Dear Rabbi,
We currently live in a neighborhood where the general Kashrut standard is Rabbanut. We at home hold by Badatz hechsherim. Since our son is 3.5 it is important for him to be with other kids we found a private Gan for him. The Ganenet is the sweetest women and born and raised in a Kibbuts believes in Sharing and doesn’t know so much about hechsherim even though her kitchen is kosher and she shops at a well known supermarktet with proper hechsherim. There is one non Jewish boy in the Gan and our son told us he ate his bread. We called a local Rav and told us not to worry since bread in Israel is kosher and chocolate he thought was fine too. Our concern is the Chalav Akum part which was most likely in the chocolate spread on top of the bread. We keep Chalav Israel. We spoke about it with the Ganenet and she said to be on top of it with her and to remind her so we are going to try but there is no guarantee. Also did we not find a better alternative for this Gan and again it is aside from that a really great Gan that creates little menschim. How concerned should I be about the Chalav Akum part great Rabbanim sometimes hold by it as well. I worked for one Rav’s Rabanit that did. I just don’t want our son to have negative consequences from it like as I heard (hardening the hart chas ve shalom) also at this time we are kind of stuck with that Gan until we found a better alternative since having a child that age home is not good for him or for us we feel. Please advice.
Thank you very much,
Rivkah Levitt
Answer:
Under the circumstances I would not be concerned.
The chocolate spreads here are generally chalav Yisrael. Even if it is chalav akum, you don’t have to worry about this for your three-year-old. Although it is correct to be stringent for this, many poskim are lenient under extenuating circumstances, and certainly for the circumstances you describe there’s no problem.
Best wishes.
