Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

I came across another article about the high cost of Passover products. In Atlanta, a can of tuna costing $16.99, a $5 jar of jelly, and a $6 box of cereal . . . $24 for a box of matzah. The writer of the article quipped, “I felt like I was in a foreign country with rampant hyperinflation. Is this really in dollars? Maybe I’m supposed to convert the currency. . . . It seems we should add another question to the traditional four associated with Passover: Why is this food so darn expensive?” I guess the political photo-op has expended its shelf-life. That’s too bad.

Another friend writes from New York, “The concern I will share today is most definitely not a new one, but it is an issue that comes up every year, and we have yet to find an answer to this dilemma. Why in the world is Pesach food so expensive? The prices of Pesach food products are outrageous. These kosher-for-Passover items, from ketchup, to mayonnaise, to cakes, candies and dairy products are all so much more expensive than these foodstuffs are during the year. Is there any good reason that a box of a handful of chocolate leaves costs the kosher consumer over 7 dollars? Is there a good reason why a bottle of kosher l’Pesach ketchup cost over a dollar more than it does during the year? Why do I have to pay close to ten dollars for a box of sorry tasting kosher l’Pesach sponge cake? Why do we continue to allow food companies to fleece us - yes, fleece us - every year Pesach time?”

Oh, I could add to the stories from the Chicago area. A small package of cream cheese costs $6, a three pound kosher brisket 20% more, Houston, I think we have a problem here. Kosher slaughter houses are kosher for Passover all year round; they are not four star restaurants one could order a prime rib at. When the kosher companies like Streits, Manishegetz, and others charge such exorbitant sums, one must wonder for when kashrut businesses steal from the public, ask yourself an important but obvious question: Why should I rely upon their hechser (Kosher approval), if they are so darn unethical? Dear friends, the Kosher Emperor has no clothes. Another good friend of mine in New York told me that her family once spent $15,000 a week at a Passover certified hotel-where the food was rotten! I went to a once formerly 5 star restaurant where the food was fit for a Doggie Diner.

Frankly, I think Jews should boycott all the companies that sell kosher and use some common sense instead and try to observe Passover the best way they know how. Heresy? Not really. We offer contrarian wisdom here, but I believe if Ashkenazi Jews could get over their halachic hangup with rice and beans, they could probably teach a most valuable lesson to the rabbinic supervisors and their companies that they would never forget.

A year ago in the heart of Harediville, New York, an edict signed by 30 prominent rabbis, declared, “One must be extra careful in circumstances where a monetary loss will be incurred. . . . Now before Passover, especially when the economy is so bad, we are reminding people of the Jewish law concerning monopolies . . . particularly at Passover when there is so much need.” Yet, this year, we hear nothing at all. Once again the rabbis are asleep at the wheel.

When I read about the endless tales in the news about rabbinic corruption in the American Kashrut industry, I wonder whether these culprits realize they are reinforcing every negative caricature about Jews in the proverbial anti-Semitic book. Don’t they care?

This kind of price gouging truly undermines the holiday of Pesach-by virtue of impoverishing those who care to seriously observe it. How can anyone look forward to this holiday knowing they are about to get ripped off? “Tradition!” you say? What a pity. We must do better.