Israel’s Passover Waffles War

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety—Benjamin Franklin

By www.roitov.com

A few days from now, on March 26, 2013, the Jewish 

Passover, nicknamed the Feast of Freedom in Hebrew, 

will be celebrated in Israel. During the week in which it is 

celebrated, the strictest “kashrut” dietary laws are 

enforced on Israel’s population. In the name of Freedom, 

the State denies it, in the best of the 1984 tradition.

The main difference with other periods of the year is the 

prohibition on eating leavened bread⁺ and its derivatives; 

most Israelis run amok trying to get good and fresh pita 

bread from Palestinian bakeries. Supermarkets, as all other 

food stores, depend on an operation permit issued by the 

Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which imposes strict kashrut laws. 

During Passover, supermarkets sell special products, even 

popular waffles⁺⁺ must be produced from flour which does 

not contain “hametz,” leavened flour. In 2013, this led to an 

unexpected war between the Rabbinate and one of the most 

powerful supermarket chains.

Shufersal Passover Waffles – Cauldron of Resistance

Aramaic Supermarket?

The naming of a product is considered a critical issue for its 

success. Naming a chocolate sauce “Swampy Smell” will 

probably lead to its failure. In 1958, an Israeli supermarket 

chain was founded and given only a slightly better name. 

Hebrew and Aramaic are similar tongues. More often than 

not, their words share the same Semitic root but are 

conjugated in a slightly different form. Educated Hebrew 

speakers often spice up their language with Aramaic words. 

The supermarket chain owners baptized their creation 

“Shupra-Sal,” a name which combines Aramaic and Hebrew 

and that can be translated as “Superb-Basket.” Due to a 

lame choice of spelling, the good idea became impossible to 

comprehend. Instead, it is known in a variety of 

pronunciations, like “Shufer-Sal” and “Super-Sal.” The latter 

is the most popular. The branding error didn’t stop the 

owners; with almost 250 branches, they are among the 

largest supermarket chains in the country, with a yearly 

revenue of roughly $3 billion. They have enough resources 

to fight the Chief Rabbinate.

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”—George Orwell, 1984

Chief Rabbinate of Israel Passover Letter

Israeli supermarkets resemble their American and European 

cousins, with adaptations to the Middles Eastern climate and 

diet. Even in the smallest branches, several hundred flour 

products are available. Making a branch “kasher lepesach,” 

ready for Passover, is a logistic nightmare demanding the 

experience of an army’s logistics general. Errors happen. 

Food products sold in regular days must have a “kasher” 

sign, i.e. a mark stating that they fulfill the “kashrut” laws. 

Products approved for Passover must have a different sign, 

reading “kasher lepesach.” After lengthy considerations, the 

Chief Rabbinate of Israel concluded that this is not enough. 

They issued a letter, reproduced above, stating that the 

shape of the package must be changed in order to make 

errors even more difficult. For reasons of clarity, I simplified 

the requests. Before the letter the supermarkets needed an 

army general, after it, they need entire teams of field 

marshals to fulfill the rabbis requests. Would the rabbis pay 

for the expensive request? Do they expect waffle-eating 

people to pay for it, even if they don’t care which flour was 

used for their beloved “Swampy Smell Waffers?”

Super-Sal didn’t care. In a daring disregard of the Chief 

Rabbinate of Israel, they placed in their branches the waffles 

appearing in the picture above, which resemble the regular 

packages and feature a yellow “kasher lepesach” sign. After 

all, how can one place strictly rectangular waffles in a 

“different package?” Circular packages are useless in this 

case. The severe transgression was noticed by Jewish-

religious media and published among cries of murder. The 

cryptic answer of the chain was that they “are working with 

the Chief Rabbinate.” Rabbis, apparently too busy eating 

waffles, did not answer. The Waffles War is on.