Funnily enough, as part of "Agricultural Day" in the Knesset yesterday, farmers brought fresh produce to the Knesset to sell to MKs and Knesset employees. Sort of a Farmer's Market.
And that's where the Knesset rabbi steps in.
The Knesset rabbi, Rabbi Alex Hochman, did not allow the farmers to bring their produce into the Knesset. The reason Rabbi Hochman gave was because the produce was not "shmitta l'mehadrin". According to the article in NRG, hundreds of kilograms of fruits and vegetables had to be left outside the Knesset.
It should be noted that all the produce had a hechsher from the Rabbanut, so this obviously upset the farmers and plenty of other people.
I am not sure why they could not have some farmers bring mehadrin produce (yevul nochri or otzar beis din vegetables, and fruits are 6th year produce now anyways), while others would bring non-mehadrin produce, and let the buyer beware, just like everywhere else in the country.
I also was not aware that the Knesset is an exclusively mehadrin location. It even sounds funny to suggest that the Knesset is mehadrin, what with all the politicians and ex-cons that work within. But seriously, of the MKs, those makpid on mehadrin are a significant minority (I don't know about the type of population Knesset employees are made up of, along with aides and assistants and all the other supporting staff, but I think it is probably safe to assume it is at least close to proportional to the percentages of MKS), so I am not sure why regular Rabbanut cannot be brought in for everyone else.
------------------------------------------------------ Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel ------------------------------------------------------
