HaRav Nissim Karelitz recently issued a psak halocho,
to the effect that all of the utensils manufactured by the
Phoenicia company in the southern city of Yeruchom require
tevillo. The reason for this psak is that
Phoenicia, the only glass bottle manufacturer in Israel, has
recently signed a deal with an active non-Jewish partner of
Iranian descent in order to enable the firm to emerge from
its long-term financial difficulties. Upon verification of
this fact, a group of askonim asked HaRav Nissim
Karelitz, the av beis din of Ramat Aharon, to provide
halachic guidelines regarding the utensils produced by this
firm.
HaRav Karelitz's psak halocho, issued on the 13h Av,
states: "Since it has become clear that the Phoenicia company
has a non-Jewish partner, all of the utensils it manufactures
require tevillo, including the bottles." According to
this ruling the bottles of the company should at least be
immersed where reuse of the containers after taking out its
contents is involved.
However, this is not the only problem with the Phoenicia
company, where massive Shabbos desecration takes place every
week, and where many uninformed Jews work on Shabbos. For a
number of years, many prominent askonim have, under
the guidance of maranan verabonon the gedolei
Yisroel made intensive efforts to curb this Shabbos
desecration. This problem could have been solved if all of
the wine companies had refused to use Phoenicia's bottles.
Although the kashrus supervision groups did warn that if
Phoenicia did not stop desecrating the Shabbos, they would
demand that the companies they supervise import bottles from
abroad, their warnings did not yield positive results.
Seeing that the directors of Phoenicia saw no need to comply
with the repeated directives and appeals of the rabbonim, the
kashrus networks refrained from implementing this
decision.
But in the wake of the psak halocho issued by HaRav
Karelitz, which means that the glass products produced by the
Phoenicia company are exactly the same as products produced
by non-Jewish companies all over the world, the kashrus
networks feel that it is now preferable to use glass products
from abroad and not Phoenicia's, so as not to lend support to
the massive Shabbos desecration taking place every week in
the Phoenicia plant.
"It is preposterous for Jews, who cherish the Shabbos to make
kiddush on wine bottled in containers produced through
Shabbos desecration by misled Jews. It is inconceivable for
the vineyards in the country, which are certified kosher by
outstanding kashrus networks, to continue abetting Shabbos
desecration, rendering the chareidi community which purchases
these wines active abetters to the violation of the
halocho.," said one of the prominent askonim
involved in the affair.
