Getting his revenge by upping the ante
No sooner had my husband reminded the congregation of the Ritual Committee's recent ruling that even dairy cakes must be bought from a bakery under rabbinical supervision than the president got up and "clarified" that the bakery must be Shomer Shabbat (Sabbath-observant, or, in commercial usage, closed on Sabbath). To say that I was flabbergasted would be an understatement. The Ritual Committee had never said any such thing.
Since the nearest bakery under rabbinical supervision also sells non-bakery items that are not under rabbinical supervision, we assume that it is not Jewish-owned and is open on Shabbat. We also assume that the president knows this. His stated reasoning was that only a Shomer Shabbat bakery's kashrut is really trustworthy, and also that, as a "traditional" synagogue, we should be supporting a Shomer Shabbat business. But I take it for granted that the president's real motive for insisting that we use a Shomer Shabbat bakery was to take his revenge on the Ritual Committee, especially me, for having overturned his previous decision to buy dairy cakes from a local unsupervised bakery. Bottom line: My poor husband will now have to take not only a subway, but, also, a bus, to buy dairy cakes for the synagogue. :)
Since the nearest bakery under rabbinical supervision also sells non-bakery items that are not under rabbinical supervision, we assume that it is not Jewish-owned and is open on Shabbat. We also assume that the president knows this. His stated reasoning was that only a Shomer Shabbat bakery's kashrut is really trustworthy, and also that, as a "traditional" synagogue, we should be supporting a Shomer Shabbat business. But I take it for granted that the president's real motive for insisting that we use a Shomer Shabbat bakery was to take his revenge on the Ritual Committee, especially me, for having overturned his previous decision to buy dairy cakes from a local unsupervised bakery. Bottom line: My poor husband will now have to take not only a subway, but, also, a bus, to buy dairy cakes for the synagogue. :)
posted by Shira Salamone at 12:41 AM
10 Comments:
By the letter of the law, he actually is correct...unless the supervised cakes are from a factory with an OU or something.
The president is a retired kosher caterer who still maintains extensive contacts, so when he says that the bakery we'd had in mind gets its baked goods from a rabbinically-supervised kosher commissary, I see no reason not to believe him. That said, my husband (who's stuck doing the shopping since he's the one who has Fridays off) is going along with the extra travel because we think the president has a point, dubious motivation notwithstanding.
one word: Entemann's.
:) Well, yeah, there's always Entenmann's--bless them for their OU dairy cakes and cookies. But when the occasion is a birthday or wedding-anniversary kiddush, the celebrants want a cake from a bakery, not something pre-packaged from the supermarket.
rivkayael: Can you expand on that? A non Jewish owned kosher bakery that is open on Shabbat is perfectly legitimate. We have one in our town. The local vaad does occasional surprise Shabbat inspections to make sure they aren't using non-kosher ingredients. It also has a sign up telling people who care not to buy food there until 1 1/2 hours after Shabbat ends. That's how long a typical baking run takes, so by waiting that long you are not taking advantage of any work done on Shabbat.
My bad--I was assuming that the owner was Jewish (there are kosher dunkin donuts on the UWS and in Teaneck too who get around the issue according to how you described). I thought those came from a factory and were not baked on premises though.
Ehh my bad. I didn't read the post carefully. Come to think of it, Fairways kosher baked goods are also sold like that. In which case I didn't get why the president has issues with this...
I don't think the problem here has to do with where the cakes are coming from.
I think the problem is the president is at odds with the ritual committee, and they are publicly over-ruling each other. This is a bad precedent and is setting a bad example for the congregation.
I hope the president and the ritual committee sit down together soon and hash things out before larger issues come up and things start to get ugly.
Let's just say that this matter is under continuing discussion at home. How it will be resolved remains to be seen.
I hope it's resolved in a way that all parties feel their views have been heard, considered, and respected. I suppose the good news is there's still plenty of time to make peace before the next High Holy Days.
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