[Avodah] Are Vegan Restaurants Kosher?

[Zev Sero]

On 16/01/18 17:58, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> Let's say we are talking about people who are religiously vegan, who
> would shun a dish ever used for meat -- regardless of temp, of sharpness,
> and they have no concept of kashering. That includes numerous Hindu
> communities, Jains, etc...

*If* one could know that the owner really is that makpid on keilim, 
*and* that he personally eats from the restaurant and from its keilim, 
then one might be able to rely on it for those questions. But this 
itself requires investigation to see whether it's in fact the case. At 
the very least one would have to explicitly find out his policy on 
employees cooking their own food.

And this would still leave the problem of bishul akum.  This can only be 
solved if the restaurant serves exclusively things that are not subject 
to this prohibition.  Some "health food" places may qualify.


> Why is their own religious repugnance not at least as reliable as beer
> indutry standards or pride in a true bagette (when in France)? (As a
> she'eila, not a qushya.)

In both cases we rely not on the owner's pride but on his fear of ruin 
should he be caught adulterating his product.  Here you're asking us to 
rely on his own conscience, which is a different proposition, though 
perhaps a stronger one.  Maybe we can, but those cases don't prove it.


> One might have a totally different problem in such places, taqroves AZ.
> It's common to have house shrines. What if one part of the dish was
> offered, does it only prohibit the the taqroves itself, or because it
> is an anti-terumah that is intended to reflect on the whole, what is
> served is also assur?

I would think that even if they have this concept of what you call 
"anti-terumah", i.e. that they are "matir" a dish by giving part of it, 
we wouldn't be bothered by it unless they physically offered the whole 
dish to the idol and then removed a portion to "feed" it while taking 
the rest back to serve the customer.  The world has enough religions 
that this is possible.

All I can report from personal observation is that the statue in the 
front window of Madras Mahal, a former restaurant in NYC's "curry hill" 
under the hechsher of R Gulevsky, *was* worshipped by the staff and 
believed to be a god who cares how he is treated, and they may well have 
offered it food, though I never saw this, but I ate there often enough 
that I think I would have noticed if they ever brought a dish out to the 
window and then served it to a customer, let alone if they brought a 
whole pot of something out to the window and then back into the kitchen. 
I can't say whether they were "mafrish terumah" into a keli that could 
then be offered to the idol after closing.


-- 
Zev Sero            A prosperous and healthy 2018 to all
zev at sero.name       Seek Jerusalem's peace; may all who love you prosper