They are ready to fight the enemy at sea but usually content themselves with waging war on ‘treif’ foodstuffs and unclean kitchens. They are the Navy’s new combat kashrut supervisors, and they can now be found on the decks of the IDF’s missile boats.
IDF magazine BaMachaneh reported that the Navy has begin the process of stationing kashrut supervisors on its missile boats, and that all of them are required to have a combat-grade physical profile. They will be treated as combat soldiers and will receive combat certificates in the course of their service.
“Until now, the supervisors mostly did their work when the ships were at the port,” explained Navy Rabbi Benayahu Jamus. “But there is a need for constant supervision, and the move is a great advantage.”
Oven-refrigerators
The Navy is also looking into the possibility of installing combined oven-refrigerators in the vessels that carry out routine security patrols. The device is a refrigerator that can turn into an oven at a pre-set hour. It is currently primarily in use in hotels, and if it is modified and installed in ships, it will make it possible for religious sailors to eat warm food on the Sabbath.
Until now, religious sailors solved the problem of warming food on Sabbath by leaving an oven turned on at a low setting throughout the Sabbath.
“For years it has been known that mitzvah-keeping soldiers cannot eat warm food on Sabbath during a voyage,” a Rabbinate official said. “If the oven-fridge is approved for use, it will be turned on and programmed before the Sabbath and thus the soldiers will have no reason to carry out any cooking over the weekend.”
In recent weeks, the Navy has begun handing out coupons for 100 shekels ($25 dollars) to sailors who serve aboard the security patrol boats on Sabbaths, to use for purchasing salads and processed meat products at food chains. Sailors on “vessels that go out to sea on Sabbath can use the coupon to diversify the foodstuffs at their disposal over the weekend,” Rabbi Jamus explained. “That way the soldiers will not have to spend their own money for this purpose.”