« $$$$ | Main | Virginia Postrel on libertarianism »
Markets in everything, Kosher gasoline edition
Yaniv Ban-Zaken, a local gas station owner, will be selling Kosher for Passover gasoline during the holiday this year. The move, Ben-Zaken says, has become necessary due to the increased ethanol content in gasoline required by the government. The ethanol is typically derived from corn, which is a forbidden food for Jews on Passover. And, according to Ben-Zaken [TC: do note that qualification], under Jewish law, it is also forbidden to derive any benefit from corn.
The gas will sell for $9.69 a gallon. Yes the story sounds funny, but can the Bergen County Jewish Times be wrong? Here is more, and thanks to Brendan Nyhan for the pointer.
Addendum: This market is only imaginary.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 19, 2007 at 01:04 PM in Religion | Permalink
Comments
wrt the 'Markets in Everything' concept - I think the assumption behind this column - that markets are expanding in scope - may be totally wrong. Probably the opposite is true.
The genius systems theorist/ sociologist Niklas Luhmann emphasized that the economic marketplace was getting progressively smaller over time. In the past is use to be possible to buy almost anything: political position, justice, a wife.
Modernity entails economics markets shrinking in their range. The examples Tyler gives are just noise, not a trend.
Posted by: Bruce G Charlton at Mar 19, 2007 1:29:36 PM
What a cynical way to make money. Corn is only forbiddne by the Rabbis and may only be a custom. Everyone agrees that you can derive benefit from it on Pesach.
Posted by: mike529 at Mar 19, 2007 1:51:05 PM
I am an Orthodox Jew and a Rabbinical student (in addtion to being an undergrad econ major) and I can tell you that the laws on Passover forbidding the derivement of benefit from forbidden foods only apply to chometz, that which is actually made from leavened bread and similar products. Kitniot (or kitnios), which is the category that corn is included in, is forbidden only for eating and not the derivement of benefit. Addtionally, the prohibition against the eating of kitniot is only a custom (albeit one that has existed for a thousand years) and not a law, and this custom exists only for Ashkenazic Jews (those from Europe) and not Jews from other parts of the world. In Halacha (Jewish law) one can be much more lenient with regard to customs as opposed to actual laws, even if corn derivatives were included in the custom. On top of all this, most rabbinical authorities hold that the prohibitions regarding the derivement of benefit from forbidden foods does not apply to food derivatives that are in a state where the derivative is neither edible for people nor animals, a category which ethanol and gasoline are definitely included. I do not know, nor have I heard of, either of the Rabbis quoted in the article, but this is a total load of garbage.
Posted by: ZH at Mar 19, 2007 1:52:12 PM
Title "markets in everything" constantly appear here.Does it mean that you value markets above life always?
Posted by: GVV at Mar 19, 2007 2:28:42 PM
but can the Bergen County Jewish Times be wrong?
File under Questions that Answers Themselves.
Posted by: c at Mar 19, 2007 2:43:01 PM
Doesn't this also beg the question of whether you actually derive benefit from cutting your gasoline with ethanol?
Posted by: Anonymous at Mar 19, 2007 3:05:09 PM
It's a joke! http://www.markankcorn.com/?p=210
Posted by: Emery Johnson at Mar 19, 2007 3:24:25 PM
Though this is a joke, if this was a custom from any religion or heritage, where do people draw the line? I am a religious person myself, but I don't think paying around 400% more for gasoline, or any other commodity is logical. I know some people who would go nearly anywhere out of their way to support a religious custom, but if this "Passover Gasoline" were real, I would say it had crossed the line.
Posted by: Mere at Mar 19, 2007 3:57:41 PM
I am no Jew, but I am an economist and Brazilian, and as such, I think it is a shame that this story isn't true.
If it were, at least we could count on the Jewish people to lobby against the tariffs your government imposes on our amazingly more efficient sugar cane-based ethanol...
Posted by: Avinash Goldfish at Mar 19, 2007 4:33:22 PM
Ah, a joke. Now I get it. Not unlike the joke of paying 100% more for "organic" food, or "cruelty-free" products, or "carbon offsets". My my, we have so much wealth and time on our hands...
Posted by: Bob at Mar 19, 2007 7:02:47 PM
i agree wit Emery because there really is no sense to pay that much for gas or anything else and if this were true i would say that we would have to find other ways to get gas...Thank god this is not true though
Posted by: BL at Mar 20, 2007 12:29:55 AM
While the gas story is not true, many Jews pay exorbitant prices to fulfill religious obligations, real or perceived.
For example, handmade matzah, a common site at Passover Seders, costs $18/lb in New York. Keep in mind that Matzah is made of flour and water, and the cooking process, from the moment water is added to the flour, until the finished product emerges from the oven, is no more than eighteen minutes. In essence then, $18/lb. for hastily baked flour and water!
For years, my dad would buy as many as fifteen pounds of hand matzah, even though machine-made matzah could be had for as little as $1/lb, and even though the religious obligation to eat the handmade matzah could be fulfilled with only a single pound.
Why? Because the handmade matzot are delicious! And even though the difference between $1 and $18 is enormous in comparison, if you're spending thousands of dollars to prepare a week-long holiday complete with as many as ten festive, multi-course meals, spending an extra $200 to buy the most authentic, most delicious, and most traditional type of Matzah is barely worth blinking at.
Posted by: rejewvenator at Mar 20, 2007 12:03:36 PM
15 pounds? We could eat that at one seder.
Posted by: Shmuel at Mar 20, 2007 1:42:20 PM
Of course, if gasoline, or some ingredient thereof, really were chometz, observant Jews could refrain from driving during Pesach. That would save money.
Posted by: Anthony at Mar 20, 2007 1:52:42 PM
A. Goldfish -
as soon as that line forms, you'll find me standing in it. and probably nearly everyone else on this site as well.
Posted by: wkw at Mar 20, 2007 11:32:16 PM
大家好，我是臺灣人，從臺灣一個人搬家來到美國，環境很陌生，感覺很孤單。以前在臺灣幾家知名的徵信社工作過，我是一個優秀的徵信工作者，希望早點找到適合自己的工作。希望通過貴站，認識更多的朋友。
Posted by: 謝文豪 at Apr 1, 2008 11:23:53 PM
