If I do not get up in the morning - because I stood for the boundaries of kashrus"

Rabbi Amitai Shimon, Zeitan Moshav rabbi- adjacent to the Ben - Gurion Airport, was attacked during a memorial service last night, following the removal of kashrus from a grocery store.

The story begins when last week, a complaint was submitted to the offices of the Chief Rabbinate, who said he bought a vegetable from a grocery store in Moshav Kadima in the Sharon, and in the bag he found full of insects. Since the bag was registered and that it is produced under the kashrus supervision of Emek Lod Rabbinate, Rabbi Shimon went along with Lior Cohen, Chief inspector for 14 years, to the factory. After meeting Avraham, the owner of the factory, they presented to him the delivery certification including a sample of the vegetable with the insects, he tried to avoid responsibility and claimed that this is not his merchandise.

Subsequently head of the kashrus authority Rabbi Yaakov Sabag and Rabbi Rafi Yochai, Director of National Kashrus, ordered to remove the kashrus certification from the factory.

Yesterday (Sunday) night a memorial for a woman from the moshav took place, with Rabbi Shimon. He said: "During the memorial service I spoke, and before my eyes I see the factory owner together with another person arrive. After I finished talking he came up to me and showed me the letter I signed on the subject, Avraham [factory owner] began to attack me verbally and threatened me because of what I wrote in the letter. "

"This is very serious, the letter he signed, which should be an internal document, leaked out to interested parties. How can it be that an employee in the Chief Rabbinate takes out the letter, and shows it to the owner of the factory himself? It's unbelievable," wondered Rabbi Shimon, adding: "I suffer from high blood pressure and I began to feel unwell. had no reason to answer them, and people who were there came to him and told him, and when they didn’t stop - they took him out.

"After about 10 minutes I left the memorial and went home because I did not feel good. Before I got home, I saw him going after me. He began again to attack me verbally and insult me, asked me to write a letter which eliminates the previous letter. I ran away and went home. When I arrived, I collapsed and fainted on the floor. My wife, who is disabled 100%, did not understand what had happened, and called my son who brought me medicine because she thought I had fallen because of the blood pressure. After I felt better, I told her, and despite urgings, I did not go complain to the police because I was afraid that the situation will only get worse."

"If tomorrow morning I don’t get up you'll know it is because they attacked me, because I stood for the boundaries of kashrus and not lead the public astray", I said to my family. "Today, (Monday) Lior Cohen called me again, I told him what happened. He clarified that what happened is very serious, and therefore did not renew the provision of kashrus, and the Legal Department Chief Rabbinate will handle it."

"In the past few hours contacted me two members of the factory, trying to hear what's going on, after hearing that I do not feel well, one of them asked me about what happened yesterday. I explained that the letter I signed has not caused anything, since this protocol procedure, and removal of kashrus is not up to me, the complaint reached the rabbinate, they examined themselves and decided to remove the kashrus."

Rabbi Shimon ends in pain: "So far I have not filed a police complaint; I know he's a politician, a member of the Likud Central Committee, and I am afraid of him. But if he continues to attack me I will have no choice but to press charges against him. For 36 years I have served as a Rabbi and this is the first time something like this happens to me."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!