The Dushinsky rebbe narrowly avoided drinking grape juice made under the controversial halachic arrangement known as heter mechira during a Rosh Chodesh Tammuz meal held Monday in Jerusalem. The seudah took place in the Chesed hall in the Hasidic institution building on Shmuel Hanavi Street.
As the meal ended and birkat hamazon approached, attendants prepared the rebbe’s kos shel beracha and brought a bottle of grape juice to the table. In the rebbe’s court, wine or grape juice is usually decanted into an ornate silver pitcher before being poured into his cup, so the original bottle is normally never placed before him.
This time, however, the silver pitcher did not arrive in time. To avoid delaying the blessing, the attendants set the original bottle directly on the table. After the rebbe received a pour for the blessing cup, he noticed several lines on the label that did not fit the strict standards observed in the Dushinsky court, whose founder, Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, fiercely opposed heter mechira and headed the Edah HaChareidis rabbinic court.
On closer inspection, he saw that the bottle stated the product was made “according to heter mechira through the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.” He immediately poured back the small amount that had been served, refused to use the bottle for birkat hamazon, and ordered that another bottle be brought at once under the supervision of the Edah HaChareidis. Chassidim around him described the episode as an act of divine providence, saying that if the grape juice had been transferred into the silver pitcher as usual, the rebbe would never have seen the label.
