Question: The owner of a kosher restaurant that my husband and I frequented have expressed more and more on his financial support for the political causes to which we fiercely oppose. I hate the idea that the money we spend in his establishment could be used for this purpose, but we love the restaurant. Is it ethical for us to eat there anyway?
First of all, let us predict that we are simply talking about a guy who is just wrong and not a crook. If the company is shady, a personal boycott is more than justified. In the Talmud, rabbis were particularly concerned about prices for prices (Hafka’at shearim), in particular for essential staples and Jewish ritual objects. But rather than boycotting a business contrary to ethics, rabbis’ Punishment of choice was “flapellation until they have to sell at market prices”. Personally, I prefer to be boycotted.
But it seems that the problem is simply that you do not approve how the restaurant owner uses his money. Here too, you are on a solid field to refuse to give it your business. The Talmud (Avoda Zara 51b) explains if a Jew could pay the admission to enter a bathing bath belonging to an idol worship provider. Interestingly, the Jews frequented Roman baths all the time, even if idols were present. However, the commentator Rashi explains That the Jews could only enter if the admission was free. If they were to pay and the profits went to support idolatry, it was prohibited for the Jews to have it.
Later, the rabbinical authorities used this precedent to prohibit Jews from renting or buying churches, considered by many of them as suppliers of worship of idols. Personally, I think it is inappropriate to confuse Christianity, or any religion of the contemporary world, with the cult of biblical idols, but the point here is that Jewish law takes seriously the way in which the establishments we patron use the money we pay to them. So, if you decide not to continue going to the restaurant, you are on a solid ethical land, especially if you consider them as supported causes as odious as the worship of idols was for rabbis.
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However, there could be better ways to use your time than playing in the shopping center, dividing our commercial world into children of darkness and children of light. Your Shakshuka probably does not support the causes that are not very recommendable that more than my taxes support a certain number of policies that I hate – in other words, not much. Part of your money probably does good too, like feeding the owner’s family.
In addition, it could become exhausting to keep the current of your enemy list. If someone who leans socially progressive bases of purchase of choice on the political trends of a company, They would never eat a domino pizzaMake Makers in Home Depot or Fly Delta. Meanwhile, a curator could never enjoy the Cherry Garcia ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s has long been an element of the part in Israel, but the founders of the company have Actively protested Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza. They also had major differences with their parent company on some of these problems. So who is Ben and Jerry’s real voice? And when he is 100 degrees and your child cries for an ice cream, is it important?
Life can be quite complicated when we start to boycott companies according to politics. This is because like people, companies are rarely perfectly coherent in their opinions. For example, Disney presented an impressive range of strong female role models in the years since Earial had legs and Belle understood that Gaston was the real beast. But can we never forgive them the manifest racism of Southern song? And don’t get started on the seven dwarfs.
This restaurant owner could support a political candidate that you do not like, but he could also make a strong donation to a day school to which your children frequent. He also devoted his life to supporting a kosher restaurant in your community, which is often a precious goods that needs the support of the population.
If you really like the place, let me offer to engage in a dialogue on how you are uncomfortable, let’s say, the news channel that is always on the bar. If you are a frequent customer, I hope that the owner’s customer service switch will be on and the political activist has cut, and a constructive dialogue could follow. Unless it is simply rude, there could be an opening for a constructive dialogue. On the other hand, if he East Tough, you are absolutely free to consult the place in the street or to order kosher online from GoldBelly.
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman is the author of Mensch-Marks: Life lessons of a human rabbi And Kiss Auschwitz: forge dynamic Judaism and affirming the life that takes the Holocaust seriously. See more of his writings on his substitutes page, Right now.