Despite previous concerns Israel's major dairies remained
closed during the two days of Rosh Hashanah and Shabbos
Kodesh and large-scale chilul Shabbos was averted due
to the amount of milk stored at the dairy farms. According to
the Milk Council, because monetary incentives were not
provided to throw milk away most of the dairies found ways of
storing three days of milk.
Since the storage facilities at 40 percent of dairy farms are
only capable of containing two days of milk, last week there
were worries demands would be made on dairy farm owners to
transport milk on Rosh Hashanah or Shabbos to make room for
all the milk.
Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei HaShabbos headed by maranan
verabonon issued instructions not to allow any dairy to
open on Rosh Hashanah or Shabbos and notified the Milk
Council dairies that they would not be reimbursed for
destroying milk by spilling it into the sea or at the
spillage sites in Haifa and Rishon Letzion.
Following these directives all of the kashrus committees
providing kashrus certification to the dairies, and Chief
Rabbis Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar, issued instructions not
to open the dairies on Rosh Hashanah or Shabbos. The dairy
operators abided by these instructions despite pressure from
various financial interests, and the dairies remained closed
just like during every Shabbos and Yom Tov.
Before Rosh Hashanah milk production dropped because of
seasonal factors and an illness that broke out at several
dairies in the North so that not all of the cows could be
milked.
Due to the directives of the kashrus committees not to open
the dairies, and the Milk Council notice that dairies would
not be compensated for spilled milk, most of the dairies
found ways of storing the milk for three days. Many dairies
even postponed the last milking on Shabbos to reduce the
amount of milk in the tanks and milk stations operating on
Motzei Shabbos received a larger quantity of milk without
incident.
According to reports, the amount of milk poured into the sea
and the spillage site was far less than anticipated: only one
third of the milk for which no storage solutions were found
arrived at the seashore spillage stations. The other two-
thirds was stored at the respective dairies and transported
to the dairies on Motzei Shabbos.
