[Avodah] kosher cabbage

[Arie Folger]

[I have to stop editing posts now... This makes moderation take too
long. Please remember to trim quotes. And if possible, when replying,
please hold onto your replies until you reach the end of the thread and
send one long (hopefully cohesive) post. -micha]

RZS wrote:
> AFAIK terumos and maasros are *never* taken from exported produce.
>  Thus this isn't even demai, it's vadai tevel.

Correct. A few years ago, after hearing the opposite claim one too
many times, I contacted teh Export Department of the Chief Rabbinate
of Israel, and was told that there is no doubt that no TuM was taken,
thus the stuff is vadai tevel. I checked w

[??? -micha]

> Maybe there's enough of a
> safek to make it advisable not to say a bracha (e.g. maybe the farmer
> who grew it was frum, and fixed it before he sold it to the wholesaler so as
> not to be machshil people).

I do not know how likely the scenario you paint is, but AFAIU, the reason
why we don't make a blessing is in deference to the view of the Bach,
who holds that exported Israeli produce loses its sanctity and is no
longer subject to TuM. So may be there is no mitzvah, or may be we failed
to make the blessing. Since safek berakhot lequla, we have no issue with
doing the mitzva yet skipping the blessing given the Bach's view.

[Email #2. -micha]

RBW wrote:
> I was once at a knesses on the subject and a senior kashrut supervisor
> stated that the rabbinate tries to take ma'aser on everything going out,
> but for reasons which he didn't explain, it isn't always done. Therefore
> any buying Israeli fruit should take ma'aser, but it is only a safek.

Since the above contradicts what the head of teh Export Department of
the Chief Rabbinate of Israel told me, I take it we have a hakkhasha
between two eid e'had (how do we pluralize that?).

Hadra sfeiqa ledukhtei.

Kind regards,
--
Arie Folger,
Recent blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
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