Kosher Flavored Crab Chips YUM!!!!!!
Keeping Kosher and Maris Ayin: What is the Issue with Maris Ayin?
This picture raises an interesting question in halacha (Jewish law) known as ‘Maris Ayin.’ The concept of maris ayin is that we can be doing something permissible according to Torah and halacha, but to the onlooker, we may be doing something wrong.
For example going into a McDonald’s to use the toilet is fine but someone may see us and think we are going into McDonald’s to eat and conclude that it’s okay to eat there. Today because going into a McDonald’s and similar non-kosher restaurants to use the toilet is a common practice, Rabbis have ruled that there is no problem with maris ayin. However, sitting down at the table to drink a soda there would cause a problem.
In recent years there has been an explosion of fake dairy and fake meat products. You can now make a sandwich with fake meat and fake cheese that looks like the real thing.
When these products first came out it was a serious issue of maris ayin, but today it’s common practice to eat these; for example to have pareve (non-dairy) ice cream after a Shabbat meat meal. We no longer worry about this being maris ayin. It is still a good idea to bring the ice cream container and put it on the table so people can see that the ice cream is not dairy.
According to halacha it would be fine to drink fish blood, but because people would see us and may think we are drinking animal blood, it is forbidden to drink the fish blood. But say you lived in an Eskimo village where it was common practice to drink fish blood, or comes a time when drinking fish blood is a daily health ritual performed by everyone, it is possible to say that it would become permissible to drink the fish blood.
Kosher Crab Flavoured Chips for Sale
The key question in maris ayin is what will someone think? With this bag of chips, at a distance someone could see the large image of the lobster but not the little kosher symbol. If I were eating these chips, I’d either put them into a new bag or eat them from the existing bag with the picture facing me. This way I don’t need to worry that people may think Crab Flavored chips are kosher, because this could lead someone to buying a brand in the future which is not kosher.
4 Responses to “Keeping Kosher and Maris Ayin: What is the Issue with Maris Ayin?”
Thank you for such an insightful article Rabbi Ben. I often wondered about this – being seen to be doing something wrong 0 but never knew this so it has been very helpful.
Shabbat Shalom,
Alizah
you are most welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
Interesting article.
Perhaps you can comment on the following situation. My wife and I often travel and go into a well-known chain/franchise of Coffee shops. We understand that there is no particular problem with drinking their coffee (disposable cups. Unclear if china cups ok?), and sometimes Hot Chocolate, and we do not confine ourselves to Halav Yisrael (unsupervised milk) in the UK or USA, so drink their milk in the coffees. We know the coffee flavour additions are kosher (OU).
What we also do is bring in our own sandwiches, which we eat discretely from plastic bags, either in the coffee shops (in winter) or at their outside tables, in summer.
These coffee shops focus on selling hot and cold drinks, mainly coffees, with food snacks and cakes – presumably non-kosher – as extras. You queue for service, as there is no waitress service, and no regular meals (hot or cold) are sold.
Do we have a problem with our practice?
Usually coffee in disposable cups are not an issue. As for china, the problem is how the cups are washed. If for example they were washed in a dishwasher along with non-kosher dishes, the cups would become non-kosher. If it were a coffee shop that sold nothing but coffee, then the cups would be fine. If the shop say only sold some biscuits did not prepare food on sight and did not heat any food, then the cups would probably be okay. Each place needs to be judged by itself. Though almost any coffee hop should be able to provide a disposable cup for takeaway and it is therefore best to take this approach.
If you do not subscribe to Halav Yisroel, then in any Western Country you should be fine to use the milk. Using milk in developing countries can sometimes be a question.
Chocolate, you need to check the actual brand.
As for eating your own kosher food in a non kosher establishments, this is tricky. If you are going to eat your own food it would be better to make it obvious, however management may not like this.