A group of Israel Haredi rabbis for the first time have placed cigarettes on the list of Passover goodies that need a special “kosher” certification, while the Chief Rabbinate blew smoke on the idea, declaring that poison is never kosher.
Every Jew, and many non-Jews, know that Jews may not eat anything on Passover that might have ingredients of grains that could ferment and be considered leavened. Ashkenazi Jews have an added restriction on consuming anything that contains “kitniyot” vegetables such as peas and corn.
Every year, many Jews come up with all sorts of a “humras” – a stringency. One authority forbids using balloons on Passover because they might have been coated with a material that is considered kitniyot.
Some Haredi Jews several years banned drinking water on Passover that comes from the Kinneret because someone may have dropped a piece of bread in the lake, or God forbid, a fisherman used bread as bait that fell apart in the water before a fish could grab it.
Two weeks, we reported that there is an argument between Rabbinic groups in the United States over quinoa, which is not a grain. One group of rabbis claims that winds in some South Americana field, where quinoa is grown, might blow a barley seed into a field of quinoa, and that single seed might not be sighted in packaging, leaving the quinoa not kosher.
And then there is the case of Jerusalem Haredim who rent out laundered “shrteimel” hats during Pesach because, who knows, maybe a crumb was stuck in somebody’s fur hat.
But cigarettes?
Leave it to the group of Beit Yosef rabbis to add it to their list of certified products, for which, of course, there is a fee for the label for three local cigarette brands.
A spokesman for Israel’s chief rabbinate responded, “Poison is not kosher. For all days of the year, not just Passover.”
Beit Yosef justified the kosher for a Passover label, using the old “when in doubt, be stringent,” argument.
Its chief supervisor Rabbi Yigal Ben Ezra explained that the kosher for Passover label is for a number of Israeli Haredim who won’t buy any products that are not labeled “Kosher for Passover.”
He said the British rabbis inspected the Dubek cigarette factory and determined that no leavened bread came in contact with the cigarettes, which must go down as one of the great non-discoveries of the year.