<html>
<body>
<font size=3>From today's OU kosher halacha yomis<br><br>
<br>
Q. There is a vegan restaurant in my community, but it does not have
hashgacha. Someone told me, that you can go in and order a coffee and
roll because these are made on dedicated equipment and nothing can go
wrong. Is one permitted to do so?<br><br>
<br><br>
A. No. Rolls may contain non-kosher oils, stabilizers and emulsifiers.
Though unlikely, coffee may be made on non-kosher equipment. Even if the
kosher status of the coffee and rolls was verified, entering an
uncertified vegan restaurant, which sells kosher and non-kosher products,
may appear suspicious to an onlooker. Igeros Moshe (OC II:40) discusses
this very issue, whether one may enter a non-kosher restaurant to
purchase foods that are known to be kosher? He writes that this would be
a violation of both maris ayin (literally, ?the vision of the eye?, but
the intent is causing the observer to become lax in their Torah
observance) and chashad (literally suspicious, which means that the
person?s reputation may be compromised). There is an additional concern
with entering a non-certified vegan restaurant. The observer may assume
that all vegan restaurants are kosher, and not realize that the
consumer?s interest was limited to one or two kosher items. Thus, in
addition to maris ayin and chashad at a vegan restaurant, there is also a
possible violation of ?lifnei iver lo si?tain michshol? ? causing another
Jew to ?stumble? and eat non-kosher. As such, frequenting a vegan
restaurant is more serious than entering a non-kosher restaurant, as
lifnei iver lo si?tain michshol is not a concern with a non-kosher
restaurant since the non-kosher status is well known.<br><br>
<br><br>
<html><br><br>
<head><br><br>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=Windows-1252"><br><br>
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;"> P
{margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;} </style><br><br>
</head><br><br>
<body dir="ltr"><br><br>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br><br>
From today's OU kosher halacha yomis</div><br><br>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br><br>
<br><br><br>
</div><br><br>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br><br>
<table class="deviceWidth" width="600"
align="center"><br><br>
<tbody><br><br>
<tr><br><br>
<td style="FONT-SIZE: 14px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, sans-serif;
VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #333333; PADDING-BOTTOM:
10px; TEXT-ALIGN: left; PADDING-TOP: 10px; PADDING-LEFT: 20px;
LINE-HEIGHT: 20px; PADDING-RIGHT: 20px"><br><br>
<table><br><br>
<tbody><br><br>
<tr><br><br>
<td style="FONT-SIZE: 20px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #000;
PADDING-BOTTOM: 15px; PADDING-TOP: 10px; LINE-HEIGHT:
24px"><br><br>
<em><strong></strong></em><br><br>
<p><strong><strong>Q. There is a vegan restaurant in my
community, but it does not have<br><br>
<em>hashgacha</em>. Someone told me, that you can go in and
order a coffee and roll because these are made on dedicated equipment and
nothing can go wrong. Is one permitted to do
so?</strong></strong></p><br><br>
<em><em><em></em></em></em></td><br>
<br>
</tr><br><br>
</tbody><br><br>
</table><br><br>
</td><br><br>
</tr><br><br>
</tbody><br><br>
</table><br><br>
<table class="deviceWidth" width="600"
align="center"><br><br>
<tbody><br><br>
<tr><br><br>
<td style="COLOR: #333; PADDING-BOTTOM: 15px; PADDING-TOP: 10px;
PADDING-LEFT: 10px; LINE-HEIGHT: 1.6; PADDING-RIGHT:
20px"><br><br>
<p>A. No. Rolls may contain non-kosher oils, stabilizers and
emulsifiers. Though unlikely, coffee may be made on non-kosher equipment.
Even if the kosher status of the coffee and rolls was verified, entering
an uncertified vegan restaurant, which sells kosher<br><br>
and non-kosher products, may appear suspicious to an onlooker.
Igeros Moshe (OC II:40) discusses this very issue, whether one may enter
a non-kosher restaurant to purchase foods that are known to be kosher? He
writes that this would be a violation of both<br><br>
<em>maris ayin</em> (literally, ?the vision of the eye?, but
the intent is causing the observer to become lax in their Torah
observance) and<br><br>
<em>chashad</em> (literally suspicious, which means that the
person?s reputation may be compromised). There is an additional concern
with entering a non-certified vegan restaurant. The observer may assume
that all vegan restaurants are kosher, and not realize<br><br>
<br>
</font></body>
<br>
</html>