A tense emergency meeting was held yesterday by the kashrut committee of the Edah HaChareidis after a serious mishap at a Rosh Chodesh Tamuz meal in Jerusalem. The incident took place two days earlier in the Hachesed hall at the Dushinsky court center on Shmuel Hanavi Street, where attendants prepared a ceremonial “cup of blessing” for the Dushinsky rebbe.
According to the report, the court normally follows a fixed procedure: wine or grape juice is first poured into a silver vessel, and only then into the rebbe’s silver goblet, so the original bottle never reaches the table. This time, for reasons that were not clear, the silver vessel was delayed, and attendants placed the original Segal grape-juice bottle directly before the rebbe after some of its contents had already been poured.
When the rebbe noticed the label, he saw that the product was made “under the היתר מכירה [land-sale] arrangement through the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.” He immediately poured back the small amount that had been drawn into his goblet, refused to use it for the blessing over the meal, and ordered a different bottle brought at once under Edah HaChareidis supervision. Among followers, the episode was seen as a clear providential intervention preventing the rebbe from reciting the blessing over a product tied to היתר מכירה.
For the kashrut board, however, the incident raised alarm about whether similar mistakes may have happened elsewhere and whether consumers may have unknowingly bought such products. Officials said the case is believed to be rare, but one possibility under review is that Segal grape juice has received Edah HaChareidis certification in recent years, which could have caused confusion between bottles sold in stores. The matter is still being examined by inspection teams, the committee plans to meet again to set stricter rules, and rabbinic leaders may issue a clarification letter in the coming days. The special session included the Edah HaChareidis kashrut and shemita rabbis, led by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Ulman, and also touched on the halachic issue of disposing of grape juice with shemita sanctity.
