No Certificate, or: Two Optimic Anecdotes
Just two good things that happened during the weekend, one for me and one from the papers.
I will start with the news. A small kid, who doesn’t now to swim, was washed on Thursday evening into the sea. He spent half the night in the water, but was found and rescued without any harm. For him, the 5 years old ultra-orthodox kid, it was just another one of god’s miracles: it happened to be the dead sea, and he floated on it. Just one of these happy-endings: if only it would have convinced him to study some physics.
The other story also has a slight connection to religion. Last weekend we were in the Upper Galilee. We spent half of Friday stralling through Safed, with its beautiful alleys, galleries and synagogues. We arrived at one of the local diaries, where they make excellent cheese. Actually, the place deserves some publicity: it was Kadosh’s diary, a family-run business who’s been making local cheese for 7 generations. They make it in their house, as a family business - when you enter they show you everything and host you really nicely. They also happen to be religious. While we were there, a young - also religious - guy entered. He wanted to buy some cheese, and addressed the owners. “Do you have a certificate, to prove that you are Kosher?”, he asked. The reply was negative. They don’t need anyone to mess with their business. The cheese is Kosher, because this is how they make it. The guys that run the business are religious. They are also very nice, and - I can testify - they make excellent cheese. I really liked their answer. I know in many places there are frauds, but here I am willing to sign that there aren’t any - you only need eyes in your head to see it; and no need to pay for a certificate.
August 5th, 2007 at 15:29
First, a small correction: its “dairy” - ‘I’ after the ‘A’ and hence Dairies. Also “Dairy Farm” if you refer to a place that farms for milk but does not process it. (I just had this question asked a few times last week by different people). Also you probably would be willing to “certify” instead of “sign”.
Now for the “kosher” part. Just having a kosher certificate may not be enough - most serious orthodox jews would only accept kosher certificates by certain rabbinates or orthodox courts, and not just of any rabbi. Then again - a serious orthodox jew won’t ask such a question in a place that is clearly ran by orthodox jews, as they understand what “kosher” means. Hence one may conclude that the visitor wasn’t a serious pursuer or religious lifestyle, other then the possibly the kipa on his head.