Hotels in Eilat are preparing for the summer season by installing an app that lets a kosher supervisor control kitchen heat sources remotely. The system is designed to address the halachic problem of bishul akum, or food cooked by non-Jews, and is intended to satisfy even the strictest opinions, including the stringent Beit Yosef view.
The initiative received full backing from Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Kalman Ber, during a special visit to Eilat last week. The meeting, led by Eilat’s city rabbi, Rabbi Yair Hadaya, together with the municipal religious council’s kashrut department, ended with a practical decision to promote the dedicated application. The digital system allows the supervisor to turn hotel kitchen flames on and off remotely while preserving the requirement that the fire be lit by a Torah-observant Jew.
Rabbi Ber said, “This is a real breakthrough for all kosher observers.” He added that Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach had taught that laxity in bishul akum was one of the factors contributing to assimilation, so any solution that reduces this problem is “essential” and a “sanctification of God’s name.”
The Eilat move is part of a broader push to modernize and raise standards in hotel kashrut systems across Israel. During the visit, Ber also gave a lecture at the Eilat HaShachar hesder yeshiva and attended a special gathering organized by Chabad institutions in the city. The local kashrut system is expected to roll out the technology gradually over the coming weeks, ahead of the summer influx, to make vacations easier for observant families while maintaining strict halachic standards.
