Some were reminded this week of the Shas campaign slogan, “Papa is looking at you from high above,” referring to the late Rav Ovadia Yosef, when this week it turned out that another saintly Jew, Rabbi Haim Hadad from the city of Lod who passed away on Passover continues to provide his kashrut certificate as a gainfully employed member of the local rabbinate. His name and the statement that he is the rabbi providing the supervision have continued to appear on products manufactured under the supervision of the Lod Rabbinate well after his demise.
The website Kippa presented an image of a coffee bag manufactured by the Strauss company through an outfit called B.V., which bears the promise: “Kosher Parve under the supervision of Rabbi H. Hadad, Lod Rabbinate.”
A call to the kashrut dept. of the Lod religious council resulted in an explanation from the current, very much alive plant kashrut supervisor who said the owners just continued to use the packages that had been printed before his predecessor’s passing and that just now they had approved a new layout saying only “Supervised by the Lod Rabbinate,” without mention of a specific mashgiach—which, come to think of it, should make for a smoother transition next time. The newly packed coffee in the newly designed package should hit the markets shortly.
The Lod Rabbinate actually showed they had a sense of humor, when in their statement they promised to maintain the high quality of their supervision, despite the transfer of authority from the heavens down to earth.