Chief Rabbi of Israel Rav Yitzchak Yosef spoke recently at a conference in which he used his podium to speak in support of the Rabbanut and to strengthen the Rabbanut. He discussed various aspects of the Rabbanut.
You can read, or watch, much of what he said at the report on Kikar, but I am going to refer to just one part of it here - the part where he talks about the kashrut aspect of the Rabbanut.
Rav Yosef said "the rabbonim need to prop up the name and reputation of the Rabbanut in kashrut, so people should not say "oh, that's rabbanut", as if the hechsher of the Eida Hachareidis came down from heaven. That is not correct - it is a mistake. With meat, one needs to be strict about the best hechsher possible - there are many hiddurim with meat, and one should definitely look for the best possible hechsher that is chalak. But regarding everything else, a person buys Osem noodles or chocolate.. what's the difference? It is all business, not always but very often. The Rabbanut and the rabbonim of cities need to be more aggressive and prop up the kashrut of the Rabbanut"..
Rav Yosef should put his money where his mouth is, and I do not know that he doesn't but if he already does he should have publicized it right them and there. Rav Yosef should have announced that when buying meat he only buys with hechsher x, probably the hechsher of Beit Yosef - his family's hechsher business - but with everything else, or at least with almost everything else, he and his family buy Rabbanut and cook with Rabbanut foods in their houses because it is all just business and there is usually no difference.
If he himself does not follow the instructions he is telling everyone else to follow, it is very nice he is strengthening the Rabbanut but he really isn't doing anything.Nobody will listen to him if he himself is seen as not trusting the Rabbanut. He wants everyone else to eat Rabbanut except for him and his family. If he already does eat Rabbanut, he should use himself as an example saying that he relies on it completely. If he does not, he should say starting today I am going to be buying foods with the Rabbanut hechsher and I expect the general public to do so as well. That is something that would really strengthen the Rabbanut in the eye of the public.
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