Read: R Sholom Tendler Of Star-K Responds To Beer Controversy

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9 COMMENTS

  1. i do not understand, there are people who do not sell real chometz and hold that the sale is invalid for such items. yet they can purchase such items from someone who followed their rov/posek/hechsher and sold the chometz as was required. the fact that the star k does not agree to the mechanics of the ok’s sale does not remove the fact that there are poskim that allow such a sale (there were rabonim in that allowed a sale in a manufacturing plant that was making chometz on pesach by i think rabbi tietz z”l) and as such there is no knas on someone who followed their rov. this feels like it has more to do with political posturing then it does halachah.

  2. If you go to a large-type non-Jewish owned liquor store, they can pull up on their computers the information about when the items arrived in their store. The beer on the shelves might have arrived weeks or months earlier. It is easy to find items which arrived in the store BEFORE Pesach, thereby avoiding this issue.

  3. It looks like some comment-writers are missing the point.

    First of all, the OU follows the psak of Rabbi Soleveichek zt”l. He held that although a real genuine private mechira is of course valid, the mechira done by these companies are invalid for various reasons. One of those reasons being that the Yid buys and sells this “sold” chometz regularly throughout Pesach and therefore shows he never really means to sell his chometz. He held this sale is nothing more than haarama/scam. Reb Moshe argued and felt the mechira can be valid. OU is machmir and follows the psak of Rabbi Soleveichek.

    And Dave, you seem a bit confused.

    There are those who do not rely on the common nowadays “bulk” mechira for real chometz when it comes to the D’oraisah of chometz on Pesach. However for the Issur D’rabonon of chometz after Pesach, they do rely on the sale, when the sale is done properly. Many Poskim hold like that.

    However, this is a different situation. The Star-k (and Hisachdus) hold the actual sale of the beer company was not valid in the first place. Maybe it’s because of the fact that the business was open as usual on Pesach, with profits going to the Jew, not the new “buyer”. Maybe they did not like the language of the contract or the kinyanim. Maybe they got shipments on Pesach which even Reb Moshe holds cannot be sold.

    There can be many reasons why they feel this sale was invalid. If the sale was completely invalid, then the chometz remains prohibited. It was never sold according to their opinion.

    There is nothing political about this. It is a machlokes in Halacha.

  4. 1) Commercial establishment’s mechira has a more solid foundation in halacha then a mechira for an individual.

    2) What is troubling is the fact that the Star-k knew about the problem and did not alert the general public especially before they learned of the OK’s mechira. Why?? Something is rotten here!

  5. Yaakov, unfortunately it’s not as simple as you are saying. The problem here is on the DISTRIBUTOR level. The Jewish distributor owned vast amounts of beer over Pesach and that will take a few weeks to cycle out of the system.

  6. Dave and M. Yob,
    There is no need to resort to accusations of “political posturing” or be concerned about anything “rotten”. Notice the title of the article, it’s considerate enough to mention a specific name, Rabbi Tendler. He’s not hiding behind the anonymous veil of an organization. Indeed, a rare occurrence in these internet forums – quite refreshing! You’d be doing us all a favor to call him at his office and raise any follow-up questions you have to his nicely worded announcement and then report your findings to us back here. Perhaps you’ll discover darkei noam, not acrimony.

  7. Yaakov, I apologize for not reading your comment more closely. You’re 100% right. Although that strategy will only work for a week or so until pre-Pesach stock runs out.

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