"Appreciating" Post-Pesach Store Lists
Now that Pesach is over, various shul rabbis have been sending acceptable store lists to their congregants. The issue can be summarized as follows:
Chametz owned by a Jew on Pesach is forbidden rabbinically, instituted as a fine for those who violated. This fine applies to the food item item itself, for all Jews. (In this way, not only can the violating owner not benefit personally, he also likely won’t benefit by selling it.)
Some stores are Jewish owned and don’t sell
Some stores are gentile-owned, but their Jewish distributers didn’t sell, so the products are chametz she’avar alav haPesach in the distributor’s possession
Some stores or distributers are Jewish owned, and formally sold their chametz to a non-Jew for Pesach, yet kept their business open and continued to sell that chametz to customers over the holiday, perhaps thereby making absolutely clear that the sale was a sham.
Point (4) is a matter of dispute between Rav Moshe Feinstein (permits, insofar as the rabbinic prohibition of chametz she’avar alav haPesach) and Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (forbids).
So, there is a group — AKO, the Association of Kashrus Organizations, which helpfully has contacted companies, stores, distributers, discovered Jewish or gentile ownership, and so on. On that basis, you can decide whether to patronize particular stores. They have recommendations, for different products, for how long after Pesach it is likely for them to have gone through their inventory.
Maybe I am missing something, just as maybe I was about the AKO’s warning about possible issues regarding whiskey back in 2010.
But I would point out the following.
First, this is a gezeira which was intended to penalize the Jewish Pesach violators, but practically, they aren’t being effectively penalized. Otherwise, the financial impact would have induced them long ago to sell their chametz before Pesach, or refrain from selling during Pesach. They likely aren’t religious in the first place. And I would guess that they do actually sell all the chametz food to other people eventually, including to gentiles.
Instead, the ones suffering from this are the religious Jews who are scrupulous about Pesach.
That is possibly irrelevant, that the gezeira is not having its initially intended impact. (Of course, everyone who does get rid of their chametz, including by selling, may be implicitly influenced by the gezeira, and not just the concern of violating Torah law.)
Second, let us say that AKO had not compiled the list. We seem to be dealing with several sefeikot, cases of doubt.
Maybe we rule like Rav Moshe Feinstein over Rav Soloveitchik.
This is not such a great safek, because it is one in halacha. It is not one which is supposed to stand and be used to allow what is otherwise forbidden. Rather, it is the type of doubt which is incumbent upon posekim to resolve. Do we say X or do we say Y? And then it is certain that we say X. Still, you’ll sometimes see this sort of safek being invoked to permit something.
Maybe this store I’ve entered isn’t Jewish-owned.
Maybe their distributor isn’t Jewish.
Maybe this food on the shelf isn’t from that particular distributor.
Maybe the food on the shelf wasn’t in Jewish possession (store or distributer, whichever is Jewish) on Pesach, but is was already present in the back, or was shipped out when they sold out.
The prohibition at play is rabbinic, not Biblical.
Now, these sefeikot are resolvable. And, there is a principle of ספק שאפשר לבברו. However, there are limits in terms of time, effort, and money that I must expend in order to resolve a safek. If meat came from overseas, and there is a rabbinic doubt about it, but I can resolve the doubt by sending an expensive telegram (back in the day), must I send the telegram? And by not sending it, am I leaving the meat in a doubtful and still prohibited state?
I certainly don’t have the expertise, time, knowledge of who to call — of AKO Kosher. I’m in the store. I can speak to the manager, I guess? But the manager might not know, and I could call corporate? I need to find out the distributer, and the delivery schedules to this store. Will they even take their time out to speak to one nudnik?
So this seems like a doubt of a doubt of a doubt of a doubt for a presently mis-targeted Rabbinic decree, that is not easily resolvable, and is thus entirely permitted.
Until I received my rabbi’s email. They’ve “helpfully” resolved these sefeikot (though still leaving one in place, in terms of the status of the produce currently on the shelves, so this might be allowed), so that people can feel religiously fulfilled by keeping this stringency.
So now I can’t buy from the convenient (and often cheaper) stores. Thanks!
Please comment and let me know what I’m missing.