Kosher coffee klatsch

At a rare convenience store in West Jerusalem that caters to Saturday shoppers, I stopped to buy some coffee yesterday. Oddly enough, for a 24 hour store, they stocked mostly decaf. The only ground coffee on the shelf which wasn't decaf or instant had been imported from Brazil and was prominently marked "Kosher." When I asked the friendly cashier, a secular Jew, what made this brand Kosher, and whether buying it on the Sabbath would undo its kosher qualities, he was utterly stumped.
Well, maybe none of these coffee beans are Arabica, he joked.
Or possibly, like kosher wine, kosher coffee isn't handled by non-Jews during processing. With a bit more cyber-sleuthing, Izzy Bee found out the particulars.

According to Star K, an online caffeine bean peddler, coffee beans are inherently kosher because the beans come into contact only with water during harvesting, processing, and roasting. Kosher becomes a concern if the coffee is flavored, decaffeinated, or being consumed in a cafe (with verboten milk)

For flavored coffees, flavorings (both natural and sometimes artificial) are added after roasting. Due to the sheer number of types of flavoring, the chances of a non-kosher flavoring or process are higher, so this is an area of close inspection by the rabbis.

Decaffeination is another area of kashrut concern. Two processes are typical: the use of a chemical solvent called which dissolves the caffeine and a natural water-based process which uses activated carbon to filter the caffeine. One chemical solvent used, called ethyl acetate, is created using grain, so it is not kosher for Passover.

Lastly, the manner in which milk and sugar are added, and the location of the purchase of brewed coffee have kashrut implications. To be safe, it’s best to buy kosher certified coffee and brew and drink it at home with your own milk and sugar added to taste. But if you’re out and about, it’s best to order plain black coffee in a paper cup.

Or just wake up and smell the coffee!

Giraffe milk as kosher as its meat

The giraffe, long considered a kosher animal, poses a challenge for butchers to find exactly where on its exotically long throat to make the cut for ritual slaughter. Yesterday its milk got approved for kashrut consumption by one of Israel's prominent Rabbis.

An Israeli rabbi has declared giraffe meat and milk to be kosher, although his pronouncement is unlikely to have observant Jews clamouring to consume the exotic products, a daily reported on Friday.

"The giraffe has all the signs of a ritually pure animal, and the milk forms curds, which strengthened that view," the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot quoted Rabbi Shlomo Mahfoud as saying.

The rabbi based his ruling on a recent finding by researchers from Bar Ilan University who took a milk sample while treating a giraffe at Ramat Gan safari park near Tel Aviv.

They found that the milk forms curds as required under Jewish religious law, a finding confirmed by another research institute, the daily said.

Giraffe meat is also considered ritually pure because the animal has a cloven hoof and chews the cud.

"Indeed, the giraffe is kosher for eating," said Mahfoud, who was present when the researchers made their finding.

Yigal Horowitz, chief veterinary surgeon at the safari park, is not overly worried by the development.

"This doesn't mean that tomorrow we are going to drink giraffe milk or eat soup made from giraffe necks," the paper reported him as saying. "After all, this is an animal in danger of extinction."

I Spy Undercover Kosher

It sounds like the opening of a crusty old joke...there were these five Lithuanian rabbis who crossed the border to check out some foreign fruit and veg. But it's a true story.
The Hebrew daily Ma’ariv reports the adventures of a group of Kosher inspectors from Israel who are keen to import fresh produce during this Shmita year, when Jewish fields lie fallow by Biblical commandment. This happens once every seven years and it transpires that some of the usual loopholes for farmers have been closed by ultra-Orthodox decree. Gaza, which normally makes up the shortfall of crops, is barred from exporting to Israel at the moment because of its rocket attacks.According to Ma’ariv, these black hats decided to bypass West Bank sources because they are harvested in Judea and Samaria and went shopping inside Jordan for the tons of produce needed by their communities in the coming months. But, even though Jordan has friendly relations with neighbouring Israel, the rabbis were leery of standing out in an Arab crowd.

At Eilat, before crossing into Aqba, the rabbis underwent a makeover. This was not the typical caution of concealing kippahs beneath baseball caps. No, these fellows ditched their heavy black coats, stuffed their sacred string fringes inside their pants and traded their yarmulkas for red-checked kaffiyehs, the dish towel-like head scarf worn by Palestinians and Bedouins.

Ma’ariv claims that these five Israeli inspectors tried to wander around Jordan, looking for onions and green peppers, but they were hauled in and grilled by the Jordanian police at every new town. The reason? Their disguises were too convincing. Sporting Arafat-style kaffiyehs and unruly beards, these ultra-orthodox Jews were mistaken for Islamist militants of Hamas and al-Qaeda.
Oy vey.

To market? No, all little piggies stay home

Kosher grocer wars, and how Israel's secular consumers are caught like a piggy in the middle as an immigrant Russian billionaire eyes Jerusalem politics, makes fascinating reading in today's Independent of London. Check out the article by Donald Macintyre.
Stocks of the "other white meat" and shellfish still are available in boutique butchers for non-observant customers, but prices are expected to rise. The tycoon philanthropist Arkady Gaidamak, who also owns a football club (er, pigskin balls, anyone?) insists that he has never ever munched a morsel of pork and that to continue selling the meat inside the Holy land, where devout Jews and Muslims consider it unclean, is "a provocation." His is a highly unorthodox approach to vote-getting. The-th-that's not all, folks, in the loony-toon world of Israeli local politics.
Watch this space.
(There's no swine shortage in any Middle East election, I am told. Politicians on the trot will inevitably put their best foot forward.)

Is cannabis Kosher?

In the lead-up to Passover celebrations, observant Jews are expected to ritually clean their households and give away offending foodstuffs. On their front page, the Jerusalem Post today highlights the current confusion over whether keeping hemp products in the house violates any religious traditions of kitnyot, practiced by most devout Ashkenazies. (Marijuana and hashish are clearly classified as illegal by Israeli police, although enforcement of this law can be patchy.)


Now, the Aleh Yorok (Green Leaf) Party spokesperson, Michelle Levine, wonders whether a seasonal prohibition of marijuana implies that during the rest of the year, cannabis is kosher. The party, activists for legalizing hashish, is awaiting a Rabbinical consensus on this quandary before its leaders issue a joint statement.

Weed-whiffers in Israel, after all, are not exactly enjoying high times these days. The Green Leaf Party did not fare well in the Knesset elections. Some Israeli potheads blame the problems on that nasty Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and his minions: after the summer war destroyed prime croplands with rockets, mortars and tank treads and further blocked smuggling routes for any Lebanese Blonde which was harvested, prices surged 800 per cent. (Already, smokers were concerned that their indulgence might constitute high treason, since some traffickers' profits allegdly went to Hizbollah's coffers. Or should that be coughers?)
At any rate, tossing out such high-priced spliffs in order to keep kosher strikes some smokers as unfair. Others argue that it's just a token sacrifice.

Late addendum: Keeping kitnyot was effectively quashed when legume-eating was ruled kosher, according to Ynet news. This may give a whole new slant to the high holy days.

Kosher Power-let there be light

Who knew that electricity could be considered unclean?
A recent report in the Jerusalem Post about Kosher Power reveals that Israelis will be able to plug into Rabbi-sanctioned juice sometime next year. This article sheds some light on the peculiar hurdles with which a Jewish nation must contend.

Some ultra-Orthodox Jews, especially with so many little kids in the family, end up getting shocks from dodgy pirate transformers rather than use ordinary electricity from the mains, which presumably is generated by schlemiels on salary who work for the electricity on the sabbath. Of course, these families could forego electrical power altogether and keep a strict Day of Rest for 24 hours. But a solution seems to be in the offing: Saturday staffing by non-Jewish electricians.

You would think less mundane issues might preoccupy the greybeards and finely-honed minds of this country. Wondering whether the electricity is 100 per cent kosher certainly puts a new twist on that joke about how many Jews it takes to screw in a lightbulb.
Usual answer: None. Jewish Mama says ‘don’t bother. You all go out and have your fun while I sit here in the dark.’
But there is a Haredi alternative : 'None. Let the shabbos goyim take care of it.

More than ever I am convinced that the notion of separating church and state is a wise practice and that a theocracy of any sort won't be as efficient or healthy as secular rule. Alot of unnecessary expense and time goes into keeping these strictures.

This puppy won’t fly

El Al, Israel’s national airline, is not one that most frequent flyers would choose for long haul travel if they could possibly avoid it. True, the security is unparalleled, but the flight crew is surly and schedules erratic. And El Al has been taking extra flak this week for flying on the Sabbath, especially after a prominent rabbi interpreted an engine malfunction that required dumping fuel and a dash back to Tel Aviv as a divine slap for violating strict Talmudic law. Orthodox Jews continued to badmouth the national carrier for dishing up questionable in-flight snacks after the kosher variety went bad during an extended stopover. Some secular Israelis worry that adherence to every possible religious stricture might eventually ground their airline. It's not a 21st century experience as it is.

Pet-lovers have a hard time with El Al. Despite reserving full price seats months in advance, my friend Candice’s JFK-Tel Aviv non-stop was practically a non-starter. She and her golden retriever were bumped off the New York flight four times by dead passengers: cadavers returning to the Holy Land take priority.

Apparently, canine passengers on El Al must have their flights reconfirmed six hours prior to takeoff, to ensure they won’t be sharing cargo space with a dead body. These horizontal El Al passengers can't complain, and they are in dry ice and double coffins for the journey. Apparently it was a hectic week for NY coroners, and it appeared that Candice and her pup were going nowhere. They obligingly waited out the Sabbath hiatus, but were refused a boarding pass for the fourth time in a row. But this time, the woman behind the El Al counter offered a suggestion. “Oy vey. Have you tried booking out of Newark? We never fly the dead outta Jersey.” And so Candice and her canine went via Newark one dog day afternoon.