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Is it Kosher?

Written by Movement for Reform Judaism Thursday, 16 July 2009

Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain responds to the question: I was in a kosher butcher's shop and saw the owner do something unhygienic. I was very upset and don't know if I'll go there again, but feel loathe reporting a fellow Jew to the authorities.

You imply that there is a tug of loyalties between your duty to report a misdemeanour to the public health and safety authorities and your desire not to get a co-religionist into trouble. However, there is nothing Jewish about protecting those who do wrong, whether they are Jewish or not. On the contrary there is a duty to protect other people from the harmful effects of offenders - in this case, the wider public from potential food poisoning. Also, as it happens, since they are all clients of a kosher butcher and it is likely that they are exclusively Jewish, by taking action you would be protecting an even greater number of fellow Jews than you would be getting into trouble, so even by your own argument you should publicise the wrong! In fact this is a theme that is at the very heart of Judaism and is embedded in the "Holiness Code", the section from the Book of Leviticus from which we read every Yom Kippur as part of the Torah portion in the morning service. It has a series of practical commands about everyday values and includes the verse that states "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour" (19.16). This has always been taken as a clear injunction to intervene whenever you see people being hurt or about to get hurt. We cannot look away and say "it's none of my business". Nor can we say "let someone else take responsibility, I don't want to get involved". Remember, too, who is at fault. It is not you for spotting the butcher do something wrong, but the butcher for doing it in the first place.

There is no doubt, therefore, that you should take action of some kind. The only question is whether you reckon it is a one-off act of carelessness by a person of integrity, in which case you might wish to have a private word with him and give him the chance to self-regulate. Alternatively, if you think it is symptomatic of a total disregard for health standards, that endangers customers, then you should report him to the local authorities.If part of your reticence to take such a step is because you are concerned about the good name of kashrut and "washing dirty linen in public", do not let that affect you, for it is a false economy - the reputation of kashrut will suffer much more from damning public headlines after several families are taken ill, than if an outbreak is prevented by authorities issuing a warning fine and tightening their supervision. Of course, another method would be to report the butcher to the kashrut authority that licences him. However, that depends on whether you feel that they have allowed lax standards to go unchecked and are therefore partly complicit, or whether you are satisfied that they will act swiftly and decisively. One possibility would be to call them and see how they react. What is definite, though, is that you cannot decide no longer to shop there yourself without warning others and taking steps to protect them.