Q. Can someone partner with a non-Jew to do a food delivery service? It entails making a brochure/magazine and putting ads in restaurants and then taking orders from people, bringing the order to the restaurant, and then delivering their food. We would be the middlemen between the restaurant and the customer. I personally would not walk into a non kosher restaurant as I know it is marus ayin. However, if the staff is not Jewish, including the drivers and the sales staff, is that an acceptable business. This person had the same business back in Thailand under www.door2doorpattaya.com and he claims a busines like that in the United States and Canada can make at least mid six figures a year with potential to franchise the business concept.
What is the halacha with partnering with a non Jew in this type of business set up?
Or, if that is against halacha, I would simply work with only kosher restaurants if that is what the halacha requires.
A. There is a prohibition on trading with a "Dovor Hoosur" (prohibited foods). Some Poiskim maintain that the prohibition is rabbinical, (Bais Yosef, Rashbo, Y.D. 117 et. al.) since one may come to eat the items one does business or work with. Other Poiskim assert that it is biblically forbidden (Tosafos Pesachim 23,a - Rambam- Rosh - Taz Y.D. ibid.). You may trade, nevertheless, with foods that are only rabbinically forbidden (Y.D. ibid. 1). Accordingly it would certainly be advisable not to engage in a venture where you would have to do commerce with biblically prohibited food. (See question 81 in this forum)
Based on the above, one may think that the prohibition applies only if the Jew owns the food, since in such a situation, one is concerned that he may come to eat it. However, the truth is that this is a reason for stringency, meaning that a Jew may not even be involved in handling non-kosher food that is owned by a gentile, since the concern that the Jew may eat it still exists. The basic prohibition of doing business with forbidden food applies even where there is no concern that a Jew might eat it. As such, if a Jew owns the food, trade is prohibited even if he does not handle it (see Pischei Teshuva 117:6). Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a, advised to sell to a Gentile (in a halachically permitted and proper manner, supervised by a competent Rabbi), that part of the business that deals with non kosher foodstuff. He further required the Jewish partner not to handle or be in direct contact with the non-kosher items.
Rabbi a. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
