Heading Towards Charedi

Shuk shopping has got to be one of my favorite Israeli pastimes.

After all, where else do you get to see fruit that looks like its right off the branch, fish literally swimming in a tank right before Shabbos, and the genial, sometimes direct, vendors hawking their wares all in one place?!

Just walking through the Machane Yehuda shuk has got to be an experience in itself, one not for the faint of heart.

You see the elderly Yerushalmi bubbies dragging their agala (cart) along the aisles, along with tourists snapping pictures left and right. You see the Yeshiva bachurim heading straight for the piles of fresh rugelach and bread, along with the ever present smell of sachlav. There are the regulars, the first-timers, and the vendors, constantly shouting and in perpetual motion.

There is fresh squeezed juice, chicken and fish, and of course more garninim (seed) shells than I would ever eat in a lifetime.

Recently when visiting the shuk, I noticed several stores that had, well, let me call it, the more frum hechshers. Shearis, Badatz Eidah HaCharadit, Chasam Sofer Petach Tikva and Bnai Brak, and even a Rav Landau store. All were swamped by people buying their products, while the other stores were slightly less busy than usual.

There were even some stores that had a Rabbanut, or Rabbanut Yerushalyim Mehadrin, that were also packed, and when I ventured closer, I noticed that they carried bug-free products with Rav Efrati's hechsher, also well known. Belz Machzike HaDaas and Rav Machpoud were also available, but all together, this was more Charedi hechsherim than I had seen in the shuk for a long time.

Conversely, my favorite halava guy had switched his hechsher from having a Badatz Eidah HaCharedit to having no Teuda at all, since he was now selling products from Bais Yosef, Chasam Sofer, along with his traditional Badatz halava.

So, what happened? How did everything suddenly shift, to the point where even the frummest would be able to shop in the shuk? After all, who would pass up a 4 for 10 shekel sale on fresh bug-free vegetables!

It's interesting, that even the shuk is heading towards a more religious perspective, although they may just be capitalizing on the market by getting the better hechsher. Also, some stores always carried mehadrin products, just now they are actually making the effort and getting the teuda to prove it.

I know that I love shopping in the shuk (where the fish get bopped on the head right in front of me) and now that I can buy even more products there, I'll like it even more.

Hechsherim- Help!!

Alright, I am thoroughly lost.
I come from America, okay? And not from NY- where there are all these strange hechsherim (kosher certification), like the chassidish hechshers, Kehilah Kashrus, the Lakewood hechsher, the others- I can't even keep those straight!

I come from out-of-town, where we rely on major national and international hechsherim, like the OU, the star-K, the circle-K, and so on.

And now- I'm here, in Israel. And thoroughly confused.

Belz Machzekei HaDaas, Agudas Yisroel, Petach Tikva Chasam Sofer, Bnei Brak Chasam Sofer, Landau, Badatz Aidah HaCharedit, Rubin...the list could go on forever.
And some hold by this, some hold by that- all agree that even the worst commonly- accepted (makes grammatical sense, I checked) Israeli hechsher is better than an American one (yep- heard that straight out from several people.)

To top it all off, I used to trust hechsherim. If the OU put a hechsher on something, I assumed they sent Mashgichim there, they checked it out, and then put a hechsher on the final product.

But here, it seems common that people find that the Badatz would put a hechsher on something, and later it's learned that they shouldn't have.

Or a hechsher is put on, but the company that put the hechsher on doesn't hold by it 100 percent. (Yep- heard this one from a reliable source too!)

I can barely figure out which ones I and my husband use, and then I get the phone calls from reliable friends- hey, new restaraunt- but it's under a hechsher that isn't the best...

To simplify, there is a website out- I just found it, after a few frustrating searches on the Internet for help. It's called Kosher In Jerusalem, and gives the hechsherim lists given out from Yeshivos/seminaries and Rabbinical organizations- like Aish, Neve, CRC, and so on.
So that helps a bit- at least it lists the organizers and which hechsherim are commonly held.

Still- a bunch of products that I use are not commonly held by others- like American products I can't find with a Badatz, but they have an OU...used in the US, but in Israel- a lower hechsher. I've tried to find an Israeli substitute- but to no avail. And my grocery store routinely stocks products with Sephardi hechsherim- stuff I know nothing about at all!

Anyone else have these hechsher problems? Any interesting stories about it?
I'd love to hear, because it's good to know I'm not the only one who needs Hechsher help!

Creepy Crawlies

I'll be the first to say it: I dislike bugs.

I don't want to squish- let's say, a cricket that kept my husband and I up all night- so I shooed it outside.

However, the bugs in Israel are not all cute crickets. Jukim- Israeli flying cockroaches- are the worst of the bunch, with mosquitoes, flies, vinegar flies, worms, caterpillar worms, moth larvae, and fruit fly maggots continuing the list.

My friends complained to me just last week that all their apartments are infested with ants, so at least I'm spared one plague.

When I first moved in, my apartment was already stocked with food by wonderful people, and so I thought I would have it easy.

Needless to say- Eretz Yisroel Nichnas B'Yissurim- Israel is only attained/allowed access to through travails.

The pantry, and room which the food was kept, was infested with moths. Not just a few, or a dozen, but hundreds of flying moths, with their cocoons and larvae.

Say it with me folks- UGH!

My valiant husband along with the chesedik (kind) neighbor kids headed to do battle with the formidable foes.

Thank G-d, after much squishing, washing, cleaning, and generally pesachdiking that room, the moths were gone, with mothballs and cedar wood in their place, to prevent such an occurance again.

Only in Israel- right?!

On the bright side- there are the special mitzvos (commandments) that we can perform with bugs. What might those be? Well, bug checking!

Jews are forbidden to eat any creepy crawly, no matter what size or shape (besides for locusts, and only certain kinds, which Yemenite Jews have the tradition to eat) .

In Israel right now, it's the Shmitta year, which means that Jewish farmers don't work the land at all, or grow any produce. All produce that naturally grows by itself- for example, fruit trees, are considered ownerless, and can't be sold by Jews.

So, where do Jewish people get their food from? Well, there are a couple alternatives (it would be hard to list all halachos (laws) of shmitta in one post- so I recommend the English comprehensive book Gateway to Shmitta, which contains all the halachos of shmitta in a very accurate form.

I buy produce usually from stores that have a hechsher (Rabbinical certificate that the food is kosher) from the Badatz- which only buys produce from non-Jews- namely, the Arabs in Israel.

On the bright side, no one goes without food during Shmitta year anymore, as they used to in the older years in Israel.

On the down side- Arabs are completely organic farmers, no pesticides or any other weed/bug killing items allowed. So, enter bug checking.

I decided to take a class about learning where to find bugs, and how to check produce for them.
Needless to say, the class is eye opening. If you ever want to know how much bugs are in food- just read R' Veie's book on bug checking (only in Hebrew- sorry!). The pictures will blow your mind.

It's amazing how these little bugs go to so much effort in camouflage in order to survive. There are phenomenal pictures- like the one with 3 peppers, one red, one green, and one yellow. In each, a worm is shown- the exact color of the pepper. Simply amazing- and a little creepy too!

Almost everything can get bugs in it in Israel- from necessities like flour, or spices, to vegetables and fruit, and even fish! Who knew?!

So cooking now has an extra challenge, but it's rewarding in the end.

If anyone has any questions on how to check food for bugs, feel free to post in comments, or just read one of the many books on the subjects. R' Falk has a book, R' Veie- as previously mentioned, and several websites are devoted to the subject.

Alright- must dash- my vegetables are awaiting checking! Be'tayavon- or Bon Appetite!