Rabbis Ban Raisins From Cookies; ‘An Abomination’

Bnei Brak, Israel, February 21 – Prominent Orthodox and Haredi (“ultra-orthodox”) Rabbis reacted today to what they called a worrisome trend among bakers, and issued an unequivocal ruling against the use of raisins as an ingredient in cookies. They called the phenomenon a violation so serious that it endangers the very fabric of human society, let alone the Orthodox world.

Rabbis Nissim Karelitz, Chaim Kanievsky, Shmuel Wosner, and a group of Hasidic Grand Rabbis issued a joint proclamation this morning, calling on organizations that certify food establishments as kosher to enforce this new provision. Citing testimony from experts who encountered such raisins in cookies and assumed the dark bumps were chocolate chips – and from several prominent victims themselves – the religious leaders threatened with excommunication any bakery operator that continued to defile cookie dough with desiccated grapes.

Large posters announcing the ruling went up in the mostly Haredi cities of Bnei Brak, Kiryat Sefer, and Beitar Illit, and in the heavily Haredi areas of Jerusalem. The announcements, placed in locations normally reserved for notices of bereavement over the passing of a prominent community member, or of restated opposition to various developments in the conflict with the secular authorities, attracted a sizable crowd of curious readers, most of whom could be seen nodding appreciatively or discussing with others the need for such an enactment.

“It’s about time,” said Moshe Halberstam, 50, of the Meah She’arim neighborhood of Jerusalem. “I can’t tell you how my bitachon in Hakodosh boruch hu has been challenged by the existence of raisin cookies,” he confided, using the Hebrew terms for “trust” and “the Holy Once, blessed is He,” respectively. “It’s one thing to know that the existence of evil is necessary for human individuality and achievement – I can keep that in mind when facing darkness.  But raisins that look like chocolate chips seem so far beyond what is necessary even for the loftiest achievement.”

Public discussion of the ban has mushroomed; radio talk shows are abuzz with its implications, and callers are unanimously in favor. Positive acknowledgment of the ruling came from some unusual quarters, as well. “This is one of the rare cases where the ultraconservative religious leaders are actually in the vanguard of important social issues,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, leader of Israel’s Reform movement and an activist for greater religious liberty – and as such, a frequent critic of Orthodoxy. “I’d love to see the Knesset act to ban raisins altogether, but we do have to let the raisin cookie manufacturers do as their conscience dictates and not coerce them into it by legislative means.” He added that although he, personally, would rather drink raw sewage than eat a raisin cookie, there has to be room in an open society even for such abominations to Nature.

Before the rise of secular governments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Rabbis held greater sway over public life, and enactments for the benefit of society were more common, even when they addressed issues not technically covered by Jewish law. But as the power and areas of interest of the state increased, the temporal influence of Rabbis waned. Even when they issued pronouncements on important social issues, the impact has historically been limited to the immediate religious circles of those leaders.

The most prominent recent example of the latter phenomenon was when certain Rabbis prohibited Jews from standing while engaged in sexual intercourse, lest it lead to mixed dancing.