Israel – Customs Confiscated 300 Undeclared Esrogim from Couple

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    Photo Illustration Credit: EPAIsrael – The holiday of Sukkot will soon be upon us, and Jews around the world will practice the mitzvah of waving the Four Species: the Lulav, Hadass, Aravah, and the Etrog.

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    Etrogim that are brought into Israel are required to be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and the taxes on them must be paid. However, customs employees at Ben Gurion Airport were stunned when they found more than 300 Etrogim without a government permit and on which taxes hadn’t been paid. The Etrogim were found in the possession of an Israeli couple who had arrived in Israel on a flight from Paris.

    The Etrogim were found as part of a special blitz conducted by customs officials during the period around Rosh Hashanah, aimed at cracking down on individuals who pass through customs without declaring the goods they are carrying.

    As is customary in many airports around the world, Ben Gurion Airport has red and green customs paths.  Passengers with goods to declare are expected to go through the red path, while passengers with nothing to declare may go through the green path.

    During the blitz, many passengers who had gone through the green path were stopped for a spot check. Thus, the 300 Etrogim were caught and confiscated by customs officials. An investigation has been opened against the couple.

    A variety of undeclared goods were also caught during the blitz, including iPads, iPhones, jewelry, medicine, cigarette cartons, and even 200 Shofarot found in the possession of a manufacturer who claimed they were intended for a religious center in Israel.


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    19 Comments
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    13 years ago

    a type of ‘explosive’

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Such undeclared esrogim can carry all sorts of plant disease and are as much a security threat as a bomb. The government also loses money on such illegal imports.

    AlbertEinstein
    AlbertEinstein
    13 years ago

    Sukkah 29a: Zugt de Heiliga Mishna: “Lulav hagazul…posul.”

    sasregener
    sasregener
    13 years ago

    I was wondering, halachacly speaking ,if they would have not been stopped then they technicaly would have been bringing esrogim into israel illegaly.Would the people then buying these esrogim for use during succos be mekayiem the mitzva of arba minim or would it be mitzva haba beaveira? Any thoughts?

    Sociologist
    Sociologist
    13 years ago

    Isn’t bring esrogim to Eretz Yisroel like bringing coal to Newcastle?

    kollelfaker
    kollelfaker
    13 years ago

    so whats the problem they have a lot of children learning in israel

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    To No. 4

    If you give Tzadakah with stolen money or if you make a baracha over a pair of stolen tefillin, you are not yotzeh the mitzvah for the very reason you cite. Here is the same. The esrog is essentially “stolen” because it was acquired illegally and without paying the tax so you might as well use a lemon for arba minim.

    GB_Jew
    GB_Jew
    13 years ago

    #5 (leftbrooklyn) might be surprised to read that there is no more coal in Newcastle. In fact, there is hardly any coal left in Britain at all these days – in fact it is now imported from Poland.

    ———

    Back to the etrogim: In the early 1970s I was employed by TWA at Ben-Gurion Airport, where I frequently had to deal with the early morning incoming flight from the Far East. One cold, dank, winter’s morning a frumme passenger arrived – but “forgot” to declare the three fresh pineapple in his pekelach that he had shlepped all the way from Hawaii.

    He was stopped in the “green” customs line and told to open his bags. The forbidden fruit came to light and was confiscated by the Ministry of Agriculture inspectors and was sent for destruction.

    Later on in the morning I bumped into the agriculture inspectors and asked what the pineapples’ fate was. “Ta’im meod!”, was the response.

    Gmar hasima tovah lekulanu.

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    13 years ago

    #6 – The problems are:
    1) They are bringing in plant diseases that could cause great damage to Israeli agriculture. Wanting to make a couple shekels does not give them the right to wipe out honest farmers’ livelihoods.

    2) They are trying to cheat the honest people who follow the rules and declare their imports by being able to sell for a lower price. Honest people have school expenses to pay, too.

    3) They are stealing money from every soldier defending Eretz Yisroel, from every hungry child, from every kollel family living in government-subsidized housing and from every sick person in the hospital.

    13 years ago

    There is no isur torah to bring anything into Israel, and leading poskim have paskend that Dina demalchusa does not apply to a Jewish state that does not use the laws of the tora, they had no right to creat these laws in the first place. – (chazon

    13 years ago

    wait!!!!! they were frum people, these smugglers…….then its fine!!!!! what right does the government have to stop a frum person from commiting a crime?????????

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Reply to #10

    A Secular Goverment in Israel has no Halachic power of Dina Dmalchisa, thus no power to tax.

    Those of you who cite torah or halacha regarding dina d;malchusa must live in your own worlds. What the torah says is irrelevant here. If you live or travel to the state of israel, whatever you believe the torah says, you are still subject to secular law and it will be enforced against you. There are thousands of yidden who have been fined and jailed in EY (almost on a daily basis) whose defense is that whatever crime they are accused of is not forbidden under halacha. The judges typically laugh and send the ehrleche yid off to jail. Save your dina’ d’malchusa arguments for your next trip to Uman.

    GB_Jew
    GB_Jew
    13 years ago

    As a corollary to oihev yisrael (#12), why is it a l w a y s frummers who think that they are above the law?

    The very idea that dina dimalchusa does not apply in the State of Israel is offensive to the millions of anshei yarei shamayim who live, work, defend and pay taxes there. Many of those people have died al kiddush haShem for the right to live there. They do not and did not sit in galus, telling others how to run the State: they rolled up their sleeves and got on with the job themselves.

    Perhaps contributor #11 (hiding under his cowardly cloak of total anonymity) will have the goodness to complete his interrupted message and tell us just which “leading poskim have paskend that Dina demalchusa does not apply to a Jewish state”?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Any rav or posek who claims the laws of EY don’t apply to the frummies lacks the intellect to be taken seriously on any other matter either. I doubt there is any such rav except of course for some of the NK loonies.

    shredready
    shredready
    13 years ago

    Today at 03:15 PM Anonymous Says:

    There is no isur torah to bring anything into Israel, and leading poskim have paskend that Dina demalchusa does not apply to a Jewish state that does not use the laws of the tora, they had no right to creat these laws in the first place. – (chazon

    then one should not take any money from the EY government, since it should be considered stolen money. Therefore, all the learning that is going on in those yeshivas are worthless, since a mitzvah from an avira is not a mizthvah at all.
    In addition should not have the chutzpa to ask anything from the government including protection.

    gavi1
    gavi1
    13 years ago

    not answering the ethical question in any way, or defending the people who did this, but from a strictly halachic perspective of whether or not one who uses such an etrog fulfills his mitzva, as a saw some people ask, if you look in gemara lulav hagzul we learn that once their has been a shinui reshus the object loses the status of stolen (you are still liable to the person it came from, but you owe them money, no longer the object) the practical implication of this is that such an object would be valid, therefore while the etrogim would probabely not be valid for the people who brought them into israel, it seems to me that those they sold them to would still be yotzei their chiyuv.
    —- gmar chasima tova
    gavi

    13 years ago

    This is just as much an אתרוג הגזול as some that claim מצה גזולה or קידושין גזולה.

    cowfy
    cowfy
    13 years ago

    what a bunch of nonsense.i grew etrogs for twelve years here in israel.stealing money from the goverment not paying taxes bringing diseases taking food out of the mouth of our soldiers.from what source do you create these fantasies.protectionism is the word.great harm to israei farming?that would be israeli goverment restrictions.