klaperman, Rabbi Hain, Rabbi Pelcovitz/Weinberger/Flam/Feiner/Reisman/Billett/Feitman/Spiegel/Kaminetzky/Kornmehl/Teitelbaum/Ginsburg…etc. tell the Vaad to close, or tell their members not to patronize the establishments on Tisha B’av morning???
As people lined up for food, bagels etc., the storm grew, and residents went to Stop and Shop, Bagel Boss, Tomer on Central for their food. They took pictures in front of the establishments they patronized and I received over 100 responses in support of my stand.
Yeah, I also had some rabbis calling me. The rabbis know me, and they understand that the root of my stance is Ahavat Chinam, tolerance, choice and the obligation of those in power to listen to those they govern.
We are to be a light unto the nations.
We are here to build bridges, unity in our community and saying no, and limiting choices and turning a deaf ear does not meet this goal.
Hashiva shoftenu kivarishona
v’yoatzenu kvatchilah
v’haser mimenu yagon v’anachah…
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri