BISHUL ISRAEL LIST

There are foods that may not be eaten even when all their ingredients are kosher and the cooking is supervised: foods that were cooked or baked by a non-Jew.

About 2,000 years ago, in the time of the Tannaim, the Sages (Chachamim) established this rule. The aim was to prevent intermarriage: not being able to share a meal with someone keeps a distance from that person.

The rule has two parts: Pat Israel, for baked bread, and Bishul Israel, for all other cooked food.

What is Pat Israel?

Pat Israel is bread made by a Jew. But not everything baked counts as bread. According to Halacha, "bread" is only what is made from the five grains, wheat, barley, rye, spelt and oats, and baked.

• Bread made from corn flour is not considered bread: the laws of Bishul apply to it, even if it looks like bread.
• Wheat spaghetti boiled in water is not bread either, because it was not baked.
• Cookies and sweet bread are included, if they meet those requirements.

Pat Palter (bakery bread)

When the decree was made, many communities had no Jewish bakers and relied on the local baker. So Pat Palter was permitted: since the aim was to avoid social closeness, mass production for sale does not involve that personal contact.

Halachic authorities disagree about how far this goes:

• Sephardic custom: if bread made by a Jew is available, bread made by a non-Jew is not eaten.
• Ashkenazic custom: it is always permitted.
• According to Kabbalah, Pat Israel should always be kept. This is what Chassidim and Chabad mostly follow.

This does not mean bread can be bought at any bakery. Pat Palter only settles who baked the bread, not what is in it. At an unsupervised bakery there is no way to know which ingredients were used, and that is a separate problem. The leniency applies only in a supervised place, where the ingredients are checked.

What is Bishul Israel?

Bishul refers to cooked food. Unlike bread, there is no allowance here for commercial production: it makes no difference whether the product was made in a factory or at home. For a food to fall under these laws it must meet both conditions at once:

• It is normally not eaten raw in that place. This changes over time and from country to country.
• It is fit for an important table, meaning a dish that would be served at a wedding or an important gathering.

Require Bishul Israel: meat, rice, baked potatoes, beans, crepes.

Do not require it: apples, cucumbers, onions, almonds, all kinds of breakfast cereals, potato chips. Coffee does not either: although it is not drunk raw and is served at important tables, its main ingredient is water, which is consumed raw.

How is it done?

The Jew does not have to do all the work. For Pat Israel it is enough to take part in the lighting: turning on the oven, or putting the dough in.

For Bishul, customs differ. Ashkenazim treat it the same as Pat Israel. Sephardim follow the opinion of the Beit Yosef: the Jew must put the food on the fire.

This summary is for general guidance only. For a practical answer about a specific case, please consult a Rav.