Eating on the run is against the Torah, a group of Bnei Brak rabbis insist Tuesday, and have issued a blanket ban against the practice in a haredi publication.
"We have a duty to warn and alert the public to the phenomenon which has spread in our city: the cheap culture of eating while walking in the street," the letter, a black-and-white pashkevil notice, states.
"This was considered cheap behavior of the fringes of society or the weak-minded until a few years ago, and the public would treat [the practice] as such."
The letter further blasts the now-common practice of eating on the street, including at tables outside fast-food chains, as swindling the public into "common" behavior which detracts from "self-respect and the respect of families."
The rabbis cite a Talmudic saying that "he who eats food at market is like a dog" and claim that the Sages would condemn the practice.
Signatories of the ban include Rabbis Yehuda Siliman, Moshe Shaul Klein, Sriel Rosenberg, Menachem Mendel HaCohen Shpern, and Masoud Ben-Shimon.
Walla! News cites the sudden ban as a response to the popularity of such budget-food chains as Coffix in the haredi city, which was followed by competing chains such as Coffiz. Rabbis have previously condemned the chains for lowering prices and harming the livelihood of local restaurant owners.